How Might We was formed out of frustration and a desire to make a meaningful impact on the global climate change crisis.

It’s clear that the world is going to shit, and that humans aren’t currently doing enough to prevent it. We’re on track for 4 degrees of warming, which would be catastrophic, and all signs are showing that we’re not taking appropriate action to mitigate the disaster.

We all want to build products and do work that we’d be proud of in 20 years. That when we look back, we see that our time was not wasted. But there’s no point in building something like that if the world is approaching uninhabitability, and we were simply building mindless apps, games, and business software and turning a blind eye to the bigger problems.

If we’re going to be truly proud of our time here, we need to take action and be part of something bigger. How Might We is that bigger thing, and people from all tech/product backgrounds are invited to take part.

How Might We was started as a way to draw together the tech and product people of the world to use their skills to make this change.

There are lots of ways to make change in the world, but not all are suited to our collective skillsets. Lobbying and legislation (ex. taxation) allows for changes through influencing politics, but our skills and networks don’t lie in politics, and frankly, the political world is running off in its own direction and cannot be depended on to make sensible decisions about our planet. Activism is another powerful force, but again, sits outside our core skills (activism is a very marketing/PR heavy activity). We support and encourage action in these areas, but these aren’t our core capabilities.

Product and tech people have a unique skill set that can be better used than in picket lines. Together, we can come up with feasible, viable, and valuable solutions that could change the world.

The spirit of ‘How Might We’ is to ask questions, and to remain open about potential solutions. Our goal is to understand what the biggest obstacles we face are, and to facilitate the creation of solutions and services that could address problems. When faced with a problem, we collectively ask ‘How might we overcome this?’, and work out viable playbooks to get to solutions that will actually have an impact on halting climate change.

How Might We is not-for-profit, but doesn’t shy away from talking about money. After all, in our capitalist world, it’s money that incentivises. We believe that the biggest offenders, by far, are corporates and not individuals, and that if corporations were given the appropriate financial incentives, their hurtful actions could be influenced and prevented.

After all, the role of a product team is to come up with solutions that are technically feasible, that solve important problems for the user, and are financially viable for the business.

We believe the skills are out there. We have experts, the likes of scientists, researchers and economists, who have modeled out the core problems and can contribute to solutions.

But just as in a tech company, a researcher doesn’t always have the skills to find, test, and iterate upon a solution. They have product managers who help to mold the inputs from the various experts they’re surrounded by, into workable solutions. A product person’s job isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to surround themselves with the right experts and to understand the problems, and to help make decisions that move the right needles, by constantly asking the best questions.

Imagine activating thousands of product people to contribute their skills towards solving climate change. How Might We make that work?

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