I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how software can be used to promote human understanding in the workplace. I’ve written about this before, but will continue to explore this topic to clarify my thoughts. First in the problem space, and then the solution space.

• First, we need to prove that promoting greater understanding actually works. We know about research has proven greater understanding amongst team members accelerates productivity, but this most likely doesn’t apply universally. How important is it for teams to undertand each other better?
• Second, we need to prove that people care enough to make this product a part of their lives. Essentially - that it solves a real problem. This is the most difficult part of the equation, because my hypothesis is that most people consider this an esoteric problem that can’t be solved by software.
• Finally, we can start exploring the solution space to understand what shape this software might take. It could be a social network or a SaaS app. Individuals need to have full agency over the data provided and used by this network. There are a ton of opportunities and adjacent products that can be realized here too.

What is available today to enable greater understanding isn’t sufficient. Personality assessments are seen once and not used on a continual basis. I’m going to keep exploring this space to see if there’s something more to be discovered here.