Story+PD: The product lifecycle story

Thinking of the complete supply chain, is it a virtuous cycle? Or an uninspiring, incomplete dead end?

Part of a series at the intersection of Storytelling and Product Development. Originally posted on LinkedIn in April 2024.

A product lifecycle can be an open-ended or a closed-loop. Like a story. The plastics industry successfully promoted the story of recyclable and recycled plastic bottles so that consumers would think it was just fine to buy plastic packaging with products inside… leaving the rest of the ecosystem to future generations to figure out how to deal with the fiction. 

 So what kind of narrative do you want for your product? 

“This thing is made with extra-virgin earth oil refined into plastic,  assembled by prison labor, sold as cheaply as possible, shipped across the ocean burning bunker fuel, delivered by a very stressed delivery worker, used less than ten times, and ends up in a landfill…” 

… or something better?