Unintended Consequences

A tool to help think through the positive and negative knock-on effects of a design.

Purpose of this tool:

The purpose of this tool is to help you think about how your design may have knock-on effects on people or planet that you have not intentionally planned for.

Why this tool is important:

Often, things are designed and put out into the world without much thought as to what the unintended consequences might be – whether those are harmful or not. By stopping to think about them, you have the chance to mitigate against any potential harmful consequences, as well as intentionally build on potential positive ones.

What you need to begin:

You can use this tool at any point in your project, but it will be easier to think of specific consequences once you have prototyped your idea.

It may also be helpful to have your Stakeholder Ecosystem Map (tool 4 ) to hand.