Product as the Pursuit of the Mystery of Greater Purposes

"I see and know your heart and purposes," says Jeremiah (17:10).

Welcome to today's exploration of product and purpose! 

This post asserts that ultimately, if we search and receive genuine purpose for developing products that pass the "why am I doing this?" test, then our products will pass the important economic tests as well. Plus, much insight and wisdom about product value will be discovered along the way.

Isn't this a bit rosy, though, that "purpose" will lead to economic acceptance? Why be so "Quixotic?"

First, I believe product and purpose are intimately linked because:

• "Form follows function."
  
  
• We humans are reproduced. Where we come, we typically say is where we are "a product" of. Our development is reflective of our products. Exploring product is like exploring ourselves, and vice versa.
  
  
• Our humanity can be connected and written all over every product that is produced. The capacities that develop products are by no means necessarily separate from the human capacities that emanate love, courage, vision, and our highest aspirations. 
  
  
• Endowed with free will and agency, as beyond my comprehension as they may be, operate in every person who accesses a product. At billions of points every day, products come into contact with men and women, and give them expanded options in their lives through the existence of that product. Sometimes those expanded options are used in very positive ways, and sometimes in very negative ways. Yet because they will be used by a person with the potential for powerful human agency, products are impactful and can effect the hands which cause life and death.
  
  
• Products reflect a human touch on the celestial matter of the universe. Indeed, all things we produce are sourced from the same stuff that make up the Earth itself and the heavenly bodies. Gaze on scenic vistas and upwards at the glowing cosmos, and you see the raw materials of every product ever materialized and that will ever materialize. Wow! Not one seam separates us, our products, and the material of orbiting stardust, truly. Our own sphere in the universe would look like a bright point in the sky from an interplanetary distance. A product is no less than an organized mode for intentional use of the gifts of the universe. Thus products we develop can do justice or injustice to creation itself. 

Clearly, questions of purpose (those "why?" questions) are raised with every product. We must ask ourselves, "Do we have the luxury of eschewing responsibility for the purposes behind the ideation of products?" 

With new products being developed and spread at an ever-faster pace, the impact of products accelerates as well. 

Purpose matters. In a biblical view sustained over generations, the search of our intents and purposes is foundational:

Search deep into my heart, God, try me.
Find out everything I am thinking.
See if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the way that is everlastingly true.
(Psalm 139:23-24)

~

I see and know your heart,
and purposes, and deeds, and thoughts,
and I will make sure
what is deserved is given to you.
(Jeremiah 17:10)

~

Our thoughts are always known and understood by God, and He intercedes for the love of the people.
(Romans 8:27)   

If we take this wisdom into a business, it is conclusive that the development and spread of our product lives within the scope of these teachings on searching deeply for purpose. The message would include that our enterprise receives according to the intents living within our hearts and minds. 

Of course, product development operates in a competitive economy. Business is filled with pressures in the world. We are not to get the wrong message. It's not to do business in an ineffective way. The message is to do business in an effective way!  

Do this by being authentically attentive to the purposes found in the search of your heart and mind.

Then, Work. It. Into. Your. Business. 

A calling of purposeful product development shouldn't require any biting of the hand that feeds you today. If you are in the middle of a product cycle that provides value in our economy, as it is in the moment, then that is your starting point of the journey.

Purpose-led product development lives in iteration: evaluating, producing, testing, and taking feedback. Tomorrow's valuable products will not be yesterday's. Discovering a vision and purpose doesn't revise what yesterday's value was, but serves to purposefully create tomorrow's value. Enterprise is highly transformational and continually reinventing. When the search brings forward a purpose on a new path, then the endeavor before you is to do it and win people over to it. 

How? Fully explore the pathway that has opened up to you. Discover the resources there and what makes it valuable. Stake a claim down that path. Report on the mission and what proves it to be real and feasible. Present it to those with eyes to see the full light that your purpose deserves. Make the best arguments to partnering teams. 

Remember as you discover purpose within you, for those who believe, God sees you and is present. You cannot fool God, nor escape from a true purpose. 

Your reports and conversations in product development teams are vehicles for continual aligning with the true purpose. The same wisdom would advise to keep your intents, thoughts, and actions authentic to the genuine search. Your actions then will be tested daily by your quest with God, and they will pass the economic tests that matter.

So, why not envision and move towards a world where every product we use might be reviewed in development following the message to seek a beneficial purpose for every action and deed?

As we started this blog with, remember that where we come from, is where everything comes from, is where products ultimately come from. Practicing your own purpose test of heart and mind for every product is a way of honoring the Source of everything.

What is it like to develop product intently from that Source? 

Deeply-searched, purposeful products are formed by deeply-searched purposeful teams at deeply-searched purposeful companies. These honor the Source of everything. Products with this type of honoring, study, and wisdom, at the end of their product development cycle, tend to meet their customers with a characteristic frame of mind and state of heart: they are creating products for one whom, it is said, is the image and likeness of the Creator. It could be you.