Civic tech ideas don’t fail for lack of enthusiasm—they fail when the community and the team can’t reliably show up. That’s why we re-worked IDEO’s classic DVF lens into a lightweight 20-point scorecard built for CivicTechWR projects, where the “product” is often a public good and the fuel is volunteers. The goal: help teams decide what to back, how much to back it, and what to learn next—fast.

It’s no secret that a lot of products today are designed for maximum user engagement, especially products that rely on users as part of its revenue. The problem here is that the company (presented by its executives and its designers) design their products to take advantage of psychological vulnerability built into every human, essentially turning its users into addicts of its own products. This is harmful, as not only does it alter human behaviours in a negative way in the short term, but the real harm comes from the long-term chemical and neuroplastic effects these deliberate design choices will have on humanity.