The Product Studio is a service by the Data Lab, WRI’s core data innovation and product delivery unit. The Product Studio documents the work done with project teams, highlighting actionable learnings that other project leads can implement to avoid common pitfalls and successfully navigate their own technology projects. These are shared publicly in the “Product Studio Learnings Series,” in the form of case studies. Please share your feedback at productstudio@wri.org.

Data and digitalization can provide unprecedented opportunities to build an equitable, sustainable and healthy society. However, researchers and project implementers struggle to design and build new digital products that provide real value to people and organizations working on the frontlines. Products that are built are often strategically, technically and financially unsustainable. As a result, exciting new data often failed to translate into impact on the ground.

Figure 1 showing from "how products are developed" to "our vision of the future".

World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global leader in data for impact. We have built over 40 data products and have a decade-long track record of turning data science innovation into action.

In March 2024, WRI launched a new service we call Product Studio. The aim is to help researchers and program teams design and scale new products. Backed by the Data Lab's Product Team, the Studio gives teams the technical and strategy expertise they need to understand their users and market, develop product designs, and build and test rapid prototypes. With our support, teams can build products that support decisions that matter, enable accountability and drive the conversation.

Product pyramid.

The Product Studio provides three services to our clients:

  1. User Research and Needs Assessment: Provide structure and guide innovations to develop user personas and requirements, guide best practices for research and needs assessments, and conduct user journey and value mapping.
  2. Product Strategy: We help teams evaluate the product landscape, define value and impact, develop a theory of change, and create a roadmap to bring an innovation to market for their users, while planning for sustainability.
  3. Rapid Prototyping: We build wireframes and front-end prototypes to rapidly test product ideas with actual uses.

The Product Studio works in collaborative design sprints, leveraging WRI’s internal expertise, to maximize efficiency and learning. Through this process we aim to lower development costs, speed up delivery, and improve the sustainability and cohesiveness of new data products across the sustainable development sector.

We created this blog to share the experiences and knowledge that result from working on a diverse pool of software projects. Our intention is that the lessons learned by WRI’s Product Studio can become replicable best practices for anyone designing and scaling products in the data-for-good landscape.

Want to learn more about WRI’s Product Studio? Get in touch with Tea Tuur, Senior Product Manager, Product Studio at tea.tuur@wri.org.