Product Architecture

Summary

Product Architecture defines all the components of an Integrated Enterprise which is based on modular Product Ecologies and a Construction Set Approach. This designs a complex product ecosystem, just like there are complex systems in nature. Thus, this is about relationships and fit of parts into a whole. We cannot design for a single product - only product ecologies - otherwise there would be too many externalities.

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Within the field of Distributive Enterprise, this is a critical step of defining a Product Ecology as part of Zero Marginal Cost Economic Development (ZMC economic development). This is part of an Open Source Product Development (OSPD) process, and is a subset of Civilization Engineering as proposed initially in one of the seminal works on the topic - General Semantics.

Defining a Product Architecture is a critical aspect of ZMC economic development. Designing product ecologies, not just their individual parts as in mainstream product development in the early stages of the age of AI - is a core aspect of optimizing cost and performance. This is consistent with an integrated approach to a world that works for everyone. Product ecologies, the Construction Set Approach, Lifetime Design, and Modularity are some of the critical components of an appropriate technosphere which exists in harmony with natural ecologies.

Product Architecture is an operational aspect of Product Ecology - in that the Architecture is a strategic and operational prerequisite to create viable product ecologies. When we say 'product' - we mean economically significant designs and operations that provide humans with goods and services to meet needs at the lower rungs of Maslow's Pyramid. That means these 'products' must work - be effective, producible, and replicable by significant fractions of the population, and they should be Economically Time-Bound.

To design product architectures, OSE considers the Business Model Canvas and the Operations Model Canvas.