Value Setting

Values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They are the things that are most important to us and that we strive for in our lives. They can be personal, cultural or religious. The objective of Value Setting is to facilitate a discussion about the underlying factors that influence the participants when choosing and using technology products. For this activity, you will host a group discussion with your focus group.

Desired Outcomes:

• The outcomes from the exercise are used to create the factors used to rate a tech solution in the Tech Review.

Choosing tech can feel a bit abstract. To warm people up to the idea of exploring values, use the example of buying an appliance. Most appliances exist because they serve a basic utility. A washer, for example, cleans your clothes. When choosing a washer to buy, there may be certain qualities you want or values you try to uphold that guide your decision-making. For example, I first want my washer to be effective in cleaning my clothes. It’s also important to me that it’s quiet, so it doesn’t wake people up at night. And, I value environmentally-friendly products. I will look for a product that satisfies both my basic need to have clean clothes and that satisfies these other desires, influenced by my values and living situation.

Ask participants:

Which values do you seek to uphold (or are important to you) when making choices about which tech to use?

After an open discussion, you can use provocative ‘what if’ statements surface more instinctual information:

• What if … the maker of the device or software is a Chinese company?

• What if … the app sells personal data to third parties?

• Etc.

Sample

Below, are some of the ideas and questions that came out of a workshop with the Digital Society of Africa team. They are relevant for the Southern African context.

• Accessibility to everyone that needs it (affordability of hardware and data)

• Can people that can't read use it?

• How safe is it?

• Popularity and brand visibility

• Does it do what it says it will do?

• Privacy concerns (how my data is stored, the ability to opt out)

• Is it easy to navigate?

• Language (No jargon)

• How much data will it cost?

• Will it give me access to something my peers don’t have?

• I can use it without reading a guide