When Global Goals Meet Product Reality

Walking Into the Maze

B Lab's mission is enormous: help companies everywhere act on the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The SDG Action Manager was supposed to be the engine for that mission. Thousands of businesses signed up. On paper, it looked like success.

But when I stepped in, the reality was very different. Over half of those companies never answered a single question. Fewer than one in ten ever set goals. Net Promoter Score sat at 26. The product meant to inspire progress was quietly stalling out.

The mission was strong. The intent was noble. But the experience was broken.

Naming the Hard Truths

The first thing I did was listen. I interviewed eighteen stakeholders across tech, standards, brand, review, and partnerships. I mapped the entire journey, from the marketing site to the Salesforce queues. I combed through Freshdesk tickets, where more than half of support volume was just people saying, "I don't know what to do next."

What emerged was a tough picture. Registration was long. Verification was manual and painful. Teams were improving their own parts of the flow without seeing the full journey. The information architecture buried key actions under jargon and hamburger menus.

In short, B Lab had made it hard for companies to work with them. Saying that out loud wasn't easy - but once the truth was on the table, everyone could finally point in the same direction.

Flipping the Script: Outcomes, Not Features

Up to that point, most strategy conversations had been led by technology: what features the tool needed, what the platform could do next. We flipped the script. Instead of asking, "what do we build?", we asked, "what outcome are we trying to move?"

We set four targets:

• Reduce confusion tickets.
• Raise NPS from 26 toward 70.
• Shorten the time to complete a goal.
• Increase follow-through on commitments.

With that lens, we built a Now, Soon, Later roadmap.

• Now: copy fixes, CSS cleanup, and consistent language.
• Soon: restructure the IA, simplify assessments, and align naming.
• Later: introduce momentum-builders like Duolingo-style progress pacing or a Slack "B Hive" community.

Suddenly the roadmap wasn't a wish list. It was a strategy.

Making Change Possible (and Even Delightful)

Here's the thing: global change is heavy work. Climate, labor, diversity, governance -- none of it is simple. If the product itself feels like another burden, people quit.

So we set a higher bar. NPS 70+. Not just "usable," but motivating. We layered in momentum markers, lightweight celebrations, and community support. It wasn't about making it cute. It was about making it feel possible.

Because once companies feel like they can make progress, they do. And once they do, the mission starts to come alive again.

Closing Thought

The lesson from B Lab is one I carry everywhere: a big mission will crumble under a bad experience. Tools only matter if they move outcomes. And progress only happens when you make the next step simple, doable, and worth celebrating.