Not a catalogue of products. A map of what people can do.
FromA catalogue of products→ToA map of capability
Catalogues turned products into searchable images, titles, prices and ratings. An open network can add a structured picture of each participant and what they can do, so a buyer can find someone who can solve a problem, not only a product that matches a word.
Something special for her mother’s 60th
A person asks for “something special for my mother’s 60th birthday.” illustrative
That isn’t a product query. The answer could be a cake, flowers, a handcrafted shawl, a photographer, a private chef or a personalised piece of art. A product catalogue can’t answer it. A map of capabilities can.
Catalogues and listings made online shopping possible at enormous scale, turning products into searchable images, titles, prices and ratings. An open network can add a richer layer alongside them: a structured picture of each participant and what they can do.
- Identity
- capability
- offering
- availability
- conditions
- evidence
- reputation
- story
Matching isn’t always about finding a product. Often it is about finding someone who can solve a problem.
What every participant needs
| The question | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Who am I? | Identity and verification |
| What do I offer? | Products, services or capabilities |
| Where can I serve? | Area and delivery |
| When am I available? | Availability and capacity |
| What makes me different? | Differentiation |
| Can I be trusted? | Evidence and reputation |
| How will I transact? | Payment, protection, returns and delivery |
Together, the answers become the participant’s network identity.
Two layers, one capability graph
The structured layer holds identity, category, capability, location, availability, price range, reputation and payment conditions. It makes a participant machine-discoverable.
The human layer holds a 15-second introduction, the founder’s story, a demonstration, the craft. It makes a participant human-discoverable.
Conditions are part of the profile. Not only “this seller sells X” but “this seller will transact under these conditions”: protected payment, milestones, returns and dispute resolution. Agents can then match on how a transaction can safely happen, not just what is offered.
A graph, not a taxonomy. Instead of cake, then chocolate, then 1 kg, the network understands that this participant makes custom celebration food, specialises in personalised events, serves local customers, is available tomorrow and accepts protected payment. The buyer doesn’t need to know which category holds the answer.
The structure can be as sophisticated as it needs to be, and the buyer never sees it. They see: “I found 12 people who can help.”
Standardise participation. Preserve expression.
Go deeper
What exists, and what doesn’t yet
Registries. Registries on the network list the participating apps and hold their public keys so that messages can be verified. They are organised hierarchically, a design the researchers compare to the internet’s DNS[1]. They identify the apps, not what each seller can do.
A common description. ONDC’s 2022 consultation paper proposed a common product taxonomy, which would also let sellers move to a different seller app, and a “Cataloguing as a Service” framework to help sellers, especially small retailers, manage their catalogues[2]. A capability graph goes one step further, describing what a participant can do and under what conditions, not only what they list.
Scope. The 2022 paper set out proposals for comment. We have not seen a capability graph of this kind running on an open network, so it is a design to test.
Beyond commerce
The same map can help people find a doctor, a manufacturer, a consultant, a hotel, a farmer, a logistics provider, an artisan or a repair service: an open, machine-readable map of economic capability. Buyers find answers they didn’t know how to search for, and participants are found for everything they can do, not only what fits a category.
The Healthcare, Tourism, Khadi and Human Capital teardowns each apply it to a different sector.
Getting it right
Portable by design. A participant’s identity and history belong to them, not to any one app.
Private where it should be. Summaries are shared. Private transaction details are not.
Accurate and current. Participants can always see and correct how they’re represented. That fits India’s data-protection law, which gives people the right to seek correction and erasure and requires data to be erased once its purpose has been met[3].
What could go wrong
- Profiles go stale.A map nobody updates misleads, so updating has to be as easy as talking (Shift 5).
- Over-structuring.Too much standardisation flattens what makes a participant distinctive, which is why expression stays free.
- Forced categories.A participant can be relevant in many ways and shouldn’t have to choose one.
- Misdescription.A profile that overstates a capability harms buyers and honest sellers alike, so claims are tied to evidence (Shift 4).
How we’d test it
Capability profiles for 200 participants in one city, across several categories.
- The test
- Open-ended requests
- What we would measure
- Run open-ended requests such as “something special for my mother’s birthday” against the profiles and against category search. Measure how often capability results surprise and satisfy buyers, and how long profiles stay accurate.
- What would end the idea
- Capability search isn’t more satisfying than category search, or profiles go stale faster than they can be kept up.
Capability search isn’t more satisfying than category search, or profiles go stale faster than they can be maintained.
Sources
- [1]Dittrich, Jørgensen, Prakash, Rafnsson and Hinrichsen, Beyond Platforms: Growing Distributed Transaction Networks for Digital Commerce, Information and Software Technology (in press)Checked; a case study of Beckn and ONDC based on interviews
- [2]ONDC, Building Trust in the ONDC Network: Consultation Paper (29 September 2022), sections 4.7.2 and 4.7.3Checked; proposals for comment, not adopted policy
- [3]PRS Legislative Research, The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023Checked; a summary of the Bill as passed by Parliament in August 2023
Spotted a source we missed or a rule we misread? Tell us what we got wrong.
A map says who can do what. The next question is how it should feel to explore it.