Edelman Trust Barometer: a must-read for the digital ID and DPI communities

If you work in digital identity or digital public infrastructure (DPI) and aren’t already following the Edelman Trust Barometer (released each January), I encourage you to review the reports from the last several years. I assure you the insights will be well worth your time.?

Edelman Communications is the world's largest public relations agency. For over 20 years, they have published the Edelman Trust Barometer, the largest annual survey quantifying and analyzing public trust in institutions (government, corporations, NGOs, and the media). The insights are drawn from a positively massive sample, with more than 32,000 respondents across 28 countries (I can practically hear my statistician friends salivating).?

I originally intended to summarize takeaways from the 2024 report that I thought would be most valuable for the digital ID and DPI communities. I was barely able to scratch the surface (it is, after all, an 88-page deck). Instead, I will say, “Read the reports!!!” They are fascinating and should give us much to ponder as we think about how to build a robust market for digital ID products and technologies.

But…I’m not sure that’s what we are doing…yet.

In my view, we are spending too much time and effort focusing on the supply side of the market and not nearly enough understanding the dynamics that are driving—or, in this case, stifling—demand for our products.?

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again here. Building a “cool” digital ID product is not nearly enough to ensure commercial success.?

To be successful in the market, a product needs to address a specific need or pain point for customers. But even that is insufficient to guarantee success. If there is a cheaper, easier way to achieve comparable results, even the most innovative products will, ultimately, lose out. I say “comparable results” intentionally because simple, cheap, and “good enough” will often trump perfection. As an industry with a strong philosophical underpinning, I fear we are often "letting the perfect get in the way of the good."

I’m not saying we should settle for “good enough.” Of course, we should continue to innovate. I am, however, suggesting that we are rapidly reaching a point where we need to align around specifications, standards, formats, methods, etc. This will reassure potential customers that our products are "ready for prime time," and give us more time to collaborate—both within our own industry and with other sectors—to continue building demand and explore new use cases. ?

This takes us back to trust.?

To get to a point where our technologies are broadly implemented (by issuers) and adopted (by holders and relying parties), they must be trusted by all stakeholders. Governments, corporations, NGOs, and the media all play important roles in how the public and, ultimately, policymakers and agency officials (an extension of the public and potential customers) think about digital ID.?

While the Edelman Trust Barometer cannot provide a definitive roadmap for our industry (it wasn’t designed to), it can provide a valuable starting point for discussion and help us think (in a more nuanced manner) about the broader ecosystem within which we operate.

I hope you find it to be as useful a resource as I do.