---
id: "claim-sign-off-is-product"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["¶5"]
tags: ["economics", "accountability"]
related: ["concept-complementarity", "action-mandatory-sign-off", "quote-sign-off-product", "contrarian-sign-off-is-product"]
confidence: "high"
testable: false
speakers: ["Chengwei Liu", "Balázs Kovács"]
sources: ["futures"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-futures"
originDay: 2
articleStem: "hbr-cl-84-big-tech-capability-crisis"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/big-techs-looming-capability-crisis"
sourceTitle: "Big Tech’s Looming Capability Crisis"
---
# The Sign-Off Is the Product, Not a Transaction Cost

## Claim: The Sign-Off Is the Product, Not a Transaction Cost

**Confidence: high · Testable: no**

In professional services with high stakes (medical diagnoses, enterprise software releases), the raw output — the scan, or the code — is merely an **input**. The actual product being sold is the **accountability, reputation, and personal liability** of the professional who reviews and signs off on that output.

This is the direct application of [[concept-complementarity|complementarity]] and the basis of the [[contrarian-sign-off-is-product|contrarian reframing]] and the [[action-mandatory-sign-off|mandatory-sign-off]] intervention. See [[quote-sign-off-product]].

> Enrichment: A **normative economic claim, not a settled fact**. HBR's language is explicit that the market buys accountability and liability, not just output, in high-stakes professional services — coherent with complementarity theory but a theoretical interpretation rather than direct evidence of market pricing.


## Related across articles
- [[claim-professional-services-disruption]]
- [[concept-bridger]]