Applying design thinking to reduce ocean waste: p2. Hitting a wall and re-discovering our mission
If we had the time, money, and freedom, we’d be in Indonesia right now. The country just declared plastic debris a national emergency, and allocated $1B annually to clean its coasts.
DIVERGING
In our last post, we mentioned we had come across a great insight: Most plastic waste in the oceans comes from rivers, so we started looking for a river in which we could run a pilot: what if we go to one of these communities where people dump all their waste in their river because they lack a waste management infrastructure, and try to come up with alternatives and run some tests?
A pilot done recently in Kuala Lumpur, for example, used three-feet deep nets across the river to collect plastic before it hits the ocean. Indonesia would be a perfect testing ground because it’s in the list of the top countries with most contaminated rivers, but the list also includes China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Which ever country in the list would take us and allow us to do some experiments, we’d love to be there now.
CONVERGING
But part of the design thinking process involves going high and broad, but then coming down. The last weeks have been a bit difficult as we had to come down and get realistic about what we can accomplish in 2 months left of school, 1 year assuming we get funding, current financials, team skills, and the fact that ¾ of our team is on an international visa and there’s currently uncertainty about leaving the country. This means no, we won’t be going to Indonesia any time soon.
We had to switch our focus to the US. Could there be rivers in the US with similar waste dumping issues? We learned that there are many highly contaminated rivers in the US, but this is not due to plastic waste, but due to factories dumping their toxins and chemicals into them –which is totally legal by the way. In fact, there’s a Dead Zone where the Mississippi meets the golf, where toxin levels are so high the water lacks oxygen and therefore there’s no sea life.
It’s upsetting, but it’s also our of our scope, and there are many conservation groups currently working in the area using billions in funding BP paid after its deep horizon disaster.
BACK TO USER RESEARCH TO RE-REFINE THE PROBLEM
A lack of focus led to internal disagreements and a lack of clarity about what’s the problem we’re trying to solve, and how we should move from the what is, to the what could, to the what if.
We decided to let our users decide for us, so we conducted more interviews to gain insight into what drives people to recycle and keep their city clean, and how they feel about plastic waste. Also, whether they’re interested in plastic alternative products, and whether they’ve tried any in the past.
Customer research helped us define our people-problem statement:
“I want to buy more sustainable products, but I don’t know the difference between them, where to start, or where to find them”
We also defined the problem we’re solving:
“To reduce plastic waste by increasing awareness, availability, and demand for upcycled, recycled and alternative products”
IN THE IDEATION ROOM
We came up with 24 solid ideas, which we narrowed down to 6 based on impact, feasibility, desirability, and viability.
We did a few quick story boards to help us figure out which ones had “meat” –as our professor likes to say– and from there we settled for the strongest concept that could incorporate elements of the other ones as tactics, marketing campaigns, or part of the store experience, etc.
Our resulting concept can be defined as “Whole Foods meets Target.”
We want to create a home goods and fashion store that carries only products made of sustainable, recyclable and alternative materials.
We found that there are hundreds if not thousands of designers working with recycled materials such a fishing nets and plastic bottles, we even found designers in the Philippines designing products out of pineapple leaves!
But they are spread throughout the world, each with their independent website, where the average customer will never find them. Why not create a hub to showcase them?
While we don’t have an official store name, we’re moving forward with what we’re calling:
Alt-Store: All the most innovative and sustainable and upcycled brands in one place
WHAT’S COMING AHEAD
Our next steps consist of validating the concept, doing an experience map, doing research on the retail and wholesale industry, and running a micro-pilot. We also started a Facebook page, and you can follow us there. More to come soon!
If you have any suggestions, or think there’s anyone we should speak with, we’d love to hear from you: chercoles.maria@gmail.com
Team Avalon/ CCA DMBA Students: Amodini Chhabra, Kaavya Krishnan, Maria Chercoles, Namrata Narayanan
