The Innovation Ingredient

For us, innovation isn’t about the latest tech trend or industry buzzwords. It’s about designing affordable, high quality products for one of the world’s most underserved markets. Our first product was a simple treadle pump all the way back in 2004. Today we offer a portfolio of more than 20 products and services that have generated more than US$300 million in increased profits for our customers. Designing for impact at this scale is a group effort that requires extensive cross-collaboration between our in-house design Lab and teams from across our farm tech, farm advice and farm finance platforms.

“There’s a lot of collaboration within our team, but we also engage other stakeholders whether that’s management, or the farmers we’re designing for or doing design workshops with our field staff,” said Su Zun Mon, Senior Product Designer with Proximity Labs. “Our colleagues from other teams are experts in their respective fields and they know their customers best, so it’s really important we’re checking in with them throughout the life of each project.”

While Labs brings together cross-functional teams from within Proximity they have also partnered with professional design firms, such as IDEO.org, frog design, and Stanford University’s d.school in an effort to transfer world class design expertise to our employees here in Myanmar.

“Agile innovation is key when you’re working in one of the world’s most underserved markets because the needs of your customers are constantly changing,” said Su Zun.

“That’s why it’s so important to build a culture where people at every level of the organisation are encouraged to be observant, ask questions, understand our customers needs and come up with solutions.”