The Nuts & Bolts of Designing Rapid Prototypes for Social Sector
Social problems are always evolving- so does the approach of designing the solutions of social problems. To understand what works and what doesn’t to approach problem solving in the social sector, the most common approach is undertaking pilot projects to explore potential pathways to scale.
Prototype is fairly new jargon in the development sector compared to its elder sibling pilot. In the world of technology, the culture of designing prototypes is widely prevalent for product development. Be it designing new products, services, processes or shifting modes of operations, there is a wider scope to embrace the culture of prototyping in the development sector.
What’s the difference between a pilot and a prototype? In cricketing analogy, prototype resembles more with T20 cricket whereas pilot resembles with One-Day International (ODI) format. Pilot programmes are designed and executed more rigorously to come up with credible evidence and develop the proof-of-concept of a model. Usually, a pilot project requires at least 6 months to 2 years in duration. Whereas prototypes are more of a nimble experiment which can be executed within 2 to 5 months to understand the scope of a more rigorous intervention. Both of these experiments should not be perceived as competitors to each other, rather a complement to each other to develop the proof-of-concept of the model.
COVID-19 has pushed the development sector to come up with more agile solutions. For example, when the schools were closed down due to COVID-19, the government and NGOs immediately resorted to some best possible solutions following quick experimentation processes. Initially, many rapid experimentations were tested and based on those early trends and results, government ministries as well as NGOs like BRAC deployed new models, and also fine-tuned operations on the fly. It is proven that when time and speed are of the essence, the social sector can’t afford to wait for golden moments to arrive, rather it should start adopting iterative processes to design solutions and build ecosystems.
This agile approach of iterative experimentation- what is being called as prototype- should not be considered as a stop-gap approach- rather it should be mainstreamed into the modus operandi of designing solutions of social problems.
At the Social Innovation Lab, we test and experiment with innovative and bold ideas while working with BRAC’s different development programmes as well as social entrepreneurs in the ecosystem. We try to approach problem solving combining both methodological rigor and speed. Here’re following insights on how we approach problem solving-
1. Narrow down focus:
Finding your focus is the first stepping stone to design a prototype for social problems. Oftentimes, as a knowledge and experimentation hub, we receive too many diverse requests from different stakeholders- be it from programmes, senior management, social entrepreneurs and ecosystem players. From scanning the application of emerging technology solutions to scanning weak signals to nurturing ecosystems to incubating new types of products or services, the approach of different assignments vary. Since our lab has a strong mandate towards working with BRAC’s existing program, it’s highly important for us to identify the scope of our work- before taking any assignment. How can we narrow down the focus of our assignments?
- Understand the system:
The outsider view is always different when it comes to understanding the internal system. If you are exploring a potential solution with a program or social entrepreneur, it’s highly recommended to spend quality time with the program or the social entrepreneurs to understand their mode of operations. In one of our assignments with BRAC Education Programme, we conducted a user journey mapping exercise by interviewing key stakeholders: teachers, parents and students- to understand the user experience of the clients. User journey mapping exercise with key stakeholders could be an interesting tool or approach to get a preliminary understanding of the user level experience, which is one of the critical components to understand the system.
- Scan potential innovations:
After gaining preliminary understanding of the system and user experiences of the clients of the program, you can zoom out a bit by exploring relevant solutions in the ecosystem. From doing secondary research to attending relevant webinars to talking to industry experts, it is always helpful to scan relevant innovations within your network. The more industry connections or networks you are connected to the ecosystem, the better for you to spot the scope of innovations within the programmes and also hold some macro-level understanding of the overall industry.
- Co-create the scenario planning:
After understanding the scope and scanning potential innovations in the ecosystem, the next approach could be to create an interactive space with program colleagues to bounce ideas off and try to throw some potential solutions to understand their realistic feedback. Without imposing any solution, a trusted space needs to be created so that programme colleagues don’t find it overwhelming to support you. There will always be differences of opinion among technical experts, veteran programme colleagues with you. It’ll be essential to create a trusted space among cross-programme colleagues to value and respect each other’s points. It is highly important to listen to those internal voices and understand what triggers programmes to propose certain actions or behaviors.
- Develop scenarios for senior leadership vetting:
After consultation and co-creation with programme colleagues, it’s time to present some potential scopes of experimentation to senior leadership. In the senior leadership presentation, the pros and cons of different scenarios must be presented. It’s a great opportunity to get their buy-in on resource allocation, timeline, budget and scope from such meetings. For example, to experiment with Ed-tech, we proposed 4 different scopes of prototypes to senior leadership focusing on teacher, student, content and project-based activity respectively. Eventually, we were advised to zero in on teachers’ capacity building. It’s critical to have absolute clarity on your assignment before you dive into the core work. And, subsequently, this focus will allow you to stick to your core and avoid mission drift while chasing solutions.
2. Go to field and observe the real users:
Seeing is believing- it perfectly holds true when you are holding multiple assumptions in the design phase. It is incredible to witness how your demo solution interacts with the target audience on the ground. For example, our prototype was to conduct professional development training of teachers through a LMS platform. We demonstrated some YouTube video contents to teachers to understand the initial reaction whether this type of content can be used in our prototype or not while designing the interventions of the prototype. Also, tools like in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions(FGDs) with users are incredibly useful to understand different pain points of the users. These insights from the field incredibly helped us to design the core activities of the prototype. Besides, these interactions helped us to figure out the user personas of different user groups.
3.Forge Innovative Partnerships:
- Scan partnership opportunities:
It’s important to start exploring partnership with multiple service providers. Generally, service providers are interested in offering demo solutions that can be tested with real users. These demo services will allow you to determine whether the service is suitable or not.
- Fix the scope of partnership:
When you are totally convinced with the range of support you will receive from the potential service provider, it’s always good to sign a MoU and fix the scope of engagement. It is advisable to onboard multiple competing service providers, if possible which will allow you to experience the bandwidth and depth of knowledge of the service providers, if you have sufficient budget. These partnership engagements will later help you to better understand the strength and weakness of the partners. In the prototype, it will be most useful to use existing contents of the service providers. The main objective here would be how to minimize cost but gain meaningful insights from the experience that you are curating from such quick experiments. In our prototype on teachers’ capacity building, we worked with 3 social enterprises from the ecosystem: Alokito Teachers, Light of Hope and 10 Minute School to test out exploring a futuristic online professional development platform.
4.Fix the target audience, location & duration:
- Convenience Vs Diversity:
Since the prototype is quite lightweight compared to the pilot, there will be scope to include diverse regions. On the other hand, running a two-month rapid prototype requires you to travel back and forth, therefore, it’s better to select maximum 2 regions for better interaction and observation opportunities. In the next phase, you can expand geographical locations to gain better understanding.
- Developing User Persona:
Picking 80 users out of 10,000 users will always be challenging-especially in the context of large-scale operation. That’s why it’s essential to go to the field and interact with users before you fix the target audience and location. Interacting with users will give you granular understanding and insights regarding the persona of your target audience. For example, while designing Project Onneshon- a prototype of teacher’s professional development, we have given a list of requirements, which helped the field management team of BRAC Education Program in selecting the right group of teachers for the prototype. While mapping the participants, it’s always helpful to consider several aspects of how your solution will impact the need, pain point and aspiration of your client. These granular insights coming from your users will also help you to understand the value proposition of your product/service.
- Homogenity Vs Heterogeneity:
To make a product/service more responsive for a wider audience, there may be dilemmas in choosing between homogeneity and heterogeneity while selecting the target audience. For example, we picked 4 groups of teachers in Project Onneshon who represent different communities: BRAC Social Enterprise, BRAC Development, Government Primary School and Private Tutor. These different clusters helped us to compare the performance of different groups and understand unique challenges and opportunities of each respective group. There are both pros and cons in such decision dilemmas, therefore, you need to fix that decision based on your core objective. For example, if you bring any outsider group into this prototype, it’ll help you to understand the dynamics of extending your service to a wider target group.
- Know your Community (KYC):
While selecting the location of the prototype, it’s always essential to get some preliminary understanding about the community. One of the most interesting prototypes I observed hands-on while working with a bunch of architects of Onushongo Bangladesh, aimed at constructing apartments in slum to avoid gentrification- a hidden solution of so many complex problems in a slum. The idea looked great in pen and paper and the community people were also very enthusiastic initially. But, later we found that some of the land owners were not convinced to contribute their land, and eventually that project didn’t see the light although the project was really innovative from the lens of design. Therefore, some solutions might seem apparent but lack of community buy-in might stand in the way. It’s always wise to understand the dynamics and some reality checks of the community before you execute a particular solution.
- Earn Traction:
This strongly applies to both social entrepreneurs and development professionals who literally aim to cash in on their initial prototypes to make a strong statement. While working with the first prototype of Bhumijo, BRAC Communications team developed a video that can capture the pre and post scenario of their first solution, and it went viral. This video organically reached many stakeholders and helped Bhumijo to make their presence felt at their initial days of operation. Now, if you analyse what triggers most attention, you’ll find that location and target audience really had a great impact. Therefore, fixing your target audience and location should also be analysed taking into account its traction potential.
- Duration of the prototype:
Time and speed are always of the essence for designing and executing a prototype. Since we are calling this a rapid prototype, it is always recommended to keep the time duration short around 2–3 months maximum for the execution phase. In the execution phase, you need to be very agile to mobilise resources and therefore, it’s recommended to factor in some additional time to allow many foreseen challenges to crop up.
5. Forming the A Team:
It actually depends on the overall project size as well as ambition but ideally it can be a 3 member team. One of the team members should take the ownership of the project as a project manager who knows the ins and outs of the project and see the project through. You need another team member like Sherlock Holmes who can contribute in asking the right questions to all stakeholders to bring as many insights as possible. Another team member can also partially contribute in spotting partnership & fundraising opportunities. Also, it’s highly recommended to rope in additional team members or interns during the execution phase who can lend great support in data collection, analysis, visualization, facilitation and user feedback collection. It works magically when team members oppose each other in their actions to find a common ground and collectively move the project forward with a strong human-centered approach.
6. Applying Behavioral Nudges:
While communicating with participants during the prototype, a useful tool we have used is applying behavioral nudges. We were using WhatsApp to offer instructions with the users. We had to spend a great deal of time crafting the right language with pictorial messages for the audience to understand the instructions. Although many languages were crafted instantly during the execution phase, the team must be meticulous in taking strong preparation from the design phase to apply such behavioral nudges while communicating with the users.
Photo: Communicating with pictorial messages via WhatsApp
7. Producing knowledge materials:
Producing knowledge materials may be an after-action element but it should not be an afterthought. A clear strategy should be undertaken in capturing relevant photos, videos in the design phase. These photos and videos can really help to demonstrate the findings to varied internal and external stakeholders. Also, it’s always important to write relevant blogs on your experiments which can become a source of knowledge and guide to anyone. The team must hold a strong belief that such experiments can generate new pathways for breakthrough solutions in the field of development. Also, it’s recommended to publish the insights piece into more sector- focused outlets where practitioners can stay relevant reading this piece. For example, we published an insight piece on our Teacher’s training prototype in the EdTech Hub blog site which strengthened the credibility of our work and also generated scope of partnership.
Designing a prototype for social sector is equally as important as its execution. Therefore, the more rigor can be applied in the design exercise, the outcome of the execution will be more fruitful. Let’s adopt more such rapid prototypes in designing development interventions with users- not for users.
