BUCSBIN’s contribution to change YoungInnovations
A new Beginning
The story began when our CEO Bibhusan and Professor Blair Stevenson from OAMK labs got connected through known colleague at infoDev, World Bank. Later, they also happened to meet face2face during SLUSH event in Helsinki. At that time, Bibhusan represented YoungInnovations in SLUSH as one of the 16 hubs around the globe to organize SLUSH GIA competition.
As Bibhusan explains: — ‘’we had indirect experience of working with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and other Finnish counterparts, through the infoDev funded project entitled ‘Mobile Social Networking in Nepal’. Our team had always been impressed with Finnish Systemic approach to innovation and the conversation to bring Innovation in Finnish education system to Nepal sounded very appealing. It got more exciting as things rolled! We were able to tap the opportunity to collaborate and bring the lab based learning system in Nepal with the help of partners here in Nepal. We are very happy in a sense that we played a role starting from establishing the initial connection to being part of the board and management team in defining and executing the project ’’
Innovation as a CORE to building up the initiative
Our design team lead by anjhero with Nirja Gauchan on UI, Nirazan Basnet and Punya Ruchal on the frontend are mainly responsible for those little moments of delight you get visually from BUCSBIN.
The greatest challenge at the beginning of the project was — ‘How to get noticed and be well-received when you’re the new kid on the block’. Meaning that the teaching approach of Nepal had always been traditional lecture based and the challenge was to create a buzz that give positive mindset to the institution as well as change the mindset of the teachers on the new emerging learning trends.
After lots of research and discussions our design team came up with the idea of using ‘waves’ as a connecting design element representing an influx of fresh ideas and as a symbol of movement and change. With the freshness of green color representing renewal and growth with a trendy and humanized font, the logo was instantly liked by everyone.
To learn more, you can have a quick look at our case study on design aspect prepared by Nirja Gauchan https://design.yipl.com.np/projects/bucsbin/
Institutionalizing Design thinking approach
YI has been working to institutionalize the learning in several ways. The overall journey has been very fulfilling in various aspects for YI and all the personnels involved. Everyone here is convinced with the fact that design thinking is a powerful tool for problem-solving in any discipline and its hands on approach is creative, collaborative, optimistic, and fun.
Going beyond just the delivery of software projects: Walking that extra mile to actually deliver meaningful results
Design thinking approach has received a great deal of attention in our day to day workings. The benefits are not limited to co-creation, customer orientation, better decision making, healthy team discussions and team empathy. The user centric design approach and problem solving techniques that we have learned through BUCSBIN have been implemented in various projects starting from on-boarding stages to understand the new project requirements. This collaborative approach between client and the project managers allowed a better way in addressing “wicked” problems.
There is a shift that is vital in our case as we go to meet our clients with an open mindset and to learn on their needs and why the need for the system has been felt instead of pre-planning the meeting with the possible solutions beforehand. A common motivation is to get closer to end users and solutioning unconventionally.
Building from ground up
The integrated approach of technological tools development and transferring skills to local governments are very effective in ensuring the sustainability of the project. We have been Incorporating Design Thinking related co-creation models while implementing projects on using innovative technology for improving good governance at the local government level in Nepal. Taking the concept of Human Centered Design and Design Thinking as integral part of our projects, we organised a workshop for projects like SUSASAN, with the aim to transfer knowledge to the participants about problem solving, data process and analysis with the use of tools and setting the ground for co-creation to develop future technologies for the project together with the participants.
The process was very successful and for most of the participants it came up as a surprise and good learning and sharing platform. Among many strategies adopted, initiating activities or programmes that are endorsed or accepted by the stakeholders constitute a major breakthrough. This not only put us one step closer to the user acceptance part, but also helped acquire necessary knowledge that feeds into the design thinking process but also the participants could feel the sense of ownership over the project.
One of the participants,Suyash Chand, an IT Officer at Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City shared his experience through a blog too. More Here.
Also, our colleague has shared what happened during the workshop: Building from ground up
SUSASAN Project (Sustainable use of Technology for Public Sector Accountability in Nepal) project is in its fourth year where we have been innovating and implementing tools to digitize, manage and disseminate government data for the use of people; even more specifically to women and marginalized groups. Our engagement with 12 local government of Nepal have been leaving its footprints as more transparent and accountable local governments.
Putting learning into practice
In 2018, It was another exciting project for Young Innovation to be a knowledge partner for Smart Urban City Challenge, an initiative of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to bring out entrepreneurial spirit within Nepalese community. YoungInnovations worked as a technology as well as the creative partner for this challenge. The learning from BUCSBIN was very crucial to coordinate the whole challenge process. There were also several workshops conducted and coordinated by us during the process to help the applying teams to polish their ideas. The initiative was well appraised by the current Honorary Prime Minister and Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Believing in the process and Building the mindset
Design thinking is both a process and a design mindset. You do not have to be a designer to learn or know about it. It is the design mindset that matters most. Keeping that in mind, at YI we have been part of many formal and informal programs, meetups and events to ignite the problem solving mentality in and out of our workforce.
Sessions on Designing User Interfaces
Although design is an integral part of the software development process, most of the students are still not familiar with basic design principles and processes. Design concepts are rarely taught in IT colleges here in Nepal. Our colleague Anjan (anjhero)who has been leading the design team at YI, has been conducting several knowledge sharing sessions in many colleges in and out of kathmandu with an objective to raise awareness on design & to ignite an interest to learn about design. Help individuals approach projects with an effective problem solving mentality and understand what user centered design is. This can help students apply design principles into their projects.
As anjhero explains: ‘’I now incorporate the learning model used in BUCSBIN in my classrooms and session. It has helped me to plan the session in a better way and make it suitable academically. Things like having gate presentations and feedback sessions in the course have made the whole session so relevant and interesting’’. He adds: ‘’In the workplace, designers wait till the designs are complete before they share them to the client or the team, but as one of the fundamentals of design thinking approach, we should share even the unfinished works. It allows in gaining feedback from the team or client and the whole process can be more efficient that way’’.
Design Thinking Course Delivery
Our experience from BUCSBIN has helped us a great deal on crafting a semester-wise course on Design Thinking at one of the prestigious colleges of Nepal — Kathmandu College of Management. The 3-credit course (48 hours) focused on a hands-on approach rather than a lecture-based setting. The students worked on a project for the whole semester while learning different stages (Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test) and aspects of Design Thinking. In addition to that, they also learned about lean-startup along with Business Model Canvas. BUCSBIN made it easier on shaping the course materials and helped to identify effective course delivery methods.
Here is what some of YI team who have been part of BUCSBIN have to say:
Prawesh Shrestha — Most of my association with BUCSBIN has been with managing events for it. Even though I was not involved directly in any event as a participant, coach or a lab master, I got exposed to one of the interesting approaches of problem solving. I got to discuss with nice and very talented lab masters from Finland behind the scenes. I always had questions and they had answers for my queries. I got to learn many things from our local lab masters, coaches and participants as well. I may not be able to explain in detail how BUCSBIN has impacted my life but my approach to problem solving has changed. I don’t jump into the resolution and assumptions like before. I try to learn more about the problem first.
Bigyan Gautam — I was involved in the BUCSBIN project as a filmmaker. Although I was involved only in one residential workshop not as a participant it has had an everlasting impression on me. Though BUCSBIN might not have had an impact on me on a deeper level, It somehow has made me develop a habit of focusing on the problem first rather than going into the solution of any task directly.
Pranav Manandhar — I was usually behind the camera during the few BUCSBIN workshops I had the chance to attend but the camera also proved to be a license for me to explore the different facets of the workshops- from the perspective of the participants, the perspective of the organizers and even from the perspective of the Labmasters. By observing the program in this way it made me appreciate the sheer level of tasks and commitments required by the stakeholders to transport an experimental learning model from one culture to another completely different culture. Moreover, getting a chance to interview different stakeholders has made me feel that indeed the transaction was a success and the question now is of how to disseminate the learnt knowledge to further crowds. I, particularly, have been quite amazed and fortunate to witness this exchange of knowledge and value wholeheartedly the sheer amount of emphasis this knowledge puts on the art of learning by doing.
Sunxena (Sanjeena Parajuli) — With BUCSBIN, it’s been quite a journey. My learning in the project has been in numerous levels. I have not just been charmed by the human centric design approach and its great potential but also been fascinated by Finnish working culture, the degree of pro activeness, work- life balance and the importance they give to mental health. No wonder they have achieved the title of happiest country in the world. I am really glad to be part of such a diverse team.
To sum up
As quoted by Bibhusan — ‘’Innovation is not just about knowing things. It is also about how you can implement what you know and scale it up within our strategic framework’’. Our learning are now an integral part of our strategic approaches within the organization.
As per Management Perspective, for those who have been part of the initiative, there has been many tangible as well as intangible benefits like attention to detail, professionalism, working in Cross cultural settings and meeting the expectations of it, using digital platforms to work in a team spread across the globe, event coordination and logistic management in a project that involves multiple stakeholders and so on.
From the Industry perspective, as YoungInnovations as a private company who have been operating in this ICT business for more than 13 years now, we have always felt the disconnect between what universities teach and the skills needed in the market. Given the fact that most of the Industry players have no pedagogical acumen to address this gap, initiatives like BUCSBIN and its ripple effects that can happen in organisation and individual level can be a game changer. In the long term, with the lab based learning model in academia, we believe that it can produce more creative thinkers and entrepreneurial mindsets desirable for Industry. In addition, students working on real industry problems and sharing solutions for the same can be another dimension of the process.
With the appreciation that we have been getting from our clients on our approach to the projects, we are convinced that the human-centric design pathway is the correct one to stand out in this tech industry. We will definitely work personal as well as institutional level to create that ripple effect in the coming days.
Lastly, I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your contribution to the initiative and especially YI team who has worked around the clock to make things happen.
