Class 5

Implementation Phase

5
Implementation Phase

INSPIRATION IDEATION IMPLEMENTATION

The Design Process

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Implementation Phase

Table Of Contents

Class 5
Implementation Phase

Readings
Overview of Implementation Phase
Step 1: Understand Your Target
Step 2: Create an Action Plan
Step 3: Launch Your Solution
Step 4: Keep Getting Feedback and Iterating
Step 5: Scale Towards Impact

Case Study: SmartLife

Methods in Action
Reflection on the Process

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INSPIRATION IDEATION IMPLEMENTATION

Overview of Implementation Phase

The Implementation phase is about understanding
how to bring your solution to life, and to market
in the real world. In the end, you’ll know that your
solution will be a success because you’ve kept the
very people you’re looking to serve at the heart of
the process.

This class will give you the tools necessary to

consider how you would build partnerships, refine
your business model, pilot your idea, and eventually
get your idea out there—if you were to truly
implement your idea, that is!

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Step 1: Understand Your Target

Before implementing, you’ll want to understand what your solution will mean to both the
people implementing it and to those you’re designing for. Everyone wants a revolutionary
idea, but long-term success might come from incremental change. Also, think about the
capacity of the implementing group; you’ll want a solution that they can actually carry out.

IMPLEMENTATION Innovation 2x2 New Offerings

This excercise is a quick and visual way to

understand just how difficult your design
solutions might be to implement. This
exercise will help you identify whether your E V O L U T I O N A RY R E V O L U T I O N A RY

solutions are incremental, evolutionary, or

This Gets You revolutionary and whether your solutions
Existing Users
A snapshot of where your extend, adapt, or create a totally new

New Users
solution falls from baby offering. You’ll also clarify whether your
steps to groundbreaking solutions are targeted at your current user
innovation.
group or whether it expands to a new group
of users. By seeing your solutions in relation
Keep in Mind I N C R E M E N TA L E V O L U T I O N A RY

One key to success is

to each other, you’ll quickly ascertain which
finding the right balance ones your organization has the means,
between where your manpower, and capacity to undertake.
solutions fall on the 2x2 Existing Offerings
and the capacity of the
people implementing.

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE YOUR MATRIX

• Draw Your 2x2: On a large sheet of paper, • Assess Your Distribution: Look at the
draw your grid—the vertical axis represents spread of your solutions from incremental
the novelty of your offering and the to revolutionary. Are there gaps in your
horizontal axis represents its users. Totally portfolio of solutions? Are parts of the
new offerings land above the horizontal axis matrix blank and others full? If so, you may
and existing ones land below. An idea aimed want to go back to brainstorming in order to
at new users falls to the right of the vertical develop solutions that will intentionally fill
axis and one that affects existing users falls that gap.
to the left.
• What’s Your Matrix Telling You?: Lots of
• Write Your Solutions on Post-its: Place organizations say that they’re interested
revolutionary new ideas that will attract new in revolutionary thinking, but often,
users in the top right quadrant. Incremental incremental change can have the greatest
ideas that offer small builds on existing chance for big impact. Think hard about
services will hit below the horizontal axis. what your organization can realistically
achieve and what will benefit your
constituents most.

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Step 2: Create an Action Plan

Devising an innovative solution and putting it into practice are two different propositions.
Creating a plan for implementing will help you understand what will be required to get your
solution out in the world and where your organization will have to seek help.

This Gets You Make a Roadmap Build Partnerships

A better sense of what Roadmapping is a chance to gather the As you move through the Implementation
it will take to make your key stakeholders in your project and phase you may realize that you’ll need to
idea work in a real-world
collectively figure out a timeline, determine rely on a variety of partners. For example,
context.
who is responsible for which elements of you’ll identify potential funding partners
Keep in Mind
the project, and establish key milestones. when you Develop a Funding Strategy
The more diligent and Sometimes it’s helpful to print out a big below or craft your Sustainable Revenue
intentional you are about calendar for the next year or 18 months model (Class 4, Step 5). The key idea here
finding partners, staff, and use it to map out what needs to happen is identifying the kinds of partners you’ll
and a strategy that are when—key dates such as a Pilot launch in need, and starting to build relationships
the right fit, the more addition to tasks that need to happen in with them.
you’ll set your idea up for order to support these milestones, such as
success. manufacturing start and end dates. Develop a Funding Strategy
A funding strategy will get you the
Staff Your Project money you need to get your solution
The methodology here is pretty similar to out into the world. Get any key funding
how you first build a team in the Inspiration partners together with your design team
phase, only this time you’ll want to be and brainstorm the best ways to get your
far more targeted. Whereas a multi- project off the ground. This strategy may
disciplinary team is great during design be different than your ultimate sustainable
research for arriving at unexpected ideas revenue approach, so focus on your short-
and novel solutions, in the Implementation term financial approach here.
phase you’ll be looking for specialized
know-how, technical capacity, outside Create a Pitch
partners, and funding. Consider the needs At this point in the project, it will become
of your project, and evaluate if now’s the more and more crucial to be able to
time for some team members to roll off your communicate your idea—how it works,
project and for others to roll on. why it counts, and who it benefits. And in
the process of making a pitch, you’ll clarify
the key elements of your idea and refine
how you talk about them. Keep in mind the
different types of people you may talk to—
from banks to potential customers—and
make the appropriate changes based on
your target listeners.

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Asili, a community-owned social

enterprise, was designed and launched
to bring improved health, water,
nutrition, and agriculture to the DRC.

To ensure a successful launch and This roadmap of Asili’s launch plan provides an overview of the next five
sustainable model, significant time went years where Asili is projected to expand its offerings to include energy,
into defining the roles of Asili’s staff education, and sanitation.
members and what skills were key.

At the end of three years, Asili is projected to be operating within five For Asili to operate as planned, the team
communities. This is another roadmap that shows which phases of the needed to plot out where the funding
social enterprise will be rolled out in different communities. gap was and when the social enterprise
model would break even.

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Step 3: Launch Your Solution

Take your idea to the next level by testing it in the marketplace. A Live Prototype or a Pilot
are important tools designed to test the desirability, feasibility, and viability of your idea
with customers at a small scale and on a limited budget. Here is a broad overview of what
to keep in mind when first testing an idea in the marketplace.

This Gets You Run a Live Prototype •C

 ustomer retention—Are repeat
An important look at how Live prototyping is one of the most customers essential for your business
your solution reacts to powerful ways to test your solution in a model? What incentives might you
real market forces.
real marketplace context. Until now, your provide to keep them?
prototypes have been rough, doing only
Keep in Mind
Though iteration is still
enough to convey the idea you wanted •C
 ustomer experience—Can you
the name of the game, to test. Consider a Live Prototype to be a experiment with different ways that
it will be less frequent stress test for your solution in real-world customers might interact with your
at this point. Live conditions. It can run from a few days to a product or service during different
Prototypes and Pilots few weeks and will help you understand the touchpoints of your experience map
are meant for concepts feasibility and viability of your idea. created in the Class 3 Workshop.
that are pretty high
resolution. Define What to Test Go to Pilot
As with prototyping during the Ideation If a Live Prototype is a quick look at how
phase, you’ll want to determine what it is your solution behaves in the marketplace,
you want to test in your Live Prototype. a Pilot is a sustained engagement. Pilots
can last months and will fully expose your
Here are a few places to start: solution to market forces. At this point
you’re not testing just an idea, but rather
• P ricing—How much will you charge you’re testing an entire system. Ideally
for your product or service? Might you’ll have run a few Live Prototypes before
this price vary from community to going to Pilot so that some of the kinks are
community? How do these prices worked out.
compare to your competitors?
During a Pilot you’ll fully execute on your
• Payment options—How will customers idea finding out if it truly works the way you
pay for your product or service? Up- envisioned by running it with all the staff,
front? Installments? Might they want a space, and resources necessary. You’ll learn
subscription? if your idea really is desirable, viable, and
feasible, and what it might look like to do it
• I ncentives—Who are your employees at scale.
and what are their incentives for
making your product or service a
success? Do they work on commission?

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An IDEO.org team designing a new teen experience for reproductive health services live prototyped a
colorful, teen-friendly clinic in Lusaka, Zambia. The design team tested if their “teen ambassadors”
outreach strategy would effectively spread the word and get teens in the door. Once there, would the
space resonate with teens?

PROTOTYPING CHEAT SHEET

We know we’ve thrown a lot of testing techniques your way in the past several weeks. Here’s a quick way
to think about the differences between a Rapid Prototype, a Live Prototype, and a Pilot.

Rapid Prototype Live Prototype Pilot

Answers the Question: Answers the Question: Answers the Question:

“How well does one particular “How well does this solution “Is this solution as a whole
piece of the solution work resonate with the market?” feasible and viable in the
and does it resonate with the marketplace?”
people you’re designing for?” Key Features:
- Moderate fidelity Key Features:
Key Features: - Tests multiple pieces of the idea - High fidelity
- Low fidelity as they interact together - Tests the whole idea
- May test a small piece of the - Appears to be market-ready - Actually is market-ready
whole idea
- Likely not market-ready

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Step 4: Keep Getting Feedback and Iterating

Even though your idea is now as close to market as it’s ever been, you still need the input
of the people you’re designing for. With their feedback, continue iterating and refining your
concept so that it best meets their needs.

This Gets You Keep Getting Feedback Keep Iterating

A peek at how your idea Don’t lose sight of the iterative approach As you’ve likely noticed by this point,
as a whole is resonating that you’ve taken so far. As counterintuitive iteration and real-world feedback is the
with the people you’re
as it might seem, your solution is never truly name of the game in human-centered
designing for and a better
finished. Even when you’ve gone to market design. Though your solution is now nearly
understanding for its
viability and feasibility.
you can always improve it. ready to get out into the world, you need
to keep iterating. If you need a reminder
Keep in Mind Gathering feedback from the people you’re of iteration as a core mindset, take a look
Even years after launch, a designing for is a never-ending process and back at the Class 1 Mindsets video—Iterate,
solution always has room will be critical as you keep pushing your Iterate, Iterate.
to grow and improve. idea forward. As you run Live Prototypes,
pilot your idea, and measure and evaluate What are the ways in which your solution
your work, you’ll want to have team could be just a little bit better? Can you
members dedicated to getting feedback tweak your communication strategy, maybe
from key partners and the people you’re you’ll need to evolve your revenue plans,
looking to serve. or perhaps your distribution plan needs a
tweak. As soon as you get your solution out
Include Key Stakeholders into the world start to notice what could be
Convening the right group of stakeholders better and assess how you can make it so.
at once can bring up a lot of feedback in a By continuing to iterate, solicit feedback,
single session. and build those learnings back into your
solution you’ll get further and further
Make sure to capture feedback in your toward having a huge impact.
notebook and share back with the entire
design team. You can do this by using a
similar approach as you used when making
sense of information in synthesis. Take
a look back at methods from the Ideation
phase, such as Download Your Learnings
and Share Inspiring Stories (Class 3, Step 1).

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Step 5: Scale Towards Impact

Your goal has always been to have big impact, and that’s what human-centered design is all
about—providing effective solutions for the people you’re trying to serve. It’s important to
sit down with your team and map out what success looks like and how to get there.

This Gets You Define Success • I f you’re selling a product, how much of
A well defined goal to be In the course of the Implementation phase it do you need to sell to hit your revenue
working towards and a you’ll think about staffing, funding, and goals? How can you keep customers
look at all of the things
mapping out your project timeline. This is a coming back? How much should
that need to happen to
great opportunity to figure out what success your product cost? Will you need to
help you reach this goal.
looks like. Determine important milestones introduce new products over time?
Keep in Mind in the life of your solution, and think in
Success and impact terms of a variety of time horizons. What is •T
 hink about scaling your project. In
will look different for success in the next two months, in the next five years, will you be operating in
every solution. Though year, in five years? more than one location? Will you have
you’ll want to make sure multiple products? Is this first offer
everyone is on board and Sustainable Revenue part of a family of potential goods
working towards the same A funding strategy will get you through or services? How can you grow your
goal, you should check launch, but you’ll need a long term revenue long-term revenue plans alongside your
in periodically with your
strategy to have maximum impact and solution?
team to be sure your
maintain a sustainable solution. This is the
goal is still achieving the
intended impact.
time to sit down with your design team and Measure and Evaluate
key partners and stakeholders to assess if Throughout the design process you’ve
you’ve got the right revenue strategy or if constantly been learning, evaluating, and
your thinking needs an update. improving your solution. And now that
you’re on the verge of getting it out into the
Here are some points to address: world, you’ll need a plan to find out if you’re
having the impact that you want. There are
• W hat are all of the costs that the lots of ways to measure and evaluate your
solution would incur, from staff to solution, the key is to understand what
marketing and production? approach is right for you. Sometimes it’s
easy—either your solution makes money
• I f you’re relying on grants or donations, or it doesn’t. But if you’re trying to change
think critically about how you’ll raise a community’s behavior or increase the
money and how reliable your funding adoption of a service, you may need a more
sources are. What kind of relationships nuanced approach. Keep in mind, it may
might you need to build to ensure your take years to truly understand the impact of
venture? your solution.

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SCALING STRATEGIES TO CONSIDER

Even in the early days of your solution, you’ve probably been thinking about how you would scale your
potential ideas. But no two businesses or programs are alike. Here are a few ways to jumpstart your
thinking about how you could expand the reach of your solution.

BOOTSTRAPPING FRANCHISING INTEGRATION

What is it? What is it? What is it?

Raising capital to expand and Selling or licensing a business Just like you looked for
replicate your pilot model package to entrepreneurs partners to help launch your
without external partners. consisting of a fully branded, pilot, sometimes the key to
ready-to-run social enterprise. scaling might be combining
When does it makes sense? Entrepreneurs might pay a forces with an existing social
Bootstrap scaling can be franchise fee to use your idea enterprise, government
very capital- and resource- and branded materials, and program, or nonprofit.
intensive, but can make would maintain a salesforce
sense if working with local and handle all operations. When does it makes sense?
social entrepreneurs or other Integration works best when
community partners proves When does it makes sense? the best route to scale isn’t
unfeasible. Alternatively, Franchising works well if there necessarily keeping your
bootstraping can make sense are other social entrepreneurs product or service as an
if your idea, when piloted, who are interested in your independent business, or
seems so promising that it can idea and would be in a position when you’ve identified how
potentially be a lucrative and to run their own sales and your design might complement
investor-friendly business. operations. or leverage the offers of
already existing organizations,
+ Pros + Pros products, or services. Perhaps
• Full control over brand and service • Moderate control over brand and a community organization
• A bility to make sweeping changes service
could implement it more
• D oesn’t rely heavily on willingness • Supports local businesses
and abilities of external partners • Less capital-intensive than
effectively at scale as a new
bootstrap scaling program? Or an existing social
- Cons enterprise could add it as a
• Capital-intensive - Cons new product line?
• Large staff to hire and manage • Difficult to maintain quality and
• High risk consistency + Pros
• Slow growth • Relies on willingness and abilities of • High potential for impact
• Potentially in competition with local other social entrepreneurs • Much less capital intensive
partners, instead of collaboration • Supports local businesses or
community organizations

- Cons
• Relies on willingness and abilities of
external partners
• Potential loss of control
• Difficult to maintain quality and
consistency

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Case Study: SmartLife

Designing a Scalable Water and Hygiene Business

In recent years, Nairobi, Kenya has become an exciting hub for technology
and entrepreneurship, with high-speed Internet connectivity linking the
city to a global innovation network. However, Nairobi is not immune to
the challenges that so many developing countries share. In Kenya, only
61 percent of people have access to clean drinking water; 84 percent of
preschool-aged children are vitamin A-deficient; and diarrheal diseases are
among the top 10 causes of morbidity and mortality.

Though numerous organizations are working to combat these crises,

solutions are often siloed, inefficient, and unsustainable. IDEO.org, along
with partners Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), Global
Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Aqua for All, and Unilever, saw an
opportunity to create a social enterprise that would improve access to clean
water, personal care products, and health education.

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The Outcome
IDEATION
After an intensive prototyping period on Half of the team continued conducting
the ground in Nairobi, the team launched interviews and other research, talking to
SmartLife, a scalable retail business and locals about their water and health needs,
brand that offer clean water and health and market value, and seasonal variations. The
hygiene products. SmartLife is now running other half quickly pulled together their
successfully in several sites around the city. prototype business, and with the help of a
translator, they launched a one-day test run.
INSPIRATION
The team had hired a local kiosk vendor
An eight-week sprint of rapid iteration and cart operator to wear branded apparel
and real-time customer feedback, the and sell water in jerry cans that had been
design team hit the ground running on its adorned with Live Well stickers. They sent
trip to Nairobi. The accelerated timeline their translator around as a door-to-door
necessitated a fascinating flip of how we salesperson, selling hygiene products
typically run our design projects. Instead and talking to people about health and
of synthesizing its ideas and developing sanitation. The translator came back with
solutions after a trip to the field, the team key learnings that would help inspire a
leaned on its existing knowledge of the subsequent version of the business. “It was
problems facing Nairobi’s poor and then completely chaotic but fertile with learning
dreamed up a handful of entrepreneurial experience,” recalls project lead Robin Bigio.
ideas that they could get into the hands of After half a day, the team already learned
low-income Kenyans to test. enough to prepare the next rev of Live Well.

In the weeks leading up to the trip, they Among the challenges, they realized water
came up with three business concepts that needed to be ordered ahead to reduce the
they could prototype on the ground. One physical demand of transporting unsold
idea was Live Well, a dummy brand with a cans and to enable optimization of the
logo and brand collateral that could be used delivery route. On the positive side, the
to set up a business prototype on arrival team found that the strong branding
in Kenya. instantly inspired trust. Nobody questioned

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that it was good water and multiple and educational materials. Working at
customer touch points and physical, stable a breakneck pace, the IDEO.org team
sites gave Live Well credibility. delivered a comprehensive design concept
to its partners, along with strategies,
Three days later, the team launched the next brands, and business models.
version of the business in a new location in
town, changing the name from Live Well WSUP, GAIN, Aqua for All, and Unilever
to SmartLife. This time customers actually took all of this information into account
placed orders at a kiosk and made a payment when they launched the SmartLife Pilot, a
for water delivery. “People were willing critical part of the Implementation phase,
to give money up front for service that and a chance to test a solution against real
would come the next day, which is unheard live market forces. Thanks to relentless
of in Kenya,” says Bigio, “We discovered prototyping, rapid iteration, and the
that there was an aspirational side to this integration of customer feedback from the
business. People were excited about having design team, SmartLife’s pilot was a hit and
a great source of drinking water.” led to launch.

When the market testing was complete, the By the time the design team wrapped up
team visited each of the customers who’d their field visits, the versioning process had
paid ahead to explain that the business did led them to a well-defined business plan
not yet exist, but was coming soon. They and, most importantly, had helped them
refunded the down payments and gave out establish trust from the market they would
cans of clean water for their participation. be serving.

Because so much had been sorted out

IMPLEMENTATION during the prototyping phase, SmartLife
was able to use the Pilot to test only a few
Upon returning to San Francisco, the team
high-fidelity versions of the service, all of
worked on revising the brand and business
which had a great shot at working. As with
model to account for logistical factors such
any element of the human-centered design
as how much water could be processed
process though, Pilots still afford crucial
and transported, how much space it would
moments to test, iterate, and learn.
require, pricing strategies, retail design,

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Method in Action: Live Prototyping

Partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation, IDEO.org engaged in a 16-week project to better
understand and identify opportunity for change surrounding the issue of post-harvest food spoilage
in Africa. The team travelled to both Senegal and Kenya to explore the agricultural value chain and
gained a strong understanding of the behaviors of rural, smallholder farmers—ranging from unstable
to transitional to fully stable farmers. When considering opportunities in a real market context, the
design team spent time Live Prototyping business solutions to reduce post-harvest loss.

While building out and testing our concepts from, set up a refrigerator and packaging
in Thiess, Senegal, we were introduced to a operation, and had started to generate a
group of five women. This group had tried profit!
to start a juice operation using fruit that
would otherwise spoil with 35 women last The group chose to do the project in a
year, but it failed for a variety of reasons. small group of five, which allowed them to
manage decisions. They all knew each other
In speaking with them about using market- and had a high level of trust for one another.
based solutions for reducing food spoilage, They carefully monitored the composition
they expressed knowledge of what they had of the juice—last time they used too much
learned from their mistakes the first time sugar so they were not making a profit with
around and an interest to try it again. So each packet sold. Finally, when they were
we decided to test the solution and give the doing the juice in a large group, the profits
group of five women some seed capital to were fed back to the organization, and the
start the project again. individuals were never paid for their efforts.
With the current business, they know they
This time they elected to try a smaller group will profit, so they are giving it their all.
and to run their operation as a business
so they could share the profit. We gave the We have noticed that with farmers, many
women 10,000 CFA (~$20 USD) and we told times when a solution fails, they do not try
them they needed to make all decisions as again. By removing the initial cash outlay
a group. We also asked them to document for these women with just $20, we were able
what the money was used for and keep a to show them that there are multiple ways
journal about what happened. Within four to process their spoiling fruit, and that they
days, the group bought the raw materials could iterate and learn from past mistakes.
they needed, secured a space to sell

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Reflection on the Process

As part of the Class 5 Workshop, you’ll get a chance to reflect as a group on team
dynamics, working styles, and what it was like to collaborate as designers. However, take
some time here in the quiet of your house, apartment, or office, to reflect personally on
what you liked or didn’t like about the human-centered design process and course.

What was it like to work as a design team? What was most inspiring? What was most frustrating?

What were the most successful aspects of the course for you? What were the weakest parts of the course?
How Might We improve the course for next time?

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You likely felt more comfortable during some parts of the human-centered design process than others. This is entirely
normal. Think back over the last four classes. Which areas felt most natural? Where did you struggle? Why? For each
phase in the human-centered design process (Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation) mark where you fall on the axis
between “I struggled” and “I excelled.” Below that, write a few sentences about why.

I struggled I excelled

Inspiration

Why? What was your biggest “aha” moment during this phase?

I struggled I excelled

Ideation: Synthesis

Why? What was your biggest “aha” moment during this phase?

I struggled I excelled

Ideation: Prototyping

Why? What was your biggest “aha” moment during this phase?

I struggled I excelled

Implementation

Why? What was your biggest “aha” moment during this phase?

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