Human centered desing toolkit

HUMAN
CENTERED
DESIGN
TOOLKIT
HUMAN

TOOLKIT
2ND EDITION
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WATER Storage anD transportation, india

INCREASING FARMER INCOMES, CAMBODIA

encouraging technology adoption, kenya

TABLE
OF
Contents
Introduction
Why Do Human-Centered Design? 4
The Three Lenses of Human-Centered Design 6
The HCD Process 8
How to Use this Toolkit 10
BEST PRACTICES FOR Innovation 12
Scenarios of Use 14
Hear
The Hear section will guide you through the process
of preparing for research with constituents using
HCD methodology.
Step 1: Identify a Design Challenge 34
Step 2: Recognize Existing Knowledge 39
Step 3: Identify People to Speak With 40
Step 4: Choose Research Methods 42
Method: Individual Interview 42
Method: Group Interview 44
Method: In-Context Immersion 46
Method: Self-Documentation 50
Method: Community-Driven Discovery 53
Method: Expert Interviews 55
Method: Seek Inspiration in New Places 57
Step 5: Develop an Interview Approach 58
Method: Interview Guide 58
Method: Sacrificial Concepts 60
Method: Interview Techniques 64
Step 6: Develop Your Mindset 66
Mindset: Beginner’s Mind 66
Mindset: Observe vs. Interpret 68
Create
The Create section will help you translate what you
learned in the field into concrete solutions.
Step 1: Develop the Approach 84
Method: Participatory Co-Design 84
Method: Empathic Design 89
Step 2: Share Stories 92
Step 3: Identify Patterns 94
Method: Extract Key Insights 94
Method: Find Themes 98
Method: Create Frameworks 100
Step 4: Create Opportunity Areas 102
Step 5: Brainstorm New Solutions 104
Step 6: Make Ideas Real 106
Step 7: Gather Feedback 108
Deliver
The Deliver section will give you the tools to go
from ideas and prototypes to solutions and plans
that can be implemented. It will also help you create
a learning plan to measure and continue iterating
on your designs.
Step 1: Develop a Sustainable Revenue Model 126
Step 2: Identify Capabilities for Delivering Solutions 131
Step 3: Plan a Pipeline of Solutions 134
Step 4: Create an Implementation Timeline 138
Step 5: Plan Mini-Pilots and Iteration 140
Step 6: Create a Learning Plan 144
Method: Track Indicators 146
Method: Evaluate Outcomes 148
FIELD GUIDE 154
The Field Guide contains worksheets that will help you to
prepare for and conduct field research. The Field Guide and
the Aspirations Cards, are all you will need to take to the
field with you.

AN
INTRO
DUCTI
ON AN
INTROD
Are you
looking
to...
Bring innovation to the base
of the pyramid? Enter a new region?
Adapt a technology to your region?
Understand the needs of constituents
better? Find new methods for
monitoring and evaluation?
1
Introduction
Human Centered Design
H C D

2 H C D 3
Introduction
This
toolkit
was
made for
you.
It contains the elements to Human-Centered Design, a process
used for decades to create new solutions for multi-national
corporations. This process has created ideas such as the
HeartStart defibrillator, CleanWell natural antibacterial products,
and the Blood Donor System for the Red Cross—innovations that
have enhanced the lives of millions of people.
Now Human-Centered Design can help you
enhance the lives of people living on less
than $2/day.
This process has been specially-adapted for organizations
like yours that work with communities in need in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America.
Human-Centered Design (HCD) will help you hear the needs
of constituents in new ways, create innovative solutions to
meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial
sustainability in mind.
Let’s get started.
H C D

We are excited about our ability to continue
replicating the Human-Centered Design process
to create and bring to scale new approaches
to provide eye care in the developing world.
—VISIONSPRING, INDIA
HCD surprised us because even people
who didn’t know a lot about the topic
were able to create so many solutions.
—IDE Vietnam
Why a toolkit?
Because the people are the experts.
They are the ones who know best what the right solutions are.
This kit doesn’t offer solutions. Instead, it offers techniques,
methods, tips, and worksheets to guide you through a process
that gives voice to communities and allows their desires to guide
the creation and implementation of solutions.
Because only you know how to best use it.
Human-Centered Design is a process broken into a set of tools.
This is so that you can pick and choose which techniques
work best for your context and your situation. Use it alone
or along with PRISM, value chain analysis, PRA, triangulation
or other methods you use in your organization to imagine
and implement new ideas.
Why do
Human
Centered
Design?
Because it can help your organization
connect better with the people you
serve. It can transform data into
actionable ideas. It can help you to
see new opportunities. It can help to
increase the speed and effectiveness
of creating new solutions.
H 5
Introduction
C D
Introduction
Why Do HCD?
Why Do HCD?
4 H C D

6 H C D C D
THE THREE LENSES OF
HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
Human-Centered Design (HCD) is a process and a set of techniques used
to create new solutions for the world. Solutions include products, services,
environments, organizations, and modes of interaction.
The reason this process is called “human-centered” is because it starts with the
people we are designing for. The HCD process begins by examining the needs,
dreams, and behaviors of the people we want to affect with our solutions.
We seek to listen to and understand what they want. We call this the Desirability
lens. We view the world through this lens throughout the design process.
Once we have identified a range of what is Desirable, we begin to view our
solutions through the lenses of Feasibility and Viability. We carefully bring
in these lenses during the later phases of the process.
Start Here
The solutions that emerge at the
end of the Human-Centered Design
should hit the overlap of these
three lenses; they need to be
Desirable, Feasible, and Viable.
What do people desire?
What is technically and organizationally feasible?
What can be financially viable?
Desira bilit y
FEASIBILITY
Via bilit y
Desira bilit y
FEASIBILITY Via bilit y
H 7
Introduction
The Three Lenses of
Introduction
The Three Lenses of

8 H C D H C D 9
HEAR
During the Hear phase, your Design Team will collect
stories and inspiration from people. You will prepare for
and conduct field research.
CREATE
In the Create phase, you will work together
in a workshop format to translate what you heard from
people into frameworks, opportunities, solutions, and
prototypes. During this phase you will move together from
concrete to more abstract thinking in identifying themes
and opportunities, and then back to the concrete with
solutions and prototypes.
DELIVER
The Deliver phase will begin to realize your solutions through
rapid revenue and cost modeling, capability assessment,
and implementation planning. This will help you launch new
solutions into the world.
H c D
To recall these phases, simply remember H-C-D.
THE HCD PROCESS
The process of Human-Centered Design starts with a specific Design Challenge and
goes through three main phases: Hear, Create, and Deliver. The process will move
your team from concrete observations about people, to abstract thinking as you
uncover insights and themes, then back to the concrete with tangible solutions.
Abstract
Concrete
Introduction
The HCD Process
Introduction
The HCD Process

A FLEXIBLE TOOLKIT
Using this toolkit on its own will yield great solutions.
However, HCD is also very flexible and can complement
or be supplemented by various other approaches.
Methods such as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA),
Subsector/Value Chain Analysis and Triangulation can
all be incorporated into the HCD methodology provided
here. For example, your Design Challenge may necessitate
knowing about the mapping of village resources. If a team
member is familiar with a PRA method effective for
HOW
gathering this kind of information, it should absolutely
be incorporated into the process.
So be creative and rigorous in choosing and mixing your
methods – the best outcomes might come from the most
TO USE
unexpected combinations! THIS
There is the “facilitator” version of the Toolkit. If you
are the facilitator, use the notes provided to you in the
margins as rough instructions of how to move your team
TIP
TOOLKIT
forward through the innovation process. Please add any
additional instructions, methods, or techniques you feel
would be relevant to your design challenge.
This toolkit will guide you
The facilitator must user his/her power wisely.
The facilitator is a role to lead the team through
through an innovation process
WATCH
the process; this person can certainly contribute to
OUT
the content of the ideas, but should not use his/her
power to sway decisions.
based on HCD methodology.
H C D 11
Introduction
How to Use this Toolkit
Introduction
How to Use this Toolkit
10 H C D

12 H C D H C D 13
BEST
PRACTICES
FOR
Innovation
By completing thousands of innovation
and design challenges, IDEO has
learned a few rules for creating an
environment to facilitate innovation.
See if any of these can be applied to
your organization. TIP
Multi-Disciplinary TeaMS
The challenges you face are very complex and are likely to
have been explored by predecessors. You will have a higher
likelihood of success at solving such complex, difficult, and
already-examined problems by intentionally assembling the
right team of people. This team will work best if it consists of
a core group of 3-8 individuals, one of whom is the facilitator.
By mixing different disciplinary and educational backgrounds,
you will have a better chance of coming up with unexpected
solutions when these people approach problems from
different points of view.
Dedicated Spaces
Having a separate project space allows the team to be
constantly inspired by imagery from the field, immersed
in their post-it notes, and able to track the progress of
the project. If possible, find a dedicated space for your
design team to focus on the challenge.
Finite Timeframes
Many people notice that they work best with deadlines and
concrete timelines. Likewise, an innovation project with a
beginning, middle, and end is more likely to keep the team
motivated and focused on moving forward.
To ensure that there is a balanced gender perspective,
involve female staff in all phases of this process.
Introduction
Best Practices
for Innovation
Introduction
Best Practices
for Innovation

14 C D
H C D 15
Scenario 1:
The Week-Long
Deep Dive
This mode of engagement forces the design team to work
quickly to gather and analyze data, then moves rapidly to
solutions, prototypes and plans. The one-week timeframe
is a familiar timeline that is long enough to gain good
understanding, yet short enough to allow a stressed
organization to put limited resources against a challenge.
This format is good for early-phase learning and for
spurring new thinking.
Use When You:
» Need to learn about a new area or challenge quickly.
» Need to kick-start thinking about a long-standing
intractable problem.
» Want to refresh the thinking of the staff.
Pull Out and Use:
» All sections of the Toolkit in sequence.
Introduction
Scenarios of Use
The following Scenarios of Use help
to outline four possible ways to use
this toolkit for innovation. The first two
scenarios utilize the principle of finite
timeframes to frame the entire challenge,
while the latter two demonstrate how
small sections of the toolkit can be used
to provide motivation, concrete goals,
and a path to getting unstuck in
longer-term programs.
TIP
Know the limitations of your data and your early
prototypes when doing a Week-Long Deep Dive.
If validity is necessary without much time for
research, use secondary data to triangulate your
findings. Build a plan for iterating early prototypes
for future refinement.
SCENARIOS
OF USE
Introduction
Scenarios of Use
H

16 H C D H C D 17
Scenario 2:
The several-month
Deep Dive
A longer Deep Dive can last several weeks to several
months. This mode of use enables a deeper, more nuanced
understanding and theorization of a complex challenge
or problem. With a longer time frame, more locations can
be examined and more stakeholders in the value chain
can become participants in the process.
Use When You:
» Need to design robust solutions because the funds
for implementation are available.
» Have the resources to allocate on thinking through
a multi-faceted challenge.
» Need to engage many actors in the process, such
as partners, value chain stakeholders, funders, etc.
Pull Out and Use:
» All sections of the Toolkit, allowing the nature of the
Challenge to dictate the appropriate timeframes
for each Phase.
TIP
When you have more time for a Deep Dive, it may
be tempting to spend the vast majority of time doing
more research. Pay attention and notice when you
are hitting decreasing returns and stop the research
when you are learning little new information. Remember—
in the early stages, you are doing research to understand
the problem and inspire the team. There will be time
to validate later.
Scenario 3:
activating already-existing
knowledge
Often organizations have a great deal of research and
already-existing information but are unable to translate all
that information into actionable solutions. In this case, the
processes outlined in Create and Deliver can help your team
transform what you know into things you can start doing.
Use When You:
» Have a lot of data and you don’t quite know
what to do with it.
» Have been hearing interesting stories from the field
staff and want to see if those stories can yield new
opportunities or solutions.
» Have a robust research methodology that you
like better than the one in this toolkit.
Pull Out and Use:
» Create
» Deliver
TIP
Even if you have the information captured in a
different form (in Word documents, for example),
take the time to translate that information through
the Story Sharing methods outlined in the first
part of the Create booklet.
Introduction
Scenarios of Use
Introduction
Scenarios of Use

Scenario 4:
complementing EXISTING
long-term activities
Many HCD methods are applicable at different times to
the challenges your organization will face in Technology
Adaptation, Monitoring & Evaluation, etc. We hope that you
will find some of the techniques useful in infusing the spirit
of innovation in your day-to-day activities, even when there
is no explicit Design Challenge at hand. Pick and choose your
methods as you wish to help complement your daily work.
Use When You:
» Want a new technique to add to your work routines.
» See a method in this toolkit that you find applicable
to the daily challenges you face.
» Can’t set aside the resources for an HCD project,
but want to infuse the spirit of Human-Centered Design
in your everyday work.
Pull Out and Use:
» Any pieces of your choosing.
TIP
For example, if you’re working on adapting an existing
technology and have already-existing information about
the context you want to adapt to, use Steps 3, 4, 5,
and 6 in the Create book to guide you through several
iterations of opportunity identification, brainstorming,
prototyping, and user feedback.
On the other hand, if you are looking for help in gathering
data for M&E reporting, use the exercises in the Field
Guide to supplement your current activities.
18 H C D
SCENA
H C D 19
Introduction
Scenarios of Use RIOS
OF
USE
SCENAR

IMPROVING ACCESS TO ECONOMIC RESOURCES, MONGOLIA

ENGAGING COMMUNITIES IN DESIGN, RWANDA

WATER STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION, INDIA

H C D 29
hear:
GOALS
Designing meaningful and innovative solutions that
serve your constituents begins with understanding
their needs, hopes and aspirations for the future.
The Hear booklet will equip the team with methodologies
and tips for engaging people in their own contexts in
order to understand the issues at a deep level.
Goals of this book are to guide:
» Who to talk to
» How to gain empathy
» How to capture stories

H C D 31
hear:
OUTPUTS
At the end of the Hear section, prepare to go to the field
by completing these worksheets from the Field Guide:
Recruiting Plan
Research Schedule
Identity, Power & Politics
Group Interview Guide
Individual Interview Guide
Outputs of the Hear Phase are:
» Peoples’ stories
» Observations of Constituents’ reality
» Deeper understanding of
needs, barriers, & constraints
Great technique for getting
farmers to tell stories.
—IDE zambia

H C D 33
hear:
theory
What will qualitative research
methods do?
Qualitative methods can uncover deeply-held
needs, desires, and aspirations. It is
particularly useful in early-stage research
to test assumptions about the world,
and when we cannot assume that the
researchers already know the entire
universe of possible answers, beliefs,
and ideas of the participants.
Qualitative methods can
help unveil people’s social,
political, economic, and
cultural opportunities and
barriers in their own words.
Qualitative research can also be powerful
for analyzing and mapping the relational
dynamics between people, places, objects,
and institutions. This is possible because
phenomena in the social world tend to be
internally related (that is, they are mutually-dependent
and co-constituted).
By examining the extreme ends of a set of
phenomena in depth, the entire universe
of relationships can be illuminated since
other instances will fall somewhere on the
map of relations and links. Once a set of
relationships are identified, they can be
interrogated using interpretive methods or
further refined for quantitative testing.
What will qualitative research
methods not do?
Qualitative methods will not determine
“average” behaviors/attitudes or answer
questions such as: “Are people in X
region more likely to do this than in
Y region?” This is because qualitative
methods do not cover a sample large
enough to be statistically significant.
Deep understanding,
not broad coverage,
is the strength of
qualitative research.
In later phases of the design process,
quantitative research becomes a good
complement to understand, for example,
the potential adoption of a new solution
or to understand how the effect of
solutions will vary from region to region.
Qualitative research methods enable
the design team to develop deep
empathy for people they are designing
for, to question assumptions, and to
inspire new solutions. At the early stages
of the process, research is generative —
used to inspire imagination and inform
intuition about new opportunities and
ideas. In later phases, these methods
can be evaluative—used to learn quickly
about people’s response to ideas
and proposed solutions.

34 H C D
Hear
Identify A
Design Challenge de
sign
chall
enge
DE
identify a
design challenge
The foundation of HCD is a concise Design Challenge. This challenge will
guide the questions you will ask in the field research and the opportunities and
solutions you will develop later in the process. A Design Challenge is phrased
in a human-centered way with a sense of possibility. For example: “Create savings
and investment products that are appropriate for people living in rural areas.”
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
The Design Challenge can be decided by organizational
leadership or can be developed through a team-based
approach. In either case, begin by identifying challenges
people are facing or springboard off opportunities the
organization is interested in exploring. Narrow this list
down to one specific design challenge.
A good Design Challenge should be:
» Framed in human terms (rather than technology,
product, or service functionality)
» Broad enough to allow you to discover the areas
of unexpected value
» Narrow enough to make the topic manageable
WATCH
OUT
TRY
The challenge you choose may be related to adoption
of new technologies, behaviors, medicines, products,
or services. This might lead to framing a design challenge
that is organization-focused, such as “How can we get
people in villages to adopt savings accounts?” Instead,
to act as a springboard for innovation, the challenge
should be re-framed in a more human-centered way,
such as “How can we create a financial safety net
for people in villages?”
Start the design challenge with an action verb such as
“Create”, “Define”, “Adapt”, etc. Or phrase the challenge
as a question starting with: “How can...?”
H C D 35
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-1.5 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1: Work with
leadership to identify
a list of criteria for the
challenge. (i.e. Does
it need to fit into a
certain timeframe?
Does it need to have
a geographical or
topical focus? Does
it need to fit into
an existing initiative?
Does it need to explore
new opportunities?)
Step 2: With
leadership, the
design team, and/or
constituents, make a
list of the challenges
you are facing.
Step 3: Re-frame
those challenges
from the constituent’s
point of view and
broader context.
Step 4: Vote or select
the top two or three
challenges based on
your criteria.
Step 5: Narrow to one
challenge with input
from key stakeholders.
Step 6: Write a
succinct, one sentence
Design Challenge to
guide the design team.

Case
study
Team-based design
challenge definition
In Ethiopia, IDE defined the design challenge through a series of different
steps. First a small core team – the country director and IDE corporate
staff — determined a set of criteria and short list of important challenges.
Armed with this information, the country director and design team
developed a set of criteria for the design challenge. This criteria was:
» Limited enough to complete the challenge in 3-4 days
» Focused on farmer needs
» Broad enough to discover what is desirable to farmers
Next, the team listed all the challenges they wanted to pursue.
The country director then gave the team some information about the
conversation among the core team which helped to focus the choices.
Referring back to the criteria the team developed, the challenges were
narrowed through a democratic vote. The top three were:
» What can we offer farmers who don’t have enough rainwater access?
» What are the best ways to communicate IDE offerings to farmers?
» What makes farmers say yes?
The team discussed the possibilities and decided that the second and
third were actually closely related. So the team re-phrased the Design
Challenge to become: “Define the appropriate approach for reaching
a larger number of smallholder farmers with IDE offerings.”
After more discussion and a final vote, this challenge was selected.
H C D

H C D 39
Hear
Recognize Existing
Knowledge RECOG
NIZE
KNOW
LEDGE
RECOG
Recognize Existing
Knowledge
Chances are good that you already have some knowledge about the topic.
Conducting a “What Do We Know?” session helps call forth existing knowledge
related to the Design Challenge. Once documented, you can freely focus on
discovering what you don’t yet know.
TRY
First, on Post-Its, write down what you already know
about the Design Challenge, including:
» What people need or want
» What technologies can help in this challenge
» What solutions or ideas are being tried in other areas
» Any early hypotheses about how to solve the
Design Challenge
Are there any contradictions or tensions that emerge?
Where is the team’s knowledge the strongest: on the
needs of people, on the technological possibilities, or in
how to implement ideas?
Next, write down what you don’t know but need to learn
about the area of investigation, such as:
» What constituents do, think, or feel
» How people value offerings
» What constituents’ future needs may be
» Challenges to implementation of ideas
Where are the biggest needs for research?
How should the recruiting strategy be tailored?
Which categories might structure the discussion guide?
38 H C D
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Post the design
challenge so that the
team can see it.
Step 2: Hand out
post-it notes to the
design team, and ask
them to write what
they already know
about the topic.
Have one piece of
information per
post-it note.
Step 3: Ask each
person to read their
notes, and post them
under the design
challenge. Ask
others to disagree
or challenge any
of the assumptions
that come out.
Step 4: Ask the team
to write down on
post-it notes what
they don’t know
about the challenge
and read their notes.
Post these notes in
a different area.
Step 5: Group the
post-it notes into
themes to help the
team develop research
methods, a recruiting
plan, and the
interview guide.

40 H C D H C D
Hear
Identify People
to Speak With
Hear
Identify People
to Speak With
41
TIP
#2
identify people
to speak with
Recruiting appropriate and inspirational participants is critical. Attention to gender,
ethnicity, and class balance is crucial for research.
For research meant to inspire new opportunities, it is useful to find people who
represent “extremes.” Extreme participants help to unearth unarticulated behaviors,
desires, and needs of the rest of the population, but are easier to observe and
identify because they feel the effects more powerfully than others. By including
both ends of your spectrum as well as some people in the middle, the full range
of behaviors, beliefs, and perspectives will be heard even with a small number of
participants. Including this full range will be important in the later phases, especially
in constructing good frameworks and providing inspiration for brainstorming.
Refer to the Field Guide to help
guide your recruiting.
GENDER
WATCH
OUT
Some communities may be resistant to male NGO staff
interviewing women. Make sure female staff help recruit
& interview women.
One-third of participants might be “ideal constituents”:
those who are successful, adopt new technologies
quickly, and/or exhibit desirable behaviors.
One-third of participants should be on the opposite
extreme: those who are very poor, resistant to new
technologies, and/or exhibit problematic behaviors.
One-third of participants should be somewhere in
between: those who the researchers believe represent
more “average” people.
Group sessions are a great springboard to identify
participants for the individual interviews. However,
communities often want to showcase only the
most successful constituents or male community
members to NGOs.
To satisfy the economic spectrum from the more
well off to the very poor, you might ask:
» “Can you introduce me to a family who cannot
afford to send their children to school?”
» “Who has not been able to afford maintenance
or repairs to their home?”
» “Who has experienced a recent setback
(medical problems, bad harvest, etc)?”
TIP
#1
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Develop
the spectrum along
which to recruit.
Generate several
options (i.e. High
income to low income,
early adopter to risk
averse, large landholder
to landless). Individually
or collectively narrow
to one or two relevant
spectrums to make sure
“extremes” are covered
in the research.
Step 2: Identify the
relevant locations to
recruit participants.
Ask stakeholders to
list good areas for this
research. Pick 2-5 field
sites that vary from one
another (i.e. a dry and
a wet site or a site in a
central district and one
more remote).
Step 3: Select
appropriate community
contacts to help
arrange community
meetings and individual
interviews. Make sure
community contacts
include men & women.

42 H C D
Hear
Choose Research Methods
Method: Individual Interview
choose research methods
Design research is useful to not only understand individuals but also
frame individual behaviors in the context and community that surrounds
them. Therefore, it will be important to employ many methods of research.
In addition to the methods described in this book, secondary sources
and quantitative data can be supplemented to understand income or
asset variances across different regions. Five methods described here are:
» Individual Interview
» Group Interview
» In Context Immersion
» Self-Documentation
» Community-Driven Discovery
» Expert Interviews
» Seeking Inspiration in New Places
method:
individual interview
Individual interviews are critical to most design research,
since they enable a deep and rich view into the behaviors,
reasoning, and lives of people. If possible, arrange to
meet the participant at his/her home or workplace, so you
can see them in context. In-context interviews give the
participant greater ease and allow you to see the objects,
spaces, and people that they talk about during the interview.
WATCH
OUT
If there are many people on the research team, no more
than three people should attend any single interview
so as to not overwhelm the participant and/or create
difficulty in accommodating a large group inside the
participant’s home.
The interview should be conducted without an audience,
since the presence of neighbors, friends, or others can
sway what the person says or what they are able to
reveal. Privacy can often be difficult to create, however.
One tactic to accomplish privacy is to have one person
on the research team pull the audience aside and engage
them in a parallel conversation in a place where the
primary interview cannot be heard.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
Assign the following roles so that each person
has a clear purpose visible to the participant:
» one person to lead the interview
» a note taker
» a photographer
Refer to Step 5: Develop an Interview Approach to
create a set of questions for your individual interviews.
H C D 43
Facilitator Notes
Time:
60-90 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: After your
team has written
the Interview
Guide (see Field
Guide), practice the
individual interview
by partnering in
teams of two. One
person plays the
role of the interviewer
and the other the
interviewee. Ask the
teams to go through
a “practice interview”
with their partner.
what they learned
through this exercise.
Are there any topics
or questions that
are missing?

44 H C D
Hear
Method: Group Interview
method:
group interview
Group-based interviews can be a valuable way to learn
about a community quickly. Group interviews can be
good for learning about community life and dynamics,
understanding general community issues, and giving
everyone in a community the chance to voice their views.
Group interviews are not good for gaining a deep
understanding of individual income streams, uncovering
what people really think, or understanding how to change
commonly-held beliefs or behaviors.
TIP
#1
Guidelines for group meetings:
Size: 7-10 people from diverse economic backgrounds
Place: Meet on neutral ground in a shared community
space that all people have access to (regardless of age,
gender, status, race).
Gender: Mixed or same-sex groups depending on
the customs in that community (if men and women
should meet separately, two facilitators can run the
groups in parallel).
Age: Mixed groups of parents and teens/children,
depending on the topic and local context.
TIP
#2
NGOs can sometimes unintentionally send a message
of separateness by wearing branded NGO clothing
and creating spatial distance between themselves
and the participants. It’s important to lessen these
barriers and to disrupt common hierarchical perceptions
of benefactor/researcher and recipient/participant.
Here are some tips:
» Sit at the same height level as the participants
» If there is more than one researcher, don’t sit
together; stagger yourselves throughout the group
» Try not to wear organization-branded clothing that
signifies your status as benefactor or researcher
» Emulate the same status of clothing as participants
(note: this does not mean wearing the “traditional
dress” of the constituent community if this is not
your own heritage)
Refer to Step 5 : Develop an Interview Approach
to identify questions for the group.
Are the viewpoints of men and women equally
valued in this community? If not, it may make sense
to have two meetings, one with women only and one
with men only.
Are political heavyweights (such as chiefs, local
administrators, etc) present? If so, their opinions
may hamper the ability of others to speak freely.
Does the community view you as a source of funds,
gifts, or charity? If so, their interactions may be
influenced by the desire to access potential benefits;
it may be helpful to prepare an introduction that
makes the purpose of the interview clear and state
that nothing will be given away.
H C D
WATCH
OUT
45
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1.5-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1: After the team
develops a Group
Interview Guide
(see Step 4), have
the team partner in
groups of two for a
practice interview. Ask
the interviewers to
develop an approach
for including women
and quieter members
of the group. Ask
them also to develop
strategies for asking
people who may
be dominating
the conversation
to allow other
people to answer.
Step 2: Have the team
share “best practices”
for including quieter
members of the group
and redirecting the
conversation away
from people who
are dominating
the conversation.

46 H C D IN
CON
TEXT
immer
sion
Hear
Method: In-context Immersion
method:
in context immersion
Meeting people where they live, work, and socialize and
immersing yourself in their context reveals new insights
and unexpected opportunities.
Human-Centered Design works best when the designers
understand the people they are designing for not just on an
intellectual level, but also on an experiential level. Try to do
what your constituents do and talk to them about their
experience of life in the moment.
GENDER
On a project in rural India, people said that cultural
tradition prevented women from touching men who
are not immediate family members. However, by
spending several days in a village, the team observed
that there were many instances in which trained or
uniformed women doing specific jobs were able to
touch men without any serious problems. These gaps
between what people say and what they do are not bad.
In fact, seeing these differences may highlight new
opportunities; for example, designing a new medical
service that could be provided by uniformed women.
TRY
#1
TRY
#2
Work Alongside
Spend a few hours to a few days working with someone.
By experiencing the business and activity firsthand, you
may gain better understanding of their needs, barriers,
and constraints.
Family Homestay
Ask a family to host 1-2 team members for a few nights
in their home. Staying for a few nights allows the family
to gain comfort and act naturally. After the second night,
very few people can maintain a “show” for guests, and
the understanding and empathy the team will gain will
increase the longer you stay in one place.
What people say (and think) they do and what they
actually do are not always the same thing.
With no intent to mislead you, people often have strong
beliefs about what they do on a daily basis that differs
from what they actually do. The goal is not to correct or
point out the misperception, but rather to understand
the difference.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
TIP
#3
Putting yourself in someone’s shoes enables
you to get beyond what people say to what
they think and feel.
Being in-context means gaining true empathy through
being with people in their real settings and doing the
things they normally do. This kind of deep immersion
gives us Informed Intuition that we take back with us
to design solutions. We begin to take on the perspective
of the interview participant which enables us to make
design decisions with their perspective in mind.
Of course, we always go back into the field and get
feedback from the source to see if our Informed
Intuition led us to the right choices, and how we
can improve them.
Deep immersion shows commitment and staying power.
For example, working with a person for a day in his or her
field, living with a family for a few days or helping them
bring their products to market are ways of showing your
deep interest in the day-to-day lives of your participants.
Trust is built over time and people feel at ease sharing
their plans and hopes for the future. Many NGOs gain
this depth of connection over many months of relationship
building. Some techniques like the overnight stay described
in the case study on the next page can accelerate this
trust building.
H C D 47
Facilitator Notes
Time:
2-4 Days
Difficulty:
Step 1: To plan a
homestay, identify
people willing to
host a researcher for
one-to-three nights
in their home.
Depending on local
customs, level of
safety, and language
barriers, team
members can stay in
homes individually or
partner up in groups
of two to three people.
Step 2: Make sure the
team understands
that the goal of this
exercise is to see
how participants live
day-to-day. Advise
your team not to
bring elaborate gifts,
food, or alcohol to
the homestay.
However, a small
gift of ordinary
household supplies
or help with normal
family expenses is
perfectly fine.
Step 3: Tell team
members to
participate with
the family in their
normal routines.
Ask the team to
spend time with
and talk to the men,
women, and children
in the household. It’s
important to see
how the household
works from all these
different perspectives.

Case
study
overnight
stay in the field
On a project to increase small holder farmer income for IDE
Ethiopia, the design team stayed overnight in Arsi Negelle,
Ethiopia, where they plowed the family’s fields the next morning.
The overnight enabled the team to get beyond the common
stories people tell to NGOs and learn about one farmer’s most
intimate plans for the future.
They visited a farmer named Roba the first evening and
once again the next day.
When they first met Roba, he portrayed an overall sense of
hopelessness. He described things that happened TO him, in
particular the government’s recent land redistribution. Some
farmers received land in the irrigated area near the lake.
Some did not. He was in the latter group.
The next day, he was shocked to discover that the team was
still there. His demeanor had changed completely. He knew
the team was committed. This time, he shared that in fact he
did have a plan for pulling his family out of poverty. If he could
secure a $200 USD loan, he would first buy an ox so he wouldn’t
have to trade two days of his own labor to borrow a neighbor’s.
Then he’d rent a piece of land in the irrigated territory and
purchase improved seed. He no longer viewed the team as a
wealthy NGO who was there to provide a free gift, but rather
a partner in how he could take command of his own future.
H C D

50 H C D
Hear
Method: Self-documentation
method:
Self-Documentation
Self-Documentation is a powerful method for observing
processes over a long period of time, or for understanding
the nuances of community life when the researcher can’t be
there. Records of experiences, such as journal entries, allow
the team to see how participants see their life, community,
and relationships.
GENDER
Be sensitive to who has access to what in a community.
It is important to recruit both men and women in this
exercise to have a balance of perspectives. Also be
sensitive to class, age, and other factors that will affect
the information people are able to collect and record.
TRY
Recruit several people and give them cameras, video
cameras, voice recorders or journals, with instructions.
Ask them to document their experiences over a few
days or weeks. Give participants instructions designed
to guide them on how to easily record activities that
will yield relevant information to the research project.
The easier it is to self-document, the more likely it is
that participants will complete the exercise.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
Often teenagers and young people are good participants
in self-documentary exercises. Young people tend to
want to express themselves in new ways, and can find
the process of documenting their lives and the
community less intimidating than older adults.
You may find that your participants need a little help
practicing the techniques for self-documentation. If this is
the case, show some examples of how other people have
done self-documentation, or spend a few hours with the
participant to show them how to capture information.
H C D 51
Facilitator Notes
Time:
2-30 Days
Difficulty:
Step 1: Decide what
you would like people
to document -- their
feelings, activities,
family life, income,
or behaviors. Based
on this, decide what
the best mode for
collection of the
information might be:
photographs, diaries,
voice recordings, etc.
Step 2: Give
participants the tools
and instructions to
document themselves
for several days.
Step 3: When
you return to the
participants, review
the materials together.
Remember to ask
them not just what the
things are that they
documented, but also
why they chose these
details and how they
felt about the items.

H C D H C D 53
Hear
Method: Community-driven
Discovery
method:
Community-Driven
Discovery
In most cases, the real experts on a certain topic and those
with the most insight for the Design Challenge are the people
in the community or end customers. Consider recruiting
members of the community to be the primary researchers,
translators, designers and/or key informants for the project.
Community members with strong relationships, respected
leaders, or people with a reputation for intelligence and
fairness are often good people to identify as research
partners. By asking people in the community to lead the
research, the other participants may be able to express
their concerns more openly and honestly. In addition,
through their intimate knowledge of the community, these
research partners can help interpret the hidden meaning
and motivations behind the statements of other participants.
TRY
Find people in the community who are particularly
innovative or who have been doing things out of the
ordinary in order to achieve success. How might you
partner with these individuals to inspire new solutions?
What can be learned by leveraging their innovations
and knowledge?
WATCH
OUT
Community politics can sometimes transform a research
project into a community battle for access to the resources
of the researcher and/or NGO. Even when these resources
are not real, the perception of favoritism can be damaging.
Before starting a project utilizing community-driven
discovery, it is important to understand the relevant
dynamics and power relationships.
52
Facilitator Notes
Time:
2-4 Days
Difficulty:
Step 1: Identify a
few people in the
community that will be
good members to have
on the design team.
Try to ensure that
these individuals are
trusted and respected
members of the
community, that they
are fair and unbiased,
and have no personal
stake in the results of
the design solutions.
Step 2: Decide how
you will compensate
these individuals.
Sometimes it will be
appropriate to pay
them a salary based on
what other members
of the design team are
getting paid, while in
other situations, non-monetary
gifts are
more appropriate.
If you are uncertain,
seek advice.
Step 3: Integrate these
design team members
at every point in the
project, valuing their
knowledge of the
community dynamics
and needs.

H C D 55
Hear
Method: Expert Interviews EXPERT
RT INT
TER
VIEW
EXPER
method:
Expert Interviews
Experts can be called upon to provide in-depth and technical
information. Reaching out to experts is particularly useful
in cases where the team needs to learn a large amount of
information in a short period of time, and/or where others
have already done a lot of research on a topic.
Some examples of good times to call upon expert
interviews are:
» To learn about the history of a particular community
or topic
» To understand the regulations that might affect
design and implementation of solutions
» To gather information about new technologies that
have been recently invented or that are on the horizon
WATCH
OUT
Expert interviews are not a substitute for primary
research with participants and communities. Often
experts overstate their expertise or develop their
own assumptions and biases that can stifle innovation.
Remember that the real experts are the people
you’re designing for. Don’t ask experts for solutions
or take their ideas as the final solution.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
If possible, interview experts with different points
of view on a topic in order to balance out biases.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1.5-3 hours
Difficulty:
Step 1: Identify the
areas or topics that
you would like to talk
to experts about.
Step 2: Find and
recruit these experts
by telling them about
your project and the
intended length of
time you will speak
with them. Try to
speak with people
who have different
opinions on the topics
to challenge the team
to think in new ways.
Step 3: Return to
some of these experts
during the Feedback
portion of the project
-- experts can be even
more helpful when
there is something
tangible for them to
respond to.
54 H C D

56 H C D
H C D 57
Hear
Method: Seek Inspiration
in New Places
MeTHOD:
Seek Inspiration
in New Places
One of the best ways to inspire new ideas is to look at
similar experiences in other contexts, instead of focusing
too narrowly on the research topic. The simple act of
looking at different contexts can bring to mind new insights.
For example a surgeon can get insights about organizing
their medical supplies by visiting a hardware store, an airline
employer might get ideas about check-in by observing a
hotel front desk or a water-jug creator could observe other
ways individuals transport heavy objects or liquids.
TRY
#1
TRY
#2
To identify inspirational settings, list all the distinct
activities or emotions that make up the experience
you are researching. For example, a doctor’s visit might
include the following activities and feelings: getting
sick, discussing a doctor visit with family, travel, paying,
and following doctor instructions such as taking
medication or changing behavior. Find other situations
that include some or all of these activities and then go
and observe them.
This method is most useful when you have already
done some research, and need to refresh your thinking.
56 Facilitator Notes
Time:
20-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Think about
all the activities,
feelings, and behaviors
that make up the
experience of your
challenge. Ask
the team to list
these together.
Step 2: Next to each
activity, feeling, or
behavior, write down
a few other areas or
situations where this
exists. For example,
if the activity is “use
a device at the same
time every day”, other
situations might be
how people use
alarm clocks, wells,
or mobile phones.
vote on the situations
that they would like to
observe for inspiration
and arrange for an
observation.
Step 4: During the
observation, have the
team take pictures
and notes of the
experience. Together,
debrief on what this
experience was like
and what they can
apply to the
design challenge.

58 H C D
Hear
Develop an
Interview Approach
Method: Interview Guide
Develop an interview approach
Interviewing is an art that balances the dual needs of getting relevant
information from the customer and engaging with them as a curious and
empathetic friend. Intentionally developing your strategy for interviewing is
key to managing this balance. Here we include three interview methods that
may help you to develop the interview approach right for you:
» Interview Guide
» Sacrificial Concepts
» Interview Techniques
method:
interview guide
The semi-structured interview is a key method of enabling
dialogue and deep engagement with participants while
retaining focus on a particular topic. Thoughtful structuring of
the interview questions will take the participant on a mental
journey from the specific to the aspirational to the tangible.
TIP
#1
OPEN SPECIFIC
Warm up the participant with questions they are
comfortable with.
1. Household demographics
2. Who does what in the household?
3. Stories of recent past
GO BROAD
Prompt bigger, even aspirational, thinking that
they may not be accustomed to on a daily basis.
4. Aspirations for the future
5. System-based questions
PROBE DEEP
Dig deeper on the challenge at hand & prompt
with ‘what if’ scenarios.
6. Income sources
7. Questions specific to innovation challenge
8. Sacrificial Concepts
TRY
#1
TRY
#2
TRY
#3
Begin by brainstorming the topical areas you’d
like to cover during the interviews, like
» sources of livelihood
» sources of information
» financing models
Use post-its to capture questions that respond
to these topics. For ‘sources of information,’
one might ask:
» When you have a setback in your life,
who do you go to for advice?
» Have you heard about new ways of doing things in
the past year? How have you heard about them?
Move the post-its around to sort the questions
into a logical flow based on the sequencing of
START SPECIFIC, GO BROAD then PROBE DEEP.
Create your own in your Interview Guide at the back
of your Field Guide based on the example on the
opposite page.
H C D 59
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1: Generate a list
of topics related to
your design challenge
to cover in field
research.
Step 2: Sort the topics
based on what are the
main categories and
sub-categories.
Step 3: Identify if
any topics are
specific to male or
female activities.
Step 4: Break into
groups of two. Take
each main category
and assign a group
to generate a list of
questions to ask in
the field based on
the topics listed in
the main category.
Step 5: Have each
group present their
questions to the larger
team and add any
additional questions
that may be missing.

60 H C D
Hear
Develop an
Interview Approach
Method: Sacrificial Concepts SA
CRI
FICIAL
con
cepts
method:
sacrificial concepts
Scenario-based questions or Sacrificial Concepts can help
make hypothetical or abstract questions more accessible.
A sacrificial concept is an idea or solution created to help
understand the issue further. It is a concept that doesn’t
have to be feasible, viable, or possible since its only purpose
is deeper understanding. A good sacrificial concept
sparks a conversation, prompts a participant to be more
specific in their stories, and helps check and challenge your
assumptions.
TRY
#1
Make a question less abstract by creating
a Sacrificial Concept:
Instead of asking: “How much would you pay to
reduce the risk of purchasing new technology?”
Describe two scenarios for the participant to
choose from: “If you had a choice between two new
technologies that could improve your farm output.
The first technology costs 1,000 and comes with no
guarantee. The second costs 1,500 and comes with
a guarantee that by the second harvest, your farm
output will double or else we will come back, take
the technology away, and give you back your 1,500.
Which option would you prefer?” Discuss why.
TIP
Abstract concepts difficult to answer for many
people include:
» Questions about risk, insurance, and guarantees
» Questions about trade-offs
» Questions about return on investment
» Questions about future behavior TRY
#2
TRY
#3
TRY
#4
Ask a person to compare your concept to the way they
currently do things. You might also create two concepts
that contrast with each other or are opposites. People
have an easier time reacting to concepts if they have
something to compare it to.
A sacrificial concept might be a scenario told verbally
or shown in pictures or drawings. It might be an object
that the person can handle. It might be an experience
that a participant can try.
Look at your design challenge and your big
questions. What topics do you want to explore
deeply? Create a sacrificial concept to help you
prompt the right conversation.
H C D 61
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Based on
your Design Challenge,
identify an abstract
question you would
like to know the
answer to. Pose the
abstract question to
your partner, and
note the response.
Step 2: Now turn the
abstract question into
a concrete scenario
with two options.
Pose your scenario-based
question
to your partner.
Step 3: Now change
a few of the variables
in your scenario
and pose the
question again.
What kinds of
information did
you learn from
the different ways
of questioning?

Case
study
Mock Shops
in Rural Ghana
For a project on developing consumer goods franchises in Ghana,
the IDEO team set up a Mock Shop in villages in order to understand
how people make purchase decisions. The mock shop featured
personal-care products from local and international brands at a range
of price points.
In the shop, the team was able to observe people’s decision-making
processes in action. They saw how long a person stayed, observed
the browsing process, heard common questions, and saw customers’
processes for accessing the money needed to make a purchase.
After a participant looked through the shop and decided what to buy
(or not to buy anything), the team asked follow-up questions about
their decision. Why had they chosen to buy an item or not when
looking at a product? What were they considering when looking
at product X or Y? What was the key to deciding it was the right
product? Who were they buying it for? What questions did they have
about familiar products or brands compared to unfamiliar ones?
Having a real shop taught the team how people felt, thought and
acted when making purchase decisions. It also helped the constituents
explain something abstract — purchase decisions — using a concrete,
recent example —
shopping at the Mock Shop.
H C D

64 H C D H C D 65
Hear
Develop an Interview Approach
Method: Interview Techniques
Hear
Develop an Interview Approach
Method: Interview Techniques
method:
interview techniques
Through telling stories, human beings reveal important issues
and opportunities in their daily experiences. Often, what
people say they do and what they actually do are not the
same thing. So it’s important not just to rely on asking straight
forward questions in an interview. Here are a few techniques for
collecting rich stories in an interview.
sho w me
If you are in the interviewee’s environment, ask him/her to show you
the things they interact with (objects, spaces, tools, etc). Capture
pictures and notes to jog your memory later. Or have them walk you
through the process.
dra w it
Ask participants to visualize their experience through drawings and
diagrams. This can be a good way to debunk assumptions and reveal
how people conceive of and order their activities.
5 w hy’s
Ask “Why?” questions in response to five consecutive answers. This
forces people to examine and express the underlying reasons for
their behavior and attitudes.
think aloud
As they perform a process or execute a specific task, ask participants
to describe aloud what they are thinking. This helps uncover users’
motivations, concerns, perceptions, and reasoning.
TRY
DISCUSS
Begin with a simple example, like how someone uses a
mobile phone. Partner up and ask your partner to begin
with a SHOW ME of how they entered the last contact
into their address book. Next move on to the FIVE WHYS
technique with your partner. Ask them to tell you about
the last contact they entered into their address book and
then five consecutive Why? questions.
Compare and contrast the type of information you
get from the different techniques. Let this inform your
questioning techniques in the field.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
20-40 mins.
Difficulty:
practice by partnering in
groups of two. At least
one person (Person A)
in each team should
have a mobile phone
with them.
Step 2: Ask Person A
to simply explain to
their partner (Person B)
how they enter a new
contact into the phone.
Step 3: Have Person B
use the Show Me
technique with Person A.
Step 4: Have Person B
use the Five Whys
technique with Person A.
to come back together
and ask, “What kind of
information did you get
from using Five Whys?”
Then ask, “What kind of
information did you get
from using Show Me?”

66 H C D
Hear
Develop Your Mindset
6
develop your mindset
The exercises listed under this step are valuable to put you in the right
frame of mind for research. It is often difficult, but very important, for
experts
and professionals to put aside what they know when they conduct research.
Keeping an open mind takes practice. The three exercises here can provide
you with this practice before you go into the field:
» Beginner’s Mind
» Observe vs. Interpret
mindset:
beginner’s mind
Beginner’s Mind is critical when entering a familiar
environment without carrying assumptions with you that
are based on prior experience. This is often very hard to
do since we interpret the world based on our experience
and what we think we know. This lens of personal experience
can influence what we focus on and can make us unable to
see important issues.
WATCH
OUT
Remind yourself frequently of the need to approach your
Design Challenge with Beginner’s Mind, especially when
you are in the field conducting research.
TRY
Here is one exercise to learn how to see the world
through the eyes of a Beginner. Look at the photo on
the opposite page and answer the following questions:
» What stands out to you? What is happening?
» What personal experience did you draw on
when you looked at the picture?
» How could you look at the photo as a Beginner,
without making assumptions about what is happening?
» What questions would you ask if you knew
nothing about the context or activity of the
people in the photo?
Facilitator Notes
Time:
20-40 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Ask the
design team to look
at the photo and
identify what stands
out to them. Note
when people explain
behaviors based on
personal assumptions
(i.e. “The man in the
white lab coat seems
to be the manager”).
Step 2: Ask what past
experience led to this
explanation.
Step 3: Use ‘opposite
logic’ to question
the assumption the
person has made
(i.e. “Wouldn’t those
wearing lab coats
need to be most
sterile and therefore
working closest with
the machinery, not
supervising?)
Step 4: Ask how the
interpretation would
change if a new piece
of information were
introduced (i.e. “What
if I were to tell you that
in this place white is
the color that servants
wear? How would
you view this scene
differently?”).
Step 5: Ask the design
team what they have
learned from this
exercise.
Step 6: Stress the
importance of going
into research with a
“Beginner’s Mind” and
asking questions that
you think you might
already know the
answers to, because
you may be surprised
by the answers.

68 H C D
Hear
Develop your Mindset
Mindset: Observe vs. Interpret
mindset:
observe vs. interpret
Building empathy for the people you serve means
understanding their behavior and what motivates them.
Understanding behavior enables us to identify physical,
cognitive, social and/or cultural needs that we can meet
through the products, services and experiences we create.
This exercise helps us differentiate between observation
and interpretation of what we see, revealing our biases and
lenses through which we view the world.
TRY
Use the photo on the opposite page to practice making
the distinction between observations and interpretations.
6
What do you see ha ppening in this image ?
Describe only what you see, don’t interpret yet.
What is the reason for this b eha vior ?
List five different possible interpretations that might explain
this person’s behavior.
How would you find out the real ans wer ?
List five questions you could ask her to determine
which interpretation is correct.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
20-40 mins.
Difficulty:
“What do you see
happening in this
image?” Listen for
responses that have
built-in interpretations
and remind people to
describe only what
they see at this point.
Step 2: Ask “What
might be the reason
for this behavior?”
and have the
team generate at
least five different
interpretations about
why this might be
happening.
If people are stuck,
throw out an idea
like : “This person is
displaying her clothes
to her neighbors as
a sign of wealth by
hanging them in a
public space.”
Step 3: Ask “What
questions would you
ask to find out the real
answer?” and make a
list of the questions
that would help your
team discover the
right interpretation
for an observation.

70 H C D 71
Introduction
Introduction
H C D
CREATE

increasing farmer income, cambodia

appropriate hearing aid protocols, india

H C D 79
CREATE:
GOALS
To move from research to real-world solutions, you will
go through a process of synthesis and interpretation.
This requires a mode of narrowing and culling information
and translating insights about the reality of today into a set
of opportunities for the future. This is the most abstract
part of the process, when the concrete needs of individuals
are transformed into high-level insights about the larger
population and system frameworks that the team creates.
With defined opportunities, the team will shift into a
generative mindset to brainstorm hundreds of solutions
and rapidly make a few of them tangible through
prototyping. During this phase, solutions are created
with only the customer Desirability filter in mind.
Goals of the Create Phase are:
» Making sense of data
» Identifying patterns
» Defining opportunities
» Creating solutions

H C D 81
CREATE:
OUTPUTS
Using both left-brain (logical) thinking and right-brain (creative)
thinking, this phase will translate your research into a set of
strategic directions and tangible solutions.
At the end of the Create phase, the team will have
generated the following:
» Opportunities
» Solutions
» Prototypes
A new way to go beyond
analysis, a way to create new
solutions based on the voice
of the customer.
—IDE vietnam

H C D 83
CREATE:
THEORY
Synthesis is the act of making
sense of what we’ve seen and
heard during the observations.
Synthesis takes us
from inspiration to ideas,
from stories to strategic
directions.
By aggregating, editing and
condensing what we’ve learned,
synthesis enables us to establish
a new perspective and identify
opportunities for innovation.
Brainstorming with rules like
Defer Judgment and Build on
the Ideas of Others is a proven
method for coming up with
unexpected innovations.
Brainstorming makes us
think expansively and
without constraints.
The practice of generating truly
impractical solutions often sparks
ideas that are relevant and reasonable.
It may require generating 100 ideas
(many of which are mediocre)
in order to come up with three truly
inspirational solutions.
Prototyping is a methodology
for making solutions tangible in
a rapid and low-investment way.
It’s a proven technique for quickly
learning how to design an offering
right and for accelerating the process
of rolling out solutions to the world.
Prototyping is about
building to think,
acknowledging that the
process of making ideas
real and tangible helps us
to refine and iterate the
ideas very quickly.
Creating many different prototypes
that highlight different aspects of your
product or service not only enables
people to give honest feedback, but
also prevents the team from getting
attached to an idea prematurely.
Feedback is critical to the design
process. It brings the constituents
directly back into the design process.
Feedback inspires further
iterations to make
solutions more compelling
for constituents.
There are four key activities in the
Create phase: synthesis, brainstorming,
prototyping, and feedback.

84 H C D DEVE
LOP
APPR
OAH
DEVE
Create
Develop the Approach
Creation is about developing deeper understanding and translating that
understanding into new innovations. There are many ways to do this,
but the two most common are participatory approaches and empathic
approaches. Use one or both of these approaches, develop your own, or
draw upon different techniques when appropriate.
method:
Participatory Co-Design
Having the team co-design solutions with people from the
community and local value chain actors can be a great way
to leverage local knowledge. It can also lead to innovations
that may be better adapted to the context and be more likely
to be adopted, since local people have invested resources in
their creation.
Consider using participatory co-design when:
» you need a lot of local expertise and knowledge
» solutions from the “outside” will not be easily adopted
» the politics of a community require it
TRY
#1
Facilitate a co-design workshop. Bring 8-20 people
from the community together to design solutions to
a challenge. Introduce the challenge by telling a few
stories of problems that led to the design challenge.
Then generalize those stories to How Might We?
statements. Ask people to add their own stories
or How Might We? questions. Brainstorm solutions
with the participants and make sure you have the
appropriate materials on hand to prototype.
TRY
#2
TRY
#3
Co-design over a longer period of time through an
in-context immersion. By living with a family over a
few days or weeks, you will have the opportunity to
ask people to informally identify problems and work
together with them in their home, farm, or community.
This approach is also very good for spotting new
problems and developing solutions to those problems
in the moment they happen.
Find local experts and best practices. Ask different
community members about the people who are
considered to be successful. Schedule time with
these people and leverage their knowledge to
develop solutions together with them.
GENDER
Make sure to include women in the design team and
female community members in the co-design. If living
with a family, spend time equally with the husband, wife,
extended family, and even the children. When hosting
a co-design session, think about whether to have
mixed-gender groups, or to have separate groups of
men and women. When looking for local experts and
best practices, ask who is considered an expert of both
men and women, as well as less powerful groups.
H C D 85
Facilitator Notes
Time:
Days-Weeks.
Difficulty:
Step 1. Identify
constituents who
would be good design
team members. The
criteria will vary
from place to place
and from challenge
to challenge. For
example, do you
need people who are
successful, respected,
and/or politically
powerful? Or would it
be more valuable to
have people who are
typical community
members? Or perhaps
a mix of the two.
Step 2. Schedule a
co-design session or
series of sessions that
works for everyone,
and explain the
process and goals of
the session in advance.
Step 3. Conduct
co-design sessions
with attentions to
the needs, goals,
and priorities of
the community.

Case
study
Engaging Local Artisans
as Co-Designers
An NGO and designer Kara Pecknold partnered with local weavers
to help them market their woven products more widely and increase
their economic power. Because the local artisans are the experts, this
designer engaged these weavers as co-designers. The designer asked
the weavers to draw a picture of what makes their weaving process or
products unique as a way to understand how to differentiate their work.
Some drawings featured the plant that provides these weavers with
their raw materials. They use the leaves from an invasive plant that is
harming the environment of the Great Lakes Region of Africa. These
weavers are turning an environmental problem into an economic
opportunity. Based on these drawings and discussions, they identified
the material they used as a key differentiator, and designed a logo for
the weavers based on drawings of the plant.
Asking people to participate in the design process is helpful as a way
to leverage local expertise. But it also can empower constituents to
participate in their own destiny and helps balance the sometimes
uneven power dynamic between the participant and the NGO team.
In addition, engaging with participants in a visual way helped diminish
problems created by language barriers.
covaga logo design process
H C D

H C D 89
Create
Method: Empathetic Design
method:
Empathic Design
Creating solutions through empathy is a way for the design
team to blend their expertise with the on-the-ground needs
of people. Empathy means deep understanding of the
problems and realities of the people you are designing for. It
is important to do research across many different groups of
people and to “walk in their shoes’’ before the Create phase
if employing empathic design methods. By understanding
people deeply, empathic design can lead to both appropriate
and more breakthrough solutions. But this method challenges
the design team to not just understand the problem mentally,
but also to start creating solutions from a connection to deep
thoughts and feelings.
Consider using empathic design when:
» the design team has specific skills required to
develop solutions
» the solutions you are seeking are “new to the world”
» community politics make it difficult to select
a few individuals to work with
TRY
When possible, recruit members of the community
with the skills needed to be members of the design team.
GENDER
Include men and women in the design team to
ensure a balance of perspectives.
WATCH
OUT
Empathic design is not a method in which preconceived
ideas and assumptions are substituted for grounded
research and connection with end users. Although
solutions are generated by the design team, the goal is
to always have the people you are designing for in mind.
88 H C D
Facilitator Notes
Time:
Days-Weeks
Difficulty:
Step 1. Encourage the
team to connect at
both the rational and
emotional levels with
constituents.
Step 2. If team
members start to
judge or exoticize
the behaviors
or decisions of
constituents, remind
them that their task
is to understand
and empathize
with people, not
to judge them.
Step 3. Make sure
the team has spoken
with enough people
in the Hear phase to
develop empathy. If
the design team still
doesn’t understand
and feel the reasons
for the behavior
of constituents,
go back to the field
and conduct
more research.

H C D
Case
study
Bringing Eyecare to
Children in Indian Villages
VisionSpring embarked on a project to shift its offer from selling reading
glasses to adults in the developing world to providing comprehensive eye
care to children.
In an initial brainstorm with the VisionSpring team after conducting field
research, ideas centered around the notion that kids liked experiences
designed for kids. The VisionSpring team met with experts, including
pediatric eye doctors, and saw that the norm was to decorate spaces
with stuffed animals and toys as a way to make kids feel comfortable.
During the prototyping process, the design team developed a number
of prototypes for the eye screening process for kids. They went to the
field armed with a number of prototypes to try and iterate on. Using
the traditional eye chart, the Vision Entrepreneur and then the teacher
administered the eye test. This was very intimidating to the kids
and several burst into tears. To make it more approachable and less
intimidating, the team also tried using a sillier eye-chart that had toys
and animals on it. But it became too much like play, and chaos ensued.
The team took a step back and thought about what would be serious
enough to keep the diagnostic session from becoming a raucous play
session, but not so serious as to inspire tears.
Sitting in the schoolyard, the team reflected back on their own
experiences as kids, recalled playing “house” and “doctor”, where they
would dress up with their friends and simulate adult behavior. Inspired
by this role reversal/role play, the team thought: why not put the child
in the position of authority? The team tried a protocol where the child
would screen the eyes of the teacher, and then where they would
screen each other. They had fun emulating adult behavior, and weren’t
intimidated by their peers.
Empathic design means thinking from the perspective of your users,
and doing everything you can to feel and understand what they are
experiencing. The team got in touch with what is fun and what is scary
to kids in order to create an eye care experience that works for kids.

92 H C D
Create
Share Stories
share stories
Telling stories is about transforming the stories we heard during research
into data and information that we can use to inspire opportunities, ideas and
solutions. Stories are framed around real people and their lives, not summaries
of information.
Stories are useful because they are accounts of specific events, not general
statements. They provide us with concrete details that help us imagine
solutions to particular problems.
TIP
#1
It’s best to share stories soon after research so that
details are not lost. One team member should tell the
story of the person(s) they met, while the rest of the team
takes notes on post-its. Notes should be small pieces of
information (no longer than a sentence) that will be easy
to remember later. As a group you should be thinking,
“What does this new information mean for the project?”
Some tips on storytelling are below.
Be Specific
Talk about what actually happened. It helps to begin stories
with “One time…” or “After such and such happened…”
Be Descriptive
Use your physical senses to give texture to your
description.
Follow Reporting Rules
Cover the following topics: who, what, when,
where, why, and how.
WATCH
OUT
Try to avoid:
» Generalizing
» Prescribing (they should, would, could…)
» Hypothesizing
» Judging
» Evaluating or Assuming
TIP
#2
Story sharing turns the information that lives in a team
member’s head into shared knowledge that can be
translated into opportunities and solutions.
Some techniques for effective sharing include:
» Gather your notes, photos, and artifacts prior to
story sharing. If possible, print the photos and
display them on the wall to refer to.
» Tell stories person by person, one at a time.
Group meetings can be told as the story of a
particular community.
» Split information into small pieces to make
it memorable. Make each piece no longer than
this sentence.
» Use vivid details and descriptions. This is not
the time to generalize.
H C D 93
Facilitator Notes
Time:
4 Hours-Days
Difficulty:
Step 1. Gather the
design team together
in a room with
plenty of wall space.
Optimally, the team
should be sitting in
a circle.
Step 2. Distribute post-it
notes and markers.
Have a flip chart or
large sheets of paper
nearby, as well as
tape to attach these
sheets to the wall.
Step 3. Tell the
team to capture their
notes, observations,
and thoughts on the
post-its as they speak.
Everything that is said
during story sharing
should be captured
in a note: life history,
household details,
income, aspirations,
barriers, quotes,
observations, etc.
Step 4. Ask each team
member to share the
story of the person(s)
they met. Go through
the stories one by one.
Step 5. Affix all the
post-it notes to the flip
chart or large pieces
of paper on the wall.
Use one large sheet
per story. When the
story is finished, hang
it on the wall and move
on to the next story.
At the end of Story
Sharing, you will
have many sheets
lined up on the wall
with hundreds of
post-it notes.

94 H C D iden
tify
patte
rns
ident
Create
Identify Patterns
Identify patterns
Making sense of your research is accomplished by seeing the patterns,
themes, and larger relationships between the information. This process
can be messy and difficult at times, but ultimately very rewarding. Seeing
the patterns and connections between the data will lead you quickly toward
real-world solutions. There are several steps listed here to take you through
the process for you use selectively based on the subject matter.
» Extract Key Insights
» Find Themes
» Create Frameworks
method:
extract key insights
Uncovering insights is about bringing visibility and clarity
to previously hidden meaning.
WHAT I S A N I NSIGHT?
» Insights are revelations – the unexpected
things that make you sit up and pay attention.
» Insights extrapolate individual stories into
overarching truths.
» Insights allow us to see our design challenge
in a new light.
For example, a combination of an observation and quote
from an interview yielded the following sample insight:
Observation: Farmers rely on farming information
from their friends and neighbors, though they know
this knowledge is limited.
Quote: “If the Privatized Extension Agent lived outside
my area, I would want to visit his farm so I could see
his production.”
Insight: Trust-building and knowledge sharing happens
through ‘seeing is believing.’
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
TIP
#3
Select key information
Look across the information in the stories. Edit out the
details that are not important – this is the time to let
go of some of the detail. Choose the information that
you find surprising, interesting, or worth pursuing.
Aggregate big thoughts
Are some of the thoughts linked? If so, aggregate
them. Take several related pieces of information and
re-write them as one big Insight.
Work at the same level
Check that the insights sit at the same level —
that they are all big thoughts. If you find you have
some lower level insights, consider whether they
might be reframed at a higher level. If they need to
be dropped a level, they may be best talked about as
customer needs that inform and support the Insight.
H C D 95
Facilitator Notes
Time:
45-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1. Ask the team
to go to the wall with
all the stories and
choose 5 key post-its
(stories, quotes,
observations) that
are most surprising,
interesting, or
provocative.
Step 2. Group these
into related thoughts.
Step 3. Write a
succinct Insight
statement on a
new post-it for
each grouping that
summarizes the
big takeaway.
Step 4. Post these
Insight post-its
where all can see.

H CH DC D 97
Case
study
FINDING INSIGHTS FOR EFFECTIVE
MARKETING TO FARMERS
In Ethiopia, the IDE team looked over the information from the
Story Sharing exercise and extracted over 20 key insights.
About half of these came directly from the post-its that were
written in Story Sharing, and the other half were written based
on the information the team heard during Story Sharing.
Some of the insights the team identified were:
» School is a key channel for distributing information
» There is a strong need for an alternative to borrowing oxen
» Buying on credit is the default
» Mass media sells water pumps

98 H C D
Create
Identity Patterns
Method: Find Themes
method:
find themes
Finding themes is about exploring the commonalities,
differences, and relationships between the information.
Some ways to do this include:
Look for categories and buckets
Sort your findings into categories or buckets. Which ideas
are related? Cluster together the findings that belong
together into themes.
Consider the relationship between categories
Look for patterns and tensions in the way your themes relate
to each other. Are they on the same level? Or are they talking
about different kinds of things?
Group and re-group
Slice and dice the data in different ways to find meaning.
Try moving the post-its around to form new groups.
Get input from the team
Explain the early buckets and themes to a broader group.
Learn from their input and try alternative groupings.
TRY
Try the P.O.I.N.T. technique
Translate the Problems and Needs identified in storytelling
into Insights (see previous Method) and Themes.
P = Problems
O = Obstacles
I = Insights
N = Needs
T = Themes
TIP
Creating themes can be an engaging and rewarding
experience, as you start to group and transform the
data before your eyes. Some good techniques for
doing this are:
» Work together as a team to decide how to create
buckets and themes.
» Arrange and re-arrange the post-its on the wall
until the team is satisfied with the groupings.
» If there is a theme that contains almost all the post-its,
break it out into several smaller themes. Try to
see not only the connections, but also the relevant
differences between the information.
H C D 99
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1. Have the team
go to the wall or board
where they have
placed their key story
and insight post-its
and select the 5 most
interesting quotes,
observations
and/or insights.
Step 2. On a new
board, sort these
into themes.
Step 3. Check to make
sure the themes are
at the same level. If a
theme is too specific,
prompt the team to
find the bigger idea.
If a theme is too broad
or has too many
different ideas under
it, ask them to break
it down into several
buckets.
Step 4. When finished
sorting, give each
theme a title on a
new post-it. Make
sure there is enough
space between or
below the different
theme categories
to facilitate the next
step of opportunity
identification.

100 H C D H C D 101
Create
Identify Patterns
Method: Create Frameworks
Create
Identify Patterns
Method: Create Frameworks
method:
create frameworks
Frameworks allow you to begin putting the specific
information from stories into a larger system context.
What is a framework?
A framework is a visual representation of a system.
It shows the different elements or actors at play
and highlights the relationships between them.
Using your framework
A good framework will help you see the issues and
relationships in a clearer and more holistic way. Discuss
what the framework implies for constituents, for other
actors in the community, and for your organization.
Use the framework to develop or build upon key insights.
Capture those insights and add them to your growing list.
GENDER
In many cases, it will make sense to create two different
frameworks: one from the perspective of women in
the community and one from the male perspective. To
understand whether you need to dedicate attention to
the different needs of women and men, ask yourself these
questions:
» How do women’s stories differ from those of men?
» Is gender itself a theme?
» Do women’s stories tell a different story about
household activities, income opportunities and barriers,
and market relations than the stories obtained from men?
If you answered yes to these questions, think about
creating two different frameworks that will yield different
sets of opportunity areas for women and men.
TIP
If you are having trouble visualizing your own frameworks, here are some common
types of frameworks that recur again and again.
Venn Diagram
Process Map
Relational Map
Two-by-Two Matrix
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Not all design
challenges will yield or
require frameworks.
If the team does not
feel that this step
is required for your
challenge, skip it.
Step 1. Listen for
moments in story
sharing when the
topic fits into a larger
system or is linked
to another piece
of information.
Step 2. When team
members start
to suggest larger
systemic structures
or relationships
between things, ask
them if they can draw
what they are saying.
Consider the example
framework types
described here.
Step 3. Allow some
time for your team to
play with re-drawing
their framework
several times until they
feel it represents what
they want to say in a
robust way.

102 H C D
Create
Create Opportunity Areas
create opportunity areas
Once you have pulled out the themes and patterns from what you heard, you
can start creating opportunity areas. The process of translating insights into
opportunities is about moving from the current state to envisioning future
possibilities. Opportunities are the springboard for ideas and solutions.
What is an opportunit y area ?
» An opportunity area is a stepping stone to idea generation.
» An opportunity is a rearticulation of problems or needs in
a generative, future facing way.
» An opportunity area is not a solution. Rather, it suggests more
than one solution. It allows the team to create many solutions.
Framing opportunit y areas
Opportunities start with the phrase “HOW MIGHT WE...?”
to suggest a mindset of possibility.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
Start each statement with “HOW MIGHT WE...?”
and abbreviate on post-its to “HMW.”
Use different color post-its for your opportunity statements
than you used for insights. This will help to visually separate
insights from opportunities for the next step.
TRY
Watch out for opportunity areas that are already
solutions. A key part of creating innovative solutions
is preventing yourself and your team from jumping
to conclusions.
If your opportunity sounds like a specific solution, back
it up by asking yourself, “Why would we want to offer
this solution?” or “What user needs are answered by this
solution?” Here is an example:
Insight
Trust building and knowledge sharing happens
through ‘seeing is believing.’
Solution
A training course offered by community members
to teach their friends and neighbors about a technology
or behavior that has worked for them. This is a solution.
Ask yourself: What needs are answered by this solution?
Answer: The need to expand the knowledge of community
members through local information aggregators.
Opportunity
How might we better educate and inform local knowledge
aggregators? Or how might we support new technology
experimentation by local knowledge aggregators?
TIP
#3
TIP
#4
Go for quantity, not quality at this point.
When narrowing down the opportunity statements to
3-5 HMW statements to use in brainstorming, select some
that are intentionally outside of your current projects or
capabilities. At this point, filter based on Desirability to
customers, not Feasibility to the organization.
WATCH
OUT
H C D 103
Facilitator Notes
Time:
40 mins.-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1: Prepare your
team to begin defining
opportunity areas by
telling them that this is
where they will start to
shift from analysis of
information to creating
new ideas.
Step 2: Distribute post-it
notes and markers to
everyone in the team.
Ask the team to start
their opportunities
with the words
“How Might We…?”
Step 3: Spend at least
15 minutes on each
theme generating
Opportunity
Statements for
that theme. Place
the post-its next
to the theme area.
Step 4: If the team
gets stuck, read the
insights from each
theme area as a way
to jolt the creativity of
the team. For example,
for each insight
posted, ask the team
to come up with at
least one “How Might
We…” statement.

104 H C D
Create
Brainstorm New Solutions
brainstorm new solutions
Brainstorming gives permission to think expansively and without any organizational,
operational, or technological constraints.
Some people think of brainstorms as undisciplined conversation. But conducting
a fruitful brainstorm involves a lot of discipline and a bit of preparation.
The practice of generating truly impractical solutions often sparks ideas that are
relevant and reasonable. It may require generating 100 ideas (many of which are
silly or impossible) in order to come up with those three truly inspirational solutions.
TIP
Seven b rainstorming R ULES
» Defer judgment
There are no bad ideas at this point. There will be
plenty of time to judge ideas later.
» Encourage wild ideas
It’s the wild ideas that often create real innovation.
It is always easy to bring ideas down to earth later!
» Build on the ideas of others
Think in terms of ‘and’ instead of ‘but.’ If you dislike
someone’s idea, challenge yourself to build on it and
make it better.
» Stay focused on topic
You will get better output if everyone is disciplined.
» Be visual
Try to engage the logical and the creative sides
of the brain.
» One conversation at a time
Allow ideas to be heard and built upon.
» Go for quantity
Set a big goal for number of ideas and surpass it!
Remember there is no need to make a lengthy case
for your idea since no one is judging. Ideas should
flow quickly.
TRY
Brainstorming warm-up
Use this activity to get the team in an open-minded
and energetic mindset for brainstorming.
Pair up with a partner. Person A will come up with lots
of ideas about a potential businesses he or she wants
to start. (Alternatively, one could plan an event such as
a family vacation and pose ideas of places to go.)
Round 1:
Person A comes up with one idea after another.
Person B must say NO to each idea and give a reason
why it wouldn’t work. Do this for 2-3 minutes.
Round 2:
Now Person B comes up with business or event
ideas, one after another. Person A must say YES
to each idea and build on it to make it bigger.
Do this for 2-3 minutes.
As a group, discuss how these two different
experiences felt. The Round 2 experience is the
environment the team will want to create for a
successful brainstorm.
H C D 105
Facilitator Notes
Time:
45-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1. Prepare
3-5 “How Might
We...?” opportunity
statements from those
generated previously.
Place each statement
on a separate wall
or board. Give each
person post-it notes
and a marker.
Step 2. Remind
people of the rules
of brainstorming.
Tell them to be
very specific about
the ideas they are
proposing. Use big
markers (not pens) so
everyone can see what
the idea is. Write only
one idea per post-it.
Step 3. Begin by
asking the group
to generate a list
of barriers related
to the opportunity
statement.
Step 4. Protect all
participants by
enforcing the Rules
of Brainstorming.
If ideas slow down,
prompt the group
to think about one
of the barriers listed
during the warm-up.
Or share a story from
the research to spark
thinking (i.e. “So what
ideas would encourage
Shashu to adhere to
her medication?”)
Step 5. When the ideas
really slow down,
switch to a new
opportunity area.
This might be 15-30
minutes per HMW.

106 H C D H C D 107
Create
Make Ideas Real
Create
Make Ideas Real
make ideas REAL
Prototyping is about building to think. This means creating the solution so that
it can be communicated to others and making the idea better. Prototyping
allows you to quickly and cheaply make ideas tangible so they can be tested
and evaluated by others - before you’ve had time to fall in love with them.
What is prototyping?
» BUILD TO THINK: Prototypes are disposable tools used throughout the
concept development process, both to validate ideas and to help generate
more ideas. Prototypes are a powerful form of communication and force us to
think in realistic terms about how someone would interact with the concept.
» ROUGH, RAPID, RIGHT: Prototypes are not precious.
They should be built as quickly and cheaply as possible.
» ANSWERING QUESTIONS: It is essential to know
what question a prototype is being used to answer,
for example about desirability, usefulness, usability, viability, or feasibility.
Why prototype?
» To develop a deeper understanding of what an idea
means and to reveal questions the team needs to answer.
» To create an internal dialogue about how the concept works and external
communication about the concept.
TRY
Imagine the Value Proposition
For each prototype, answer these questions to start
building the value of the idea:
» Who will benefit from this idea? What is the value
to the end customers?
» Why and how is this idea better than alternative options?
» How much is this benefit worth to them?
» How much would they be willing to pay for this benefit”
» How might this payment be collected?
TIP
common protot ype forms
Models:
A physical model of a product, shown above, makes a 2-dimensional idea
come alive in 3 dimensions. Using rough materials allows you to quickly
mock up low-fidelity prototypes.
Storyboards:
Imagining the complete user experience through a series of images or sketches.
Role-play:
The emotional experience with a product or service is sometimes best
expressed by acting it out with team members taking on the role of the
constituent or customer.
Diagrams:
Mapping is a great way to express a space, process, or structure. Consider
how ideas relate to each other, and how the experience changes over time.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
45-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1. Ask teams
to partner in teams
of 2-4. Small teams
help everyone to
have a role.
Step 2. Ask teams
to pick one solution
from the brainstorming
boards. You may
choose to offer a
range of criteria: two
teams working on
solutions they’re “most
passionate about,”
one group on “most
feasible ” and one on
“furthest out” or
“long term”.
Step 3. Prompt teams
to spend no more than
30-45 minutes making
their chosen solution
tangible, using one of
the prototyping forms
described here or
creating new ones.
Step 4. Give each team
5 minutes to share
their idea back with
the larger group to
get initial feedback.
Encourage teams to
include an enactment
of the experience
of use, even if they
have a paper-based
prototype. Prompt
groups to identify
what customer needs
their prototype
addresses and what
key questions they
still have.

108 H C D
Create
Gather Feedback
gather feedback
After solutions have been generated, it’s time to take them back out to participants
to gather feedback.
WATCH
OUT
Don’t invest too much time perfecting the ideas
before feedback – the point of re-engaging customers
is to change the solutions, not to prove that they
are perfect. The best feedback is that which makes
you rethink and redesign.
How to solicit feedback
A great way to get honest feedback is to take several executions out to people.
When there is only one concept available, people may be reluctant to criticize.
However, when allowed to compare and contrast, people tend to speak
more honestly.
Whose feedback to solicit
Speaking to new participants in a different region from where you did your
research is a way to explore the generalizability of a solution. You may choose
to speak to a mix of both new people and to those you have spoken with before.
Try to include all stakeholders who would touch the concept; in addition to the end
user, include manufacturers, installers, service providers, distributors, retailers, etc.
What questions to pursue
For each prototype, identify 3-4 questions you’d like answer about desirability
or use case during the feedback session.
Keep careful notes of the feedback, both positive and negative, and the new
questions the team needs to answer about the solution.
TIP
The goal is to solicit honest feedback, even if
it is negative. It’s better to know early on before
much investment has been made that a solution
is not desirable. Here are a few tips in presenting
yourselves and your solutions to participants:
Don’t try to sell the idea.
Present solutions with a neutral tone, highlighting
both pros and cons of a solution.
Vary group size.
Begin with a large group (10-15) to present the
solution, then break into smaller groups, one per
solution for a more intimate conversation.
Adapt on the fly.
If it becomes clear that there is one aspect of the
solution that is distracting people from the core idea,
feel free to eliminate this piece or change it.
Ask participants to build on the ideas.
If a participant asks a question like, “Can this service
be purchase by the community or just an individual?”
Ask the question back to them: “Should the service be
purchased by the community or individual?” Another
valuable question is, “How could this be better for
you?” It invites the participant to help improve the
idea or give additional critique.
H C D 109
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-1.5 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1. Ask team
members to prepare
how to present
their solutions to
participants. It’s
not necessary to give
behind-the-scenes
organizational
information to them.
Step 2. Have teams
practice presenting
solutions to the
rest of the group—
enactment is
especially effective.
Invite others to help
simplify and clarify
the presentation
and identify focus
questions to be
answered in research.
Step 3. Ask teams to
standardize a script
about the solution
so it is delivered
consistently at each
feedback session.
Write down key
questions to ask
in follow-up.
Step 4. When
introducing the
feedback session
to the customer group,
explain you want
honest feedback—
even if negative—and
that the team has
spent minimal time
prototyping.

H C D
Case
study
TESTING Hearing Aid Protocols
for Rural India
The design challenge for this IDEO project was to make hearing
aids more accessible in rural India. One key hurdle was creating a
diagnostic process that could be effectively administered outside
a medical setting by minimally-trained local technicians.
During the initial research, the team learned about the constraints
associated with fitting a hearing aid. They developed a process
prototype that included a fitting protocol, a technician kit with tools
for fitting a hearing aid, and technician training materials. The team
started by training two local people as technicians in less than a day,
and then went to villages to watch the newly trained technicians try
the protocol with people who have trouble hearing.
While watching the technicians on the first day in a village, the team
quickly saw that the protocol was too complex. It took too long to
explain to potential customers how to complete the tests. The team
immediately set to simplifying the protocol, and then trained a new
pair of technicians on the newly simplified protocol. To the team’s
surprise, while the next village visit went more smoothly, there were
still some challenges due to complexity. The team conducted a third
round of simplification, and final testing confirmed that the protocol
was finally simple enough and effective enough to work.
Gathering feedback early allows you to focus on how to improve your
design and helps you identify problems in your designs that you may
not notice in an artificial setting. As in this example, it is often possible
to make changes and improvements to the design between feedback
sessions, so that the team continues to learn and improve the solution.

water STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION, INDIA

INCREASING SMALLHOLDERS FARMER INCOME, ethiopia

H C D 121
DELIVER:
GOALS
Once the design team has created many desirable
solutions, it is time to consider how to make these
feasible and viable. The Deliver phase will move
your top ideas toward implementation.
The activities offered here are meant to complement
your organization’s existing implementation processes
and may prompt adaptations to the way solutions
are typically rolled out.
In the Deliver Phase, your team will:
» Identify required capabilities
» Create a model for financial sustainability
» DEVELOP an innovation pipeline
» plan pilots & Measure Impact

H C D 123
DELIVER:
OUTPUTS
In the Deliver phase, you will produce:
» Feasibility assessment
» Viability assessment
» Innovation pipeline
» Implementation plan
» LEARNING PLAN
Tools to catapult solutions
to the next steps of
implementation.
—IDE cambodia
This phase will challenge the team to create the
elements necessary to make the solution successful,
and to track the impact of the solution.

H C D 125
DELIVER:
THEORY
Delivering solutions
that are new to the world
involves creating low-investment,
low-cost ways
of trying out your ideas
in a real-world context.
The team can design a handful of
mini-pilots that precede and inform
the full pilot program. Mini-pilots might
engage actors who are different from
the group of stakeholders for the final
implementation. For example, in a mini-pilot,
the NGO or social enterprise might
play certain roles that will ultimately
be held by partners in order to gain a
deeper understanding of how the system
should work and to be more informed
when soliciting and training partners.
Implementation is an
iterative process that
will likely require many
prototypes, mini-pilots and
pilots to perfect the solution
and support system.
Piloting an idea before it goes to market
not only allows you to understand the
solution better, but also helps you identify
what it will take for your organization to
deliver that idea to the community.
Every organization is optimized to achieve
what it currently does. If you want to
achieve different outcomes, you often
need to do things differently than you
know and do right now—whether it is
about finding new talent, developing new
skills, building new external partnerships,
or creating new processes.
The Human-Centered Design process
doesn’t limit the solution by the current
constraints of the organization.
This process invites you
to work in the belief that
new things are possible,
and that you can evolve
both the solutions that you
deliver and the way your
organization is designed,
simultaneously.
In addition, Human-Centered Design
integrates design and measurement
methods in a continuous learning cycle.
By encouraging on-going measurement,
evaluation, and iteration, the solutions
developed stay grounded in real-world
impact and continue to evolve.
Delivering solutions to your consituents
means you will need to build the capabilities
and financial models that will ensure that
the solutions are implemented well and
can be sustained over the long term. You
will also need to create a plan for on-going
learning and iteration.

126 H C D
Deliver
Develop a Sustainable
Revenue Model SUSta
INABLE
REVE
NUsus
taina
develop a sustainable
revenue model
The long-term success of solutions depends upon the intentional design of a
revenue stream that can sustain the offering over time. Let the value provided
to the end customer be your entry point as you design the support systems
around the solution. For this Viability Assessment, answer the following
questions for each solution.
TIP
1. Customer Value Proposition
» What is the value proposition for the end customer?
Refer back to prototypes and customer feedback,
highlighting the aspects customers found
most important.
» How much is this worth to the end customer?
2. Revenue Sources
» Is the solution a product, a service or both?
» How much do customers pay?
» How do customers pay: in cash, in kind,
in labor, in other?
3. Stakeholder Incentives
» How does this solution deliver value to each
stakeholder involved?
» What are the stakeholders’ incentives to participate?
What are challenges or disincentives? How might we
adapt the solution to avoid these disincentives?
TRY
Consider the following fee models to inspire your
thinking. One exercise is for the design team to go
down the list of models and ask:
“What would our solution look like if
it were offered by: …?”
» Membership/Subscription
» Gift it, share the income produced
» Give the product, sell the refill
» Subsidize
» Give the product, sell the service
» Service only
» Pay-per-use
H C D 127
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-45 mins.
Difficulty:
Focus on one
solution at a time
and take the team
through the following
exercise. Alternatively,
the larger team can be
split into smaller teams
of two or three, with each
smaller team focusing
on one solution.
Step 1: On a board
or flip chart, write
“Customer Value.”
Ask the team to identify
how each solution will
provide value to the
end customer. Write
everything down.
Ask the team to answer
the question: “How much
is this worth to the end
customer?” Write down
the figure on the chart.
Step 2: On a separate
board or flip chart, write
“Revenue Sources.” Ask
the team to identify who
will pay for the product
or service. How much
will each actor pay?
How will the payments
be received? Use the
example fee models
in the “Try” text box
to help.
Continues next page.
Facilitator Notes
( Continued )
Step 3: On another
board or flip chart,
write “Stakeholder
Incentives.” Ask
the team to identify
all stakeholders
or players in the
value chain who
will be affected by
the solution. Go
through each actor
and ask: “What is this
group’s incentives
to participate in or
help this solution?” If
there is a group that
has a disincentive
to participate in the
solution, ask: “How
might we adapt the
solution to encourage
their participation?”
Step 4: If the team
has split into smaller
teams, have the group
come back together
to share.

Case
study
MODELING REVENUE
FOR NEW SERVICES
For the Today’s Market Prices solution, the IDE Cambodia team identified
the desirability of payment-in-kind options through customer feedback:
Customer Value Proposition
» Connection to Privatized Extension Agent with real-time market
pricing to inform where to sell large-quantity crops.
» Connection to traders who collect from farms and sell crops at
selected markets.
Revenue Sources
» Payment in kind per use (price deducted from sales of crop at
each collection)
» Mobile phone provided a no cost (through phone donation program)
» Free calls to designated number of Privatized Extension Agent
Stakeholder Incentives
» Privatized Extension Agent receives fee per information request
» Crop Collector expands his farmer clientele and receives a
% from crops sold
» Mobile provider is paid for calls made to PEA numbers; expands
potential customer base for calls/SMS sent outside the free number
H C D

130 H H C D 131
Deliver
Identify Capabilities
Required for
Delivering Solutions
Identify capabilities
required for delivering
solutions
The capabilities of your organization and partners will help inform the feasibility of
solutions. Begin by thinking about the experience of the end customer—where and
how the community members or end-user will purchase or experience this solution.
Then identify the range of capabilities required for making this real. A challenge
for the design team is to identify many possible models for delivery that leverage
different partners and channels.
To identify the capabilities required to make each solution
feasible, answer the following questions for each solution:
1. Distribution
» Where, when, how, and why might the customer
experience this solution?
» Which actors and channels will touch the solution?
» What other channels could be used to
reach customers?
» What is the range of possible ways this solution could
be delivered?
2. Capabilities Required
» What human, manufacturing, financial, and
technological capabilities are required for
creating and delivering this solution?
» Which of these capabilities do we have in our
country location? Which do we have in our
international location? And which capabilities will
need to be found in partners?
» Would we need to grow any capabilities on this list?
3. Potential Partners
What organizations or individuals have capabilities that
we do not? What is our relationship with them currently?
How might we reach out to them and show the value of
engaging with our organization on this solution?
TIP
C D
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-45 mins.
Difficulty:
Focus on one solution
at a time and take
the team through the
following exercise.
Alternatively, the larger
team can be split into
smaller teams of two or
three, with each smaller
team focusing on
one solution.
Step 1: Write
“Distribution” on a
board or flip chart.
Have the team identify
all the possible actors
who could deliver this
solution. Write each
actor on a post-it note.
Ask the team to list the
pros and cons of each
of the different
delivery possibilities.
Step 2: Write
“Capabilities” on a
separate board or
flip chart. List the
human, manufacturing,
financial, and technical
capabilities that will
be required for each
solution. Indicate if the
capability exists in your
local organization, if it
exists somewhere else
in your network, or
whether you will
have to partner.
Step 3: For the
solutions that you
will need to partner,
create a list of potential
partners. Narrow to a
smaller set of partners.
Ask the team to list the
first step they would
take to pursue the top
partners identified.
Step 4: If you have split
into smaller groups,
ask the teams to come
together to share
their thoughts.

Case
study
DELIVERING TODAy’s
Market Prices
In Cambodia, the IDE design team created a solution called “Today’s
Market Prices,” real-time market crop price information to farmers.
The team identified one model to deliver this to customers involving
two key partners: Privatized Extension Agents and Crop Collectors.
Distribution
» Centralized information gathering & distribution
» Information distributed by Privatized Extension Agents (PEAs)
upon request of the farmer
» Farmer requests info by mobile phone provided with
free calls to PEA
» Crops & fee collected by Crop Collector
Capabilities Required
» Market price information collection daily
(or multiple times a day)
» Market price information aggregation & distribution
to Privatized Extension Agents
» Communication channels between farmers & PEAs
via mobile phone
» Crop collection & sales
» Fee collection
Potential Partners
» Government market information sources
» Privatized Extension Agent
» Mobile phone donor program
» Mobile service provider
» Crop Collector
H C D

134 H C D H C D 135
Deliver
Plan a Pipeline
of Solutions
Deliver
Plan a Pipeline
of Solutions
To understand how new solutions will move and grow your organization, map each
solution to the matrix provided. As you are mapping solutions, ask whether each
solution is targeted at your current customer group or whether it expands the
group of customers you serve.
Determine whether the solutions extend or adapt an existing offer, or create a
new offer. Analyze this information from the context of your investment strategy,
mission, priorities and appetite for risk. Also identify which solutions fit naturally
into programs already underway within your organization.
Evolutionar y REvolutionar y
Incremental EVOLUTIONARY
The lower left quadrant represents Incremental innovation as these solutions
build on existing offerings with familiar users. Evolutionary innovation is about
extending into either new offerings or new users while holding the other constant.
Revolutionary innovation means tackling both new users and new offerings.
Plan a pipeline
of solutions
New Users
Existing Offerings
New Offerings
Existing Users
WATCH
OUT
Existing users refers to the category of customers,
such as people earning $1-2 per day vs. people earning
greater than $2 a day, not those earning $1-2 per day
who are current customers of your organization vs.
people earning $1-2 per day who are not yet customers.
TIP
#3
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
Look at the spread of solutions to reveal the gaps in
your pipeline of solutions. Are parts of the matrix blank
and others full? If so, determine if it is desirable for your
organization to go back to Brainstorming in order to
develop solutions that will intentionally fill that gap.
Many organizations say they are only looking for
Revolutionary ideas, but their capabilities are limited to
Incremental or Evolutionary ideas. Furthermore, funders
can steer grantees toward more incremental ideas or ones
that have been proven to be best practices. Make sure you
are honest with how far your organization can stretch its
capabilities and how willing your funders are to take risks.
Mapping a pipeline of solutions that includes Incremental,
Evolutionary, and Revolutionary ideas helps ensure that
your design effort will pay off.
Remember, sometimes the ideas with the highest impact
are the simple Incremental ideas.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
30-45 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Draw the
matrix on a large sheet
of flip-chart paper.
Step 2: Write each
solution on a post-it
note and place in the
appropriate position
on the matrix.
Step 3. Analyze if
the team is happy
with the distribution
of solutions from
Incremental to
Revolutionary.
Step 4. If the
team wants to add
solutions to one of the
quadrants, develop
a HMW...? statement
and brainstorm
new solutions.

Case
study
CREATING A
SOLUTIONS PIPELINE
In Cambodia, the IDE design team noticed that most of the solutions
fell on the “existing user” side of the matrix since the organization has
a highly defined target group. Yet the solutions spanned the range
from those that fit within current projects and programs to new areas
of offerings. The team also identified solutions that would start in the
lower left corner with adaptations to existing solutions with existing
customers, but over time would help the organization migrate into
the other quadrants. While many organizations are initially attracted
to the idea of “Revolutionary” innovations, in reality an innovation
pipeline that focuses on existing capabilities or targets existing
customers can be the strongest strategy for the near term.
H C D

138 H C D H C D 139
Deliver
Create an
Implementation
Timeline
Deliver
Create an
Implementation
Timeline
create an
implementation timeline
Map solutions to a timeline of implementation, with those in the Incremental
innovation category early in the timeline and Revolutionary innovations further out.
Look at relationships of solutions to see whether initiating one solution will build
the relationships and partners needed for another solution. You may also need to
take into account which solutions can be explored within the scope of currently
funded programs and which solutions suggest the proposal of new grants.
2 w eeks
1 month
3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
TIP
Assigning an individual within your organization as a
champion for each solution will help maintain momentum
and increase the likelihood of implementation.
TRY
Divide each solution into a series of steps that build
toward implementing the final solution. Challenge the
team to do something toward implementing each
solution in the next two weeks. For some solutions,
a pilot can be launched in two weeks. For others, two
weeks might be the amount of time required for further
study or for the first steps to connecting with partners.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
15-30 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Create post-it
notes for a timeline
(such as 2 weeks, 1
months, 3 months,
6 months, 1 year) and
post them along a
large blank wall
in your office.
Step 2: Post the
Feasibility
Assessments
or post-it notes for
each solution along
the timeline.
Step 3. Assign
champions to pursue
the next steps.

140 H C D
Deliver
Plan Mini-Pilots
& Iteration mini
pilots
&itera
tions
mini
Plan mini-pilots & iteration
For each solution in your pipeline, it is important to identify simple, low-investment
next steps to keep the ideas alive. One way to keep iterating and learning is to plan
mini-pilots before large-scale pilots or full-scale implementation.
For each mini-pilot, ask three questions:
» What resources will I need to test out this idea?
» What key questions does this mini-pilot need to answer?
» How will we measure the success of this mini-pilot?
GENDER
When planning mini-pilots, pilots, and implementation
plans, it often makes sense to understand how these may
differ by gender. By understanding these differences early
on, the solution can be iterated or transformed to make sure
that the roles and needs of both men and women are being
appropriately addressed. For example, in planning the
mini-pilot, consider how women’s roles in implementation
might differ from men’s. For each solution, ask how women
could play a role as:
» client
» resource
» beneficiary
» partner
Do any of the answers differ in the ways women would
play these roles versus men? If so, iterate your solution to
incorporate this finding.
TRY
Use the Mini-pilot worksheet to plan next steps for
each solution.
After each mini-pilot, it is important to reconvene the
design team to understand what went well and where
there was customer dissatisfaction or system obstacles.
Use the worksheet provided to continuously iterate the
mini-pilots, trials, and success measures.
See the full-size worksheet on the next page.
H C D 141
Facilitator Notes
Time:
45-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Get into small
groups per solutions
and fill out the
worksheet on the
next page.
Step 2: Cross-share
mini-pilot plans with
the team and give
each other feedback.
Step 3. Identify who
will enact the most
immediate next steps
and establish the first
check-in date.

142 H C D H C D 143
Deliver
Plan Mini-Pilot
& Iterations
Deliver
Plan Mini-Pilot
& Iterations
mini-pilot planning worksheet
» context (who, w here , w hen ) & time
What’s a low-cost, low-investment way to try out this solution? What can you
do in 2 weeks?
» K ey learnings : » K ey learnings : » K ey learnings :
» N EW resources : » N EW resources : » N EW resources :
» questions to ans wer :
What key questions do you have about this concept and its desirability for
your customer?
» N EW Q UESTIONS: » N EW Q UESTIONS: » N EW Q UESTIONS:
» resources :
What resources (people, funds, permissions) would you need to try this out?
» how to measure success :
How will you know if your solution was successful? Successful for whom?
» N ew M easures : » N ew M easures : » N ew M easures :
solution name :
team members:
Check - in date Check - in date Check - in date

144 H C D H C D 145
Deliver
Create a Learning Plan
Deliver
CREATE A LEARNING PLAN
Throughout the design and implementation of new solutions, it is important to
keep learning. With Human-Centered Design, design and evaluation are one
seamless process, since both require attention to the effects of solutions on
the lives of people.
Early in the design process, you collected stories that helped develop the
understanding to get you to new ideas. After the first ideas were prototyped,
you gathered feedback to make those ideas better.
As implementation begins, it is important to keep learning about how the
solutions are working in order to keep making the designs better, and to select
how to spend valuable resources on the solutions that are making the most
impact. Instead of thinking that implementation is when design ends and
monitoring and evaluation activities begins, try to marry design and evaluation.
When ideas are implemented, the team should continue to collect stories and
gather feedback from users. Stories collected from people in the Hear phase will
help the team create a baseline to track how solutions are affecting individuals’
lives. Collecting on-going feedback will help the team iterate on the ideas in order
to make them more effective, more appropriate, and more cost-effective.
In addition to stories and feedback, begin to track indicators and outcomes.
This is possible after the solutions are implemented and are important to
measuring the impact as well as the return on investment of solutions.
THE LEARNING LOOP
Stories, feedback, indicators, and outcomes are all ways of
gathering empirical data in order to learn. A project in India for
clean water storage and transportation utilized all of these methods
to measure the impact potential and outcomes of solutions.
Refer to ‘Impact Planning and Learning Approaches’
from Keystone at keystoneaccountability.org.
Refer to ‘The Evaluation Toolkit’ published by
FSG at fsg-impact.org/ideas.
STORIES
FEEDBACK
INDICATORS
OUTCOMES
• Assess Needs
• Understand Context
• Develop Baseline
• Gain Inspiration
• Evaluate Ideas
• Prioritize Solutions
• Iterate Ideas
• Develop Implementation Plan
• Track Progress
• Choose Ideas
• Iterate Solutions
• Identify Unintended
Consequences
• Assess Impact
• Evaluate ROI
• Create New Baselines
• Identify Next Challenges
Facilitator Notes
Time:
45-60 mins.
Difficulty:
Step 1: Revisit the
stories you gathered
in the Hear phase as
a baseline. Answer
the questions: What
was the situation of
the people in our
initial research? What
should we expect to
see happen in the lives
of these people if our
ideas are successful?
Step 2: Develop an
approach to collect
more stories of before,
during, and after
implementation. If
possible, identify
a demographically
similar group that will
not be affected by
your ideas and collect
their information as
well for a robust study.
Step 3. Create
a strategy for
integrating qualitative
and quantitative
methods for learning.
Step 4: Encourage
the team to embrace
measurement as a
process to enable
on-going learning and
inspire new solutions
and pose new design
challenges.

146 H C D TRACK
INDICA
TORS
TRACK
INDICA
Deliver
Method: Track Indicators
method:
Track Indicators
Indicators help you measure the effects of your
solutions. These effects can be positive or negative.
They can also be intended or unintended.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
2-3 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1. Ask the team
to refer back to the
Theory of Change
and to your holistic
impact assessment
stakeholder map.
Step 2. Focus on each
stakeholder and/or
step and for each one,
list the information
you would like to learn.
For example, if the
solution is focused on
increasing women’s
income opportunities
and the men in the
community are a
stakeholder, you might
want to know how the
solution is affecting
the incomes and time
allocations of both
men and women.
Step 3. For each
stakeholder and/or
step, ask: Are there
leading indicators we
should be tracking?
Are there analogous
indicators we can
track? How can we
measure awareness
and engagement?
How will we track
and understand
the dynamics of
transformation that
are occurring?
Step 4. If possible,
include constituents
and other stakeholders
directly in this process.
WATCH
OUT
Often teams look for only the positive and intended
consequences. To get a full view of impact, it is critical to
challenge yourself to look for the negative and unintended
consequences of solutions.
TIP
#1
TIP
#2
Ask yourself what you would expect to see happening
if the solutions were improving the lives of people.
For example, if your goal was to increase household
income, would women starting more businesses be an
early indicator? If your goal was to increase childhood
vaccinations, would the number of casual conversations
about vaccines be a possible indicator?
It is critical to track the effects of solutions on men and
women, young and old, empowered and disempowered –
even if your ideas are focused on other groups. Often the
group that is not the intended audience for the solutions
is a key player in the implementation and use of solutions.
TYPES OF INDICATORS
Leading
The impact of solutions can often take some time to become
evident, such as months or years. In these cases, it makes
sense to track leading indicators. For example, if your goal is
to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies (an effect that
will take at least nine months to see), a leading indicator would
be adherence to birth control. If your goal is to increase farmer
income, a leading indicator would be the number of farmers
growing high-value crops this season.
Analogous
Sometimes it is difficult to see direct impacts. This is especially
true when your design challenge is about trust or prevention.
In these cases, try to find an indicator that would logically lead
you to conclude whether your goal is being met. For example,
on a project to increase trust of healthcare providers, the team
tracked the number of questions people asked doctors and
nurses. Since trust is hard to measure, the team decided to use
the posing of questions as an analogous indicator of trust.
Awareness
When the goal involves people engaging or adopting something
new, the first step is to know whether they are aware of the
solution or design. Measuring awareness is a good early indicator
to help understand how big the impact of the solution may be.
Engagement
Like awareness, measuring the number of people who
are engaged in a new program is often very meaningful.
For example, if the goal is to increase women’s incomes
through a program to export local art, the number of women
actively seeking out and participating in the program is a
meaningful indication of how much impact the program may
have on local incomes.
Dynamic Changes
When a new solution is introduced, it is important to track
the changes over time that occur within the community,
within households, and to the environment. These shifts can
be completely unexpected, and are sometimes positive and
sometimes negative. Its crucial to lookout out for these changes
and unintended consequences early on in implementation.
H C D 147

148 H C D H C D 149
Deliver
Method: Evaluate Outcomes
Deliver
Method: Evaluate Outcomes
method:
Evaluate Outcomes
Measuring outcomes is critical to the learning cycle. Without a
good assessment of the impact a solution has made, there is
often not enough information about the direction or goals for
the next round of designs.
Assessing outcomes is important for everyone – the implementer,
the funder, the design team, and the community. Outcome
measurement helps people understand where to best invest their
resources. It is an opportunity to assess and plan for the future.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1. Evaluation has
many stakeholders,
including constituents,
community leaders,
government officers,
funders, and others.
When developing
a plan to evaluate
outcomes and impact,
engage as many of
these stakeholders as
possible in the creation
of your evaluation and
learning plan. What
will success look like
from these multiple
perspectives?
Step 2. Have the
team discuss
various qualitative
and quantitative
measurement
methods. Refer
to methods that
have been tried as
best practices, and
brainstorm new
methods that might be
necessary to achieve
your specific goals.
Which of these are
appropriate for the
challenge? Which of
these methods speak
to the interests and
goals of the different
stakeholders?
Step 3. Develop a plan
that includes the right
mix of qualitative and
quantitative methods
that will help the team
keep learning about
how to improve upon
solutions and how to
deliver those solutions
more effectively.
WATCH
OUT
Outcome evaluation should not be a hurdle to the
implementers, grantees, or design team. By viewing this
phase as a continuation of design and opportunity for
learning, outcome measurement can be a rewarding
experience for everyone.
TIP
The measurement process is iterative – return to stories
and feedback based on learnings from quantitative
measurements, and use stories and feedback to discover
which variables to include in quantitative studies.
TRY
#1
TRY
#2
Use evaluation results as an opportunity for reflection
and creation of new design challenges.
Siblings
Children
Parents
Environment
HOLISTIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT
To assess the impact of a solution, program,
or intervention, it is important to take a systemic
and holistic view. Try the following exercise,
or develop a method of your own.
1. Map or list all the stakeholders that your solution
might touch – in positive, negative, or neutral ways.
Try to create a complete list with many actors. A mind
map format works well for this exercise. Remember to
include stakeholders that your team may not be focused
on, such as: funders, people in the same community
or adjacent communities who are not receiving direct
benefits, and non-human stakeholders such as animals,
the environment, and natural resources. Put this map or
list in a place where you can refer to it often.
2. As you see and track the effects of a solution,
write the effects on the list or map. Color code the
actors that receive benefits from the solution and
those that experience negative effects. If possible,
quantify the value of the effects with a standardized
measurement system.
3. Using this learning, continue to iterate on the solutions
to find ways to increase the positive effects and lessen
negative effects.
4. Examine the solution’s net value Use this exercise as
a way to continue learning and challenge the team to
improve on solutions in order to make the outcomes more
and more positive.
Facilitator Notes
Time:
1-2 Hours
Difficulty:
Step 1. List the different
stakeholders in the
system or develop a map.
To develop a mind map,
first write the name of the
solution on a large poster
or board.
Step 2. Draw a line from
the solution to the primary
stakeholders who will be
affected by the solution.
Step 3. From each primary
stakeholder, draw a line
and list the secondary
stakeholders that will be
affected by the solution.
Step 4. Keep going by
mapping more and more
stakeholders, including
human and non-human
stakeholders. When you
are finished, have the
team assess which of
the stakeholders might be
better off as a result of the
solution, and which might
be negatively affected.
Step 5. Develop methods
and techniques to
measure the impact on
the stakeholders who
might be both positively
and negatively affected.
Step 6. Hang the map in
a place where people can
refer to it often. Capture
thoughts and learnings in
a section of the map so
that it becomes a living
document for helping the
team learn and engage
in discussion.
Improved
nutrition
Funders Employers
Water
Pesticides
NGO
Suppliers

Case
study
Interventions to
Reduce Unplanned
Pregnancy
A project in the United States by IDEO to reduce
the number of unplanned pregnancies utilized a
wide portfolio of measurement and evaluation tools
throughout the process. The design team started by
gathering statistics and reading reports on unwanted
pregnancies. Next, they went into the field to learn
first-hand why young women have so many unplanned
pregnancies, and what tools they had available to them
to design interventions. The team discovered that
rational arguments rarely work to prevent unplanned
pregnancies. They also learned that a primary means
of communication for young women was SMS text
messaging.
The understanding led to a number of solutions to
help young women gain access to birth control pills
and an SMS service that would remind women to take
their birth control as directed. They got feedback on
a number of different executions on the idea, which
helped the team discover what worked and what
didn’t. For example, a simple SMS service that spoke in
conversational language was much more effective than
a message written in a clinical, authoritative tone. From
this, they found a partner that agreed to launch a mini-pilot
to try out the SMS ideas. This method allowed for
further learning and iteration.
For the next phase, several partners will launch the
SMS solutions with a functional website among a large
number of young women. During this larger pilot, the
team will track indicators such as click-based behaviors
on the web. In addition, the team will interview clinic
workers for anecdotal evidence of behavior change and
assess the success of the program in a participatory
way. After the pilot is completed and the program is
scaled up, the team will also begin tracking outcomes,
eventually including statistical evidence such as the rate
of decline in abortions and unplanned pregnancies.
H C D

HUMAN
CENTERED
DESIGN
FIELD
GUIDE

156 157
Recruiting the right
participants is critical to
success. Remember to
recruit extremes and balance
ethnic, class, and gender
considerations.
Keeping track of the people
you speak with can also be
challenging. Use the worksheets
to help keep a list of who you
have spoken with and who you
plan to speak with next.
WOrksheet :
RECRUITING PLAN
» GROUP MEETING LOCATIONS
Example Group Meeting Location:
Village 1: Ansoung Commune of Kg Trabek District
Unique Characteristic: Seasonal Flooding
Village 1:
Unique Characteristic:
Village 2:
Village 3:
intro :
FIELD CHECKLIST
» Complete the follo wing :
Worksheet: Recruiting Plan
Worksheet: Research Schedule
Worksheet: Identity, Power & Politics
» FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH:
Tips: Observation
Tips: Conversation
Tips: Discussion Guide
Tips: Documentation
Exercise: Community Characters
Exercise: Resource Flow
Exercise: Factors & Forces
Exercise: Journey Of An Offering
Exercise: Aspirations
» BRING WITH YOU:
Camera
Video Camera (optional)
Pens & Markers
Gifts for participants (optional)
» T O D EBRIEF, F ILL O UT:
Highlights
This Field Guide brings together
the tools you’ll need to lead
successful group meetings
and individual interviews.
Included in the Guide are
exercises to complete before
going into the field, tips for
successful interviews, and a
place to capture highlights
from the interviews while they
are still fresh in your mind.
» I NDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANT T YP ES:
Example Participant Types:
Successful Villager
Person struggling to survive
Large family with relatives in the city
Female headed household
Participant types:
For female participants,
interviewers may need
permission from male
family members or
community leaders.
GENDER

158 159
Worksheet :
IDENTITY, POWER
& POLITICS
6
» R ace & E thnicit y
Are ethnic, racial, and/or
tribal distinctions important
in this community?
How might these issues
affect the research and
design challenge?
How will you deal with
these issues in research?
» GENDER
Do women and men have
unequal status in this
context?
What activities within and
outside the household
do men and women do
differently?
How might gender
inequality affect the
research and design
challenge?
» C lass & I ncome
Are communities divided
along class or income lines?
How might income and
class divisions affect
the research and design
challenge?
» T HE disem powered
Are any groups of people
disempowered in this
community (i.e. landless,
children, disabled, etc)?
How might the perspec-tives
of these groups affect
the research and design
challenge?
How might the research
take into account the
perspectives of the
disempowered?
» T HE E LITE
Who are the political or
economic elites in this
context?
How might their influence
affect the research or
design challenge?
How will you mitigate
the influence of elites in
research?
Worksheet :
RESEARCH SCHEDULE
5
» Date
Example:
7 June / 8:00 - 10:00 (including setup)
» T EAM L EADS
2 Teams: Asha & Anand
» ACTIVITY
Village 1 Group Meeting
» D etails
2 groups of 10 participants
/ mixed gender
There are many things to juggle when you’re out in the field. The more you plan
ahead of time, the more smoothly the process will go. However, be prepared to
adjust quickly; for example, you might need to increase the number of facilitators
if you show up and the group is twice as large as expected.
Research with communities and individuals often involves issues of identity, power,
and politics. To help think through these issues, answer the questions above.

160 161
The in-context interview is a lengthy
conversation (often 1.5+ hours)
that explores the values, desires,
frustrations, and aspirations of your
interviewee. The conversation should:
Be long enough to make your
interviewee feel like they are really
being heard, and that allows them
to go past their rehearsed “script”
Be focused enough so that you feel
you are getting useful information to
address your design challenge
Be general enough so that it feels
like an open-ended conversation
that can lead to unexpected insights
Generate a true back-and-forth
so that it feels like a conversation
and puts the interviewee at ease
Make the interviewee feel that
the conversation is about them,
not about the product, service, or
organization you are representing
» Ask open-ended questions, or
questions that require a longer
explanation than one word.
» Listen and be attentive, even if
taking notes at the same time
» Have a dynamic conversation,
don’t interview from a script
» Allow long pauses
» Ask naïve questions (even if you’re
the expert) to hear the explanation
in their words
» Don’t correct people; understand
their perceptions and why they
may perceive things differently
than you
» Remember: the participant is the expert!
ti ps:
observation
The things people say and what
they actually do are often not the
same thing. In-context observations
are often useful for getting beyond
what people say to understand what
people do and feel.
In-context means being with people
in their real settings, doing the things
they normally do.
The stories that emerge from these
encounters in the field show us
new opportunities and inspire new
solutions.
It is often very powerful to experience
a process first-hand. Whenever
possible, put yourself in the shoes
of a customer and experience their
activities directly.
For example:
» Work with a farmer for a day in his
or her field.
» Live with a family for a few days.
» Go with a sick person to seek
medical care.
During observations, look for:
» Things that prompt shifts in behavior
» Work-arounds and adaptations
» Body language
» Things people care about
» Anything that surprises you
» Anything that questions your
assumptions about how the
world works
» Anything that you find “irrational”
ti ps:
conversation
tip tip

162 163
TIPS:
DISCUSSION GUIDE
FOR FARMING
Exam ple inter vie w guide Exam ple inter vie w guide » O PEN S PECIFIC
Start the conversation with simple and
specific questions your participants
will feel comfortable answering. You
may want to begin with a compliment
and short introduction and then move
on to questions about the participant’s
current life. This is your chance to build
rapport with the person you are inter-viewing
» O PEN S PECIFIC
1. Home Setup
How many people live in your home?
What do different members of your household do?
2. Home activities
What is a day like in your home?
What kind of things do adults and children do differently?
Women and men?
3. Context, values
How is life for you/your family/your community the same or
different than it was last year?
» G O BROAD
4. Aspirations for the future – use Aspiration cards
Choose 3 cards that represent what you hope for your future.
What did you choose and why?
5. Inividual (or Household) Health Flow – use the worksheet
Use the worksheet to illustrate or write what contributes to
or takes away from that person’s health.
6. System-based questions – use Factors and Forces worksheet
The innermost circle represents your household.
The middle circle your community.
The outer circle, the nation and the world.
What factors in each of these circles affect your health?
7. Who is the healthiest person/household in your community?
Why?
Who is the least healthy? What can/should be done for them to
be more healthy? When you have questions about health,
how do you find the answer? Where do you find the best
information?
» PROBE D EEP
8. Questions specific to the innovation challenge, e.g. perceptions
of vaccines, choices around cost/value of doctor visits for
different ailments.
Has anyone in your household needed to see a doctor recently?
9. Sacrificial concepts
Create possible future product, service, or agreement options
for them to react to. Use your assumptions and questions to
generate sacrificial ideas. Keep it simple; the more it’s just about
one idea the better.
» O PEN S PECIFIC
Start the conversation with simple and
specific questions your participants
will feel comfortable answering. You
may want to begin with a compliment
and short introduction and then move
on to questions about the participant’s
current life. This is your chance to build
rapport with the person you are inter-viewing
and to ask basic questions that
will help you understand their overall
life situation, the make-up of their
household, and their farming activities.
» GO BROAD
Prompt bigger more general topics
that ask the participant to think about
life, business, and the future. Ask about
their hopes and dreams for the future,
as well as the barriers to achieving
their goals. This is the chance to
understand how they want to change
their lives, what is standing in their
way, and what they perceive the real
paths to a better future might be.
» PROBE DEEP
Ask deeper questions about the
design challenge at hand & prompt
with ‘what if’ scenarios. The last half
of the interview is the time to ask
questions that are focused on your
design challenge. Make sure to ask
concrete questions of the participant
that will help you define what is and is
not desirable to this person.
and to ask basic questions that
will help you understand their overall
life situation, the make-up of their
household, and their farming activities.
» GO BROAD
Prompt bigger more general topics
that ask the participant to think about
life, business, and the future. Ask about
their hopes and dreams for the future,
as well as the barriers to achieving
their goals. This is the chance to
understand how they want to change
their lives, what is standing in their
way, and what they perceive the real
paths to a better future might be.
» PROBE DEEP
Ask deeper questions about the
design challenge at hand & prompt
with ‘what if’ scenarios. The last half
of the interview is the time to ask
questions that are focused on your
design challenge. Make sure to ask
concrete questions of the participant
that will help you define what is and is
not desirable to this person.
» OPEN SPECIFIC
1. Farm demographics
How many people live on your farm?
Can you give me a tour of your farm?
2. Stories of recent past
How did this year’s harvest compare to last year’s?
Do you expect next year to be better or worse?
3. What do different members of the household do?
What activities do women & men do differently?
» GO BROAD
4. Aspirations for the future - use Aspiration Cards
Choose 3 cards that represent what you hope for your future.
What did you choose and why?
5. System-based questions - use Factors & Forces worksheet
The innermost circle represents your household.
The middle circle your community.
The outermost circle the nation and the world.
What factors in each of these circles affect your prosperity?
6. Household (or Community) Resource Flow — use the
worksheets to illustrate or write household revenues and
expenditures.
7. Who do you turn to for information on farming and marketing
your products? In your community? Outside the community?
Who do you trust the most? Who gives you the best
information?
» PROBE DEEP
8. Questions specific to innovation challenge (i.e Perceptions of
Credit and Risk) Under what circumstances do people in your
community take credit or loans? Have you ever taken credit?
What for or why not?
What was a recent, significant purchase? - Journey of an
Offering Worksheet If you were offered a loan of $500,
what would you do?
9. Sacrificial Concepts
Create 1 possible future product, service or agreement options
for them to react to. It’s good to be provocative.
TIPS:
DISCUSSION GUIDE
FOR HEALTH

164 165
This exercise is good for:
» Group interviews
» Warming up the participants
» Identifying individuals you want
to follow up with after the session
(often the eyes, ears or
mouth of the community)
» S te p 1 :
Begin by saying you’d like to get to know
the community better by understanding the
different roles people in the community play.
» S te p 2 :
Ask the group to identify a specific person who
represents the eyes & ears of the community.
You might need to qualify this with a definition
(i.e. someone who is always looking outward
beyond the community for new ideas to bring
into the community). People may be reluctant
to call out individuals, so remind them that
there are many who play this role and you are
simply looking for one example.
» S te p 3 :
Ask the group to explain why this person is
the eyes & ears. If possible, ask for a specific
story that happened in the last month when
the person played that role. Take notes in the
appropriate box.
» S te p 4 :
Repeat for mouth, brain, heart or whichever
feel most relevant.
Community Characters Worksheet
Eyes
EARS
HEART Hands
MOUTH
BRAIN
FEET
This activity works differently with mixed-gender, men-only or a
women-only group.
If men are dominating in a mixed group, you may want to ask only
the women to identify someone for a given role.
This can sometimes be a highly political activity, especially if there are
community or government leaders present.
It’s fine to abandon the exercise if the political environment is making
this activity difficult.
GENDER
TIP
Capture everything you see, hear,
smell, feel, and taste during the
observation. It’s important to capture
the experience to bring back with you
to the office and to share with team
members who were not present.
Document the conversation with
notes, photos, and/or recordings.
In addition to your Field Guide, bring
a digital camera and, if possible,
a video camera or voice recorder.
Write down first interpretations of
what’s going on at the moment it
happened; this critical information
is often lost and difficult to
remember later.
Immediately after the interview (or
within 24 hours), jot down immediate
big picture takeaways from the
conversation using the Highlights
page. The longer you wait, the more
details and specifics may be lost.
It’s often helpful to work with a
partner—one person responsible
for leading the interview while the
other is capturing and documenting.
Compare the experiences,
perceptions, and interpretations
of the two people, and feel free to
switch roles every day or so.
ti ps:
documentation
iittpp
When documenting capture:
» Personal details (family size,
acreage, crops, diet, location)
» Direct, unfiltered quotes (and
your immediate interpretations)
» The expressions and feelings of
the person, not just their words
» Ways they interacted with others
and things in the environment
» Things they care about most
» Moments or things that elicited
emotional responses, positive
or negative
EXERCISE:
COMMUNITY CHARACTErs

Eyes
EARS
HEART
BRAIN
MOUTH
Hands
FEET
» EXERCISE NO. 1
» For indi vidual inter views:
Use Worksheet No. 2A
» S te p 1 :
Ask if your participant or one of their
children likes to draw. If not, it’s fine for
the participant or the interview leader
to write.
» S te p 2 :
Ask the participant to list everything that
brings money INTO the household on the
left side of the page. (This might include
various crops, livestock, labor, etc)
» S te p 3 :
Ask the participant to list everything that
takes money OUT of the household on
the right side of the page. (This might
include seed, technology, education,
medical expenses, etc)
» S te p 4 :
Ask the participant to circle the item
on the page that provides the largest
income and the largest cost. Alterna-tively,
you can ask them to rank order
all the items listed.
» S te p 5 :
Ask which items listed are controlled by
the women and which are controlled by
the men. Note this information down on
the worksheet.
» Group interviews
» Individual interviews
» FOR G ROUP I NTERVIEWS:
Use Worksheet No. 2B
» S te p 1 :
Ask if anyone in the group likes to draw
(often a teenager will volunteer). If no
one volunteers, the interviewer can make
notes based on what people say.
» S te p 2 :
If someone voluteered to draw, ask that
person to work with the group to draw
representations of everything that bring
money INTO the community on the left
side of the page. (These means of income
might include various crops, livestock,
labor, etc)
» S te p 3 :
Next, ask them to draw or say everything
that takes money OUT of the community
on the right side of the page. (These
expenditures might include seed inputs,
water technology, education, medical
expenses, etc)
» S te p 4 :
Ask them to circle the items on the page
that provide the largest income and the
largest cost.
» S te p 5 :
If desired, ask them to rank all the items
from most money to least money.
Different cultures will often determine whether the man or the woman is in charge of decision-making
and finances in the home. If one person is dominating the conversation, invite the
input of the other. Sometimes it is helpful for the design team to split up into two groups—one
to interview the husband and one to interview the wife. This enables you to cross-check and
compare stories after the interview.
GENDER
EXERCISE:
RESOURCE FLOW
167
2A
2B
Resource Flow Worksheets

» EXERCISE NO. 2 » EXERCISE NO. 2

» Group Interviews
» Individual Interviews
» Broadening the conversation
beyond one’s immediate individual
needs and circumstances
» Inviting conflicting opinions from
different members of community
for rich dialogue
Different cultures will often determine
whether the man or the woman is in
charge of decision-making and finances
in the home. If one person is dominating
the conversation, invite the input of the
other. Sometimes it is helpful for the
design team to split up into two groups—
one to interview the husband and one to
interview the wife. This enables you to
cross-check and compare stories after
the interview.
Factors & Forces Worksheet
» FOR G ROUP I NTERVIEWS:
» S te p 1 :
Tell the group that you want to
understand all the factors and forces
that affect their prosperity.
Describe the diagram:
» The innermost circle is the community
» The second circle is the nation
» The third circle is the world
» S te p 2 :
Ask what factors in the community,
in the nation and in the world BRING
prosperity to the community (i.e. health,
work ethic, children in school, etc). Start
with the community level and build
outwards to the world. Take notes in
the appropriate circles.
» S te p 3 :
Ask what factors in the world, in the
nation and in the community take
prosperity AWAY from the community
(i.e. violence, cost of fuel, legal status,
property ownership, climate change,
globalization, etc). Take notes in the
appropriate circles.
» For indi vidual inter views:
» S te p 1 :
Tell your participant that you want to
understand all the factors and forces
that affect their prosperity.
Describe the diagram:
» The innermost circle is the person
and his/her family
» The second circle is their community
» The third circle is their country
and the world
» S te p 2 :
Ask what factors in the family, in the
community and in the nation BRING
prosperity to their family. Start with
the household level and build outwards
to the nation. Take notes in the
appropriate circles.
» S te p 3 :
Ask what factors in the nation, in the
community and in the household take
prosperity AWAY from their family.
Take notes in the appropriate circles.
GENDER
In mixed-gender group sessions, the women will stay
quiet in some cultures though they have many ideas to
share. When asking for responses to these questions,
you might say “I’d like five people to respond to this
question” and point to five people who represent a mix
of genders.
Near the end of the exercise, ask what brings
prosperity to the women of the community or
household. Note if these factors are different.
EXERCISE:
Factors & Forces
» EXERCISE NO. 3
171

» Individual interviews
» Understanding what a person
considers when purchasing a new
product or servicefor the first time
EXERCISE:
journey of an offering
Journey of an Offering Worksheet
» S te p 1 :
Tell the participant that you want to know
what they think about when deciding to
make a purchase.
» S te p 2 :
Ask the participant to think of the last time
they bought a new thing or service.
» S te p 3 :
Show the participant the cards: talk, look,
compare, try, money. Ask them to tell you
how they did these things when making
their purchase.
Talk: Did you talk to people about the
product or service? Who and why?
What were your questions? Did you talk
to anyone about it after you made the
purchase?
Look: Where did you see this product or
service? What did you think at the time?
Compare: What other options did you con-sider?
What else did you compare this to?
GENDER
Different cultures will often determine whether the man or the woman
is in charge of decision-making and finances in the home. If the man is
the dominant voice in the conversation, listen to his explanation first,
then ask for the woman to describe the journey from her perspective.
Sometimes it is helpful for the design team to split up into two groups—
one to interview the husband and one to interview the wife. This enables
you to cross-check and compare stories after the interview.
This exercise can also be used to discuss a potential product or service.
TIP
173

TRY COMPARE
SAVE LOOK AT MARKET
GET CREDIT
TALK

» Engaging participants in group
and individual interviews
» Getting people to talk about what
they desire for the future
» Making people feel comfortable
talking about broader issues
EXERCISE:
ASPIRATIONS EXERCISE
Journey of an Offering Worksheet
» S te p 1 :
Start by saying that you want to know
what the participants hope for and desire
for the future.
» S te p 2 :
Tell the participants that you have a set of
cards with various pictures on them.
» S te p 3 :
Ask the participants to look through the
cards and choose the three pictures that
represent what they hope for in the future.
» S te p 4 :
If a participant asks, “what is this?” to a
picture, tell them that it is anything they
think it is, or if the picture doesn’t make
sense to them, skip it and move on.
» S te p 5 :
After the participants have chosen their
pictures, ask “Tell me what you chose” and
have them describe the picture. Then ask:
“Why did you choose this?” Document both
the pictures and explanations.
Have the participants explain what the picture is in their own words,
do not interpret the pictures for them. Often people will choose
something that represents one thing to them, but may represent
something different to the researcher.
If appropriate, you can ask people to choose the three pictures that
represent what they fear in the future after they are finished with the
first exercise.
You may find that you need different pictures for your design challenge
or the community you are working with. With the help of the internet,
find some pictures and print them out to add to this group of pictures.
TIP
TIP
TRY
177

HIGHLIGHTS
» T ype of Acti vit y:
Group Interview
Individual Interview
» Date :
» LOcATION:
» N ame :
In-Context Immersion
Other
Things that matter most to the
partici pant (s):
Things the partici pant (s) said or did that
sur prised you or most memora ble quotes :
Main themes or learnings that stood out
from this inter view:
worksheet :
New to pics or questions to ex plore in
future inter views:
187

188
Acknowledgements
This Toolkit is the result of a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation. The BMGF brought together four organizations—IDEO,
IDE, Heifer International, and ICRW—to partner in the creation of a
method for guiding innovation and design for people living under $2/day.
As one of the key developers of the Human-Centered Design process,
an IDEO team led the creation of this Toolkit. While IDEO takes
responsibility for its shortcomings, we cannot take responsibility
for any of its successes. These successes are the outcome of an
extraordinary collaboration of partnerships on many continents—
and the individuals that went above and beyond to prototype
and field test these methods. Working on-site with IDE teams in
Ethiopia, Zambia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the US, as well as with
Heifer International in Kenya, the HCD process was adapted for
use with constituents in developing contexts.
IDEO revised and re-released the second edition of the Toolkit
drawing on other social impact projects and on inspiration from
outside users of the Toolkit.
Thanks to Kara Pecknold for sharing her use of the Human-Centered
Design Toolkit in Rwanda as case study. Thanks also to Fidel Calderon
and Indhira Rojas for the visual design of this edition. To add your own
experiences or give feedback for the next edition of this Toolkit,
email info@ideo.org
This is a working prototype.
Let’s keep learning, adapting, and iterating together.

Human centered desing toolkit

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