The IDEO Human-Centered Design Toolkit

As quoted from the project website and the various guides:

Introduction

Introduction (PDF): This toolkit is the result of a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The BMGF brought together four organizations — IDEO, International Development Enterprises (IDE), Heifer International, and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)—to partner in the creation of a method for guiding innovation and design for social enterprises and NGOs. These successes are the outcome of an extraordinary collaboration of partnerships on three 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, IDEO the HCD process was adapted for use in developing contexts.

Human-Centered Design is a process used for decades to create new solutions for companies and organizations. Human-Centered Design can help you enhance the lives of people. This process has been specially-adapted for organizations like yours that work with people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Human-Centered Design (HCD) will help you hear people’s needs in new ways, create innovative solutions to meet these needs, and deliver solutions with financial sustainability in mind.

The reason this process is called “human-centered” is because it starts with the people we are designing for. The starting point of the HCD process is to examine 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.

It is the lens through which we view the world through the entire design process. Once we have identified the universe of what is Desirable, we begin to view our solutions through the lenses of Feasibility and Viability. We carefully bring these lenses in at the later phases of the process.

Scenarios

Week-Long Deep Dive - This mode of engagement forces the design team to work quickly to gather and analyze data, then move rapidly to solutions, prototypes and plans. The one-week timeframe is a familiar timeframe 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Complementing 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.

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.

Hear Guide

The Hear guide (PDF) will help your design team prepare for fieldwork and understand how to collect stories that will serve as insight and inspiration. Designing meaningful and innovative solutions that serve your customers begins with gaining deep empathy for 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 to delve beneath the surface.

At the end of the Hear phase, you’ll be prepared to go into the field to conduct design research by completing the worksheets in your Field Guide:

• Recruiting Plan
• Research Schedule
• Identity, Power & Politics
• Group Interview Guide
• Individual Interview Guide

Steps:

1. Identify a Design Challenge
2. Identify People to Speak With
3. Choose Research Methods (Individual and Group Interviews, In-Context Immersion)
4. Develop an Interview Approach (Guide, Scenario-based questions, Techniques)
5. Develop Your Mindset (2 exercises: Beginners, Observe v. Interpret)

Field Guide and Aspiration Cards

The Field Guide (PDF) and Aspirations cards (PDF) are a complement to the Hear guide; these are the tools your team will take with them in order to conduct research.

Create Guide

The Create Guide (PDF) will help your team 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 from concrete to more abstract thinking in identifying themes and opportunities and back to the concrete with solutions and prototypes.

Steps:

1. Share Stories
2. Identify Patterns (Extract Key Insights, Find Themes, Create Frameworks)
3. Create Opportunity Areas
4. Brainstorm New Solutions
5. Make Ideas Tangible
6. Gather Feedback

Deliver Guide

The Deliver Guide (PDF) will help catapult the top ideas you have created toward implementation. The realization of solution includes rapid revenue and cost modeling, capability assessment, and implementation panning. The activities offered in this phase are meant to complement your organization’s existing implementation processes and may prompt adaptations to the way solutions are typically rolled out.

Steps:

1. Develop a Sustainable Revenue Model (Customer Value Proposition, Revenue Sources, Stakeholder Incentives)
2. Identify Capabilities Required for Delivering Solutions (Distribution, Requirements v. Capabilities, Potential Partners)
3. Plan a Pipeline of Solutions



4. Create an Implementation Timeline
5. Plan Mini-Pilots and Iteration

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Personal Review

The toolkit is great for any type of user-centered product development program, with some particular notes for the developing world. Check out each of the PDFs for further case studies, questions to ask, considerations to make, and many more details that I couldn’t fit into the space here. At the very least, it’ll provide you with a structured process for developing and launching successful products.

Tagged as: human centered design, ideo, process, product design