Takeaways from TEDxChange Talk on Design Thinking for Development by Jeff Chapin of IDEO

I had nine takeaways and/or insights from Jeff Chapins talk on design thinking for internationl development talk he gave at TEDxChange:
1. Talk to customers
2. Build prototypes
3. Transparencies are better than large posters (easier to understand) and deal with.
4. People buy products gradually (i.e. improving roofing over time)
5. He also talks about their roll out numbers (i.e. benchmarks or goals for future designers)
6. Re-purposing existing goods (ie water containers), but also the perception of the re-use of goods.
7. Ask them where they will likely put the device.
8. He also explains other services they provided (particularly to the sellers & marketers of the toliets and hand-washing stations)–branding and banner creation along with training on core business practices including stocking.
9. This is done with sales agents and one innovation was group buying (in groups of 10). This was also done with additional services (tile slab add-on)

His specific tips–design as a tool to enable conversation:
1. build on cultural norms
2. learn from subtlety of communications
3. listen to lead users
4. be open to serendipity
5. support local expression & adoption

TedXChange was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. You can learn more about Jeff Chapin here.

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