Learning Launch tool

Challenge

Agriculture is the backbone of Af rica and in my country Kenya it provides more than 51% of its GDP. This

is quite impressive. Unf ortunately, the Farmers behind this impressive number still live in poverty

conditions. This is because lack inf ormation on where to get market f or their products, they lack

inf ormation on market prices they must depend on exploitative middlemen who take advantage of their

ignorance. There is also a long distribution chain that dilutes their revenue.

I ama f ounder of an online platf ormthat links small scale f armers to buyers using mobile and web

technology. My challenge is to create a simple technology that can be easily accessed by f armers

considering that most of the f armers live in the rural areas with little access to internet services. This

project includes IT personnel and the marketing teamtogether with our partners f romBora f armer’s

Sacco. The project is a start- up theref ore run by volunteer time. The time line f or this project should run

f or at most 3 months to give our sof tware development teamample time to create a prototype of the

technology. Our partners f romBora f armer’s Sacco will help us in structuring the f irst prototype of the

technology so us to test it with our main users. Once we come up with the prototype our marketing

teamwill help us in our f irst go- to- market research.

Selection

As a team, we have decided to use the learning launch tool. We believe this will help us design a simple

yet ef f ective technology that our users can easily navigate. Working with some f armers f romthe Bora

f armer’s Sacco we have gone through several design thinking activities to come up with a go- to- market

prototype. Doing this activity has helped us in selecting the learning launch tool f or our challenge. This

tool will help us go through an iterating process that will improve on our solution. Working with the

prototype will help us experiment the idea with a larger group of f armers.

Application

Our f irst launch we f ocused on providing a mobile application that runs on a smartphone, with

incredible f eatures like image capture, chat and location. This is to ensure we capture quality

inf ormation about f armproducts f armers would like to sell. Our f ocus was to observe howf armers

interact with the mobile platf orm. This process helped us understand our market, many f armers liked

the idea behind the technology, however, most of themdid not own a smartphone and they had limited

or no internet services due to their rural geographical locations. Most f armers owned the simple f eature

phone that runs on Symbian operating system. Af ter a lengthy observation on the f armers we realized

we should have f ocused on human centered design instead of product centered design. We spent the

next 3 days with both our marketing and IT teams together with the f armers to improve on the

technology to run on a f eature phone. We worked through all possible solutions and we settled on

creating a USSD platf orm.

Our second launch was to release the newplatf ormto a group of f armers to see howthey will

interact

with it. Our f ocus was to observe to see if there were any gaps. Through this process it helped us

understand our market and what our users considered simple. Af ter testing the second platf ormwe conducted interviews with the f armers who interacted with it to understand their experiences and to

f ind out if this second prototype was easy to navigate. Our priority was to ensure that the f armers could

use the platf ormwith ease.

Insight

By applying the learning tool, we designed and tested our solutions. Through the learning process we

got to improve our mobile application to meet user’s expectation. It is through this process we realized

that the f armers were more comf ortable with the second mobile application. Our marketing department

used the results of this process to re- strategize our marketing campaign. Moving f orward our business

will f ocus on human centered design to improve our product and services.

Approach

The learning launch is the appropriate tool f or our business. We need as a teamto reviewthe insight

gained f romour f irst two launches and incorporate this insight into f uture launch designs as this is the

most ef f ective and ideal way of approaching and implementing solutions. Future launch designs should

ref lect insight gained, progress made, and come closer to a compelling solution ready f or f ull roll out.

Nowthat you have seen howto implement the design thinking learning launch tool you can try to implement the other tools.


Learning Launch tool Challenge Agriculture is the backbone of Af rica and in my country Kenya it provides more than 51 % of its GDP . This is quite impressive . Unf ortunately , the Farmers behind this impressive number still live in poverty conditions . This is because lack inf ormation on where to get market f or their products , they lack inf ormation on market prices they must depend on exploitative middlemen who take advantage of their ignorance . There is also a long distribution chain that dilutes their revenue . I ama f ounder of an online platf ormthat links small scale f armers to buyers using mobile and web technology . My challenge is to create a simple technology that can be easily accessed by f armers considering that most of the f armers live in the rural areas with little access to internet services . This project includes IT personnel and the marketing teamtogether with our partners f romBora f armer ’s Sacco . The project is a start- up theref ore run by volunteer time . The time line f or this project should run f or at most 3 months to give our sof tware development teamample time to create a prototype of the technology . Our partners f romBora f armer ’s Sacco will help us in structuring the f irst prototype of the technology so us to test it with our main users . Once we come up with the prototype our marketing teamwill help us in our f irst go- to- market research . Selection As a team , we have decided to use the learning launch tool . We believe this will help us design a simple yet ef f ective technology that our users can easily navigate . Working with some f armers f romthe Bora f armer ’s Sacco we have gone through several design thinking activities to come up with a go- to- market prototype . Doing this activity has helped us in selecting the learning launch tool f or our challenge . This tool will help us go through an iterating process that will improve on our solution . Working with the prototype will help us experiment the idea with a larger group of f armers . Application Our f irst launch we f ocused on providing a mobile application that runs on a smartphone , with incredible f eatures like image capture , chat and location . This is to ensure we capture quality inf ormation about f armproducts f armers would like to sell . Our f ocus was to observe howf armers interact with the mobile platf orm . This process helped us understand our market , many f armers liked the idea behind the technology , however , most of themdid not own a smartphone and they had limited or no internet services due to their rural geographical locations . Most f armers owned the simple f eature phone that runs on Symbian operating system . Af ter a lengthy observation on the f armers we realized we should have f ocused on human centered design instead of product centered design . We spent the next 3 days with both our marketing and IT teams together with the f armers to improve on the technology to run on a f eature phone . We worked through all possible solutions and we settled on creating a USSD platf orm . Our second launch was to release the newplatf ormto a group of f armers to see howthey will interact with it . Our f ocus was to observe to see if there were any gaps . Through this process it helped us understand our market and what our users considered simple . Af ter testing the second platf ormwe conducted interviews with the f armers who interacted with it to understand their experiences and to f ind out if this second prototype was easy to navigate . Our priority was to ensure that the f armers could use the platf ormwith ease . Insight By applying the learning tool , we designed and tested our solutions . Through the learning process we got to improve our mobile application to meet user ’s expectation . It is through this process we realized that the f armers were more comf ortable with the second mobile application . Our marketing department used the results of this process to re- strategize our marketing campaign . Moving f orward our business will f ocus on human centered design to improve our product and services . Approach The learning launch is the appropriate tool f or our business . We need as a teamto reviewthe insight gained f romour f irst two launches and incorporate this insight into f uture launch designs as this is the most ef f ective and ideal way of approaching and implementing solutions . Future launch designs should ref lect insight gained , progress made , and come closer to a compelling solution ready f or f ull roll out . Nowthat you have seen howto implement the design thinking learning launch tool you can try to implement the other tools .