How to Innovate to Make A Social Impact?? - HackaDev Learnings part (1) -

There are plenty of gaps in the world that should be filled with innovative ideas and solutions.As individuals everyone of us witness one or more of the gaps every day. And we can take part to resolve those issues because every simple act by us matters to the sustainability and well being of the entire eco-system.

This article provides you with guidance and direction to engage innovation exactly address the current requirement of the society . Simply it is about design thinking which is the key to innovation.

Initially it should be mentioned that this article is written based on the amazing experience and guidance that was given to us from Hackadev Social Innovation camp 2018; the 5 day residential programme to support our social innovation ideas with international facilitators from Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre which was held at cinnamon bey, Beruwala ;  organized by  United Nations Development Programme - UNDP Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Telecommunication, Digital Infrastructure and Foreign Employment, Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the National Youth Services Council

Furthermore hope that this article will help you to recreate social innovation camps and disseminate this knowledge among st the community to encourage them in innovation.

Before entering the innovation process identify friends and enemies of learning; both of your self and your team mates. Friends of learning are the internal features in you (like energetic  nature, imagination, creativity, flexibility and team player capabilities) that supports learning as given in  the image.

The enemies of learning are the internal features of you that pull your leg when you start learning like below.

It is highly recommended to learn while playing throughout this since playing is the best way to learn passionately without getting bored.

Then dive into Design thinking since It is the key to innovation which includes the five steps given below; namely :

• empathy
• identify
• define
• prototype
• test

 At  the end of the article you will know how to identify the major problem; define problem statement; identify the most impacting and viable solution and adjust the solution by addressing the feedback obtained through prototyping and testing.

Just follow this procedure whenever you witness a critical issue in the society. 

1. 1.Empathy

Empathy is all about getting into one's own shoes to experience their perspective in the issue and identify the exact gap and exact requirements by digging into the issue with curiosity. watch this video for more understanding.what is empathy?

1. a.Identify the "Issue" -  Initially the major issue should be identified. First discuss with the team about how you see this matter personally. Then just google and do some background research. For a example if your issue is "Increase in accidents in Sri Lanka"; just go to motor traffic department's site and obtain other google statistical data to exactly verify whether the accidents have increased and whether it is a issue that should be addressed. A simple and short background research would be enough for this. But always remember the issue is always neutral. Be open; allow change ; consider all facts and come up with decisions. Examples for issue : Increase in accidents in Sri Lanka, Increase in teenage pregnancy in central province Sri Lanka, Increasing polythene bag usage in Sri Lanka etc.
   
2. b.Identity stakeholders and their persona - All the people and communities that are connected or impacted by the issue should be identified. Then discuss and note down their personalities in terms of general behaviors and characteristics.For an example if the issue is regarding accidents the stakeholders could be drivers, police, passengers, pedestrians, families of victims etc. 
3. c.Stakeholder mapping - select major 5-6 stakeholders and make a poster to interpret their persona as identified. And draw arrows to show the connection between stakeholders and mention their relationship on the arrow.Some examples are given in the below images.
   
   

   

   stakeholder mapping
4. d.Conduct interviews -  first make 3-5 questions to be asked from each stakeholder. make sure to focus on the facts that are needed to be verified.Find stakeholders through your connections or through online. It is recommended to interview even 5 persons from each stakeholder category because then you can obtain the most accurate requirements.
5. e.Summarize the interview answers - After conducting the interview ; take all the important points obtained from stakeholders in to little sticky notes. Just write every single point separately. mentioning the person who said the point is not needed. 
6. f.Mix them - to be used in the next phase of identifying requirements.

2. 2.Identify                                                                            We validated the issue and collected facts and requirements in the above face. Those facts are organized in this phase to finalize the problem statement.

1. a.Separate them into clusters and give names - The mixed sticky notes should be clustered separately ; the ones with similar kind of facts should go to the same cluster. For a example facts and suggestions about legal aspects should go to one cluster. When considering accident issue; death statistics can go to one cluster. The number of clusters you will get depends on the scope of your issue. In our camp (hackadev camp3) there were cluster numbers ranging from to 35.

   

   clustering
2. b.Identify one major problem from each cluster -  Identify one major problem from each cluster. If you have 10 clusters; now you will have 10 problems.
3. c.Exclude one by one to get the major problem - now exclude the problems  one by one and obtain the most prominent problem. If you have more than one prominent problems identified you can combine them to obtain the final " problem statement". This is more specific when compared with the issue. This defines the exact problem faced by the society.
   
4. d.Make a design challenge statement - This statement is designed to depict the final goal of our innovation. Indeed it says where your journey ends. And will motivate you if you feel like giving up through the innovation process. An example is given below.
   
   
   

   

   Design Challenge statement

The summary of this phase is depicted in the image below.

3. 3.Define(IDEATE)

1. a.Create Solution matrix and collect all the solutions -  create a solution matrix  (stakeholders vs solution category) as below.

   

   solution matrix

   The stakeholders are the persons that you defined and interviewed in the earlier phases. For a example if you take the accident issue driver is a one stakeholder. Solution categories can be social media, legal aspects , virtual reality, smart devices and many more. Lets take stakeholder 1 = driver and solution category 1= social media. Then write a solution in social media category in the perspective of drivers; on a sticky note and paste on the box of intersection of the two perspectives.  The solution can be a social media platform to encourage drivers to behave ethically on road. Don't think about the impact, difficulty or the possibility of the solution at this stage. This phase should be conducted as given below. In the first round take set of solution categories and stakeholders ; and write solutions on sticky notes and paste on the relavent intersections. Every team member should actively engage. But no one should talk to each other; in order to prevent ones ideas being affected by others opinions. One round can take only 3 minutes. At the end of the round take off the sticky notes and keep aside. Then replace the older stakeholders or solution categories and repeat the process until you complete 5 rounds. Now you have a whole lot of solution
2. b.Identify most prominent 10 solutions - Inspect them with the team and select the most prominent 10 solutions from all.
3. c.Arrange them according to priority horizontally - An example depicted in the below image

   

   according to priority

4. d.Take difficulty as y axis and move solutions vertically according to impact

   

   Priority Vs Difficulty

5. e.Select most viable product - As depicted in the diagram below. section 1 and 2 should be given the last priority. At first stage combine compatible solutions from section 3 and 4 to obtain the most viable solution.

   

   Selection of MVP

6. f.Create the business model - write the relavent  people and points on sticky notes and paste on the below business model structure.

   

   Structure of the business model

always fall in love with the problem not the solution. Always be open to subject your solution to adjustments to suit the situation and requirements.

4. 4.Prototype

• a.Create concept poster - It depicts your entire concept. Just doodle and write information about what? why? and how you are going to provide the solution according to the structure given below.

concept poster

• b.Take all your interfaces on to papers and models - These interfaces totally depend on the type of solution that you are going to provide. Try to come up with more understandable user friendly prototypes to get the best feedback.

5. 5.Test 

    Just follow the steps below in testing prototypes with customers. This is one of the most important phases because every feedback gives you suggestions to improve a certain aspect in your solution.

1. a.Initially give basic instructions and remain in silence
2. b.Let the customers use and give feedback
3. c.Note suggestions
4. d.Improve your design according to the feedback
5. e.Test with a new customer

The more customers you test with, The more you improve.Keep iterating on this procedure to get maximum results before pitching the concept .
Always remember it is totally okay to fail and feel frustrated through out this design thinking process. Just make sure to FAIL FAST! FAIL CHEAP AND FAIL OFTEN! because it will drive you towards success. 

And one last thing we were told that this knowledge has no copyrights; So we shared it with you. You can also share it  with anyone and apply it to any issue you come across.

Lets make the world a better place with sustainable and worthy innovations. 
Cheers to you and your journey!