My graduate student Jordan Pease just defended his master’s thesis yesterday. I am happy to report that he passed with only minimal edits required to the manuscript. Jordan’s thesis topic is on design for the developing world using market-based approaches. I have included the abstract to his thesis and a video of the defense below. Once the final manuscript is approved, I will post a link to the PDF of it as well.
Title: The Lean Design for the Developing World Method: A Novel Lean Market-Based Product Design Methodology for Developing World Markets that Benefits Consumers and Companies
Abstract:
The Lean Design for the Developing World (LDW) method is a novel lean market-based product design methodology for use in developing world markets. Having a market-based approach, the LDW is unique among methods created for use in the developing world. Tools and methods such as appropriate technology, Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (ESCD), and Human Centered Design (HCD) have been developed to help bring improvements to the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. One thing these methods have in common is a user-centered approach to design that seeks to obtain context specific qualitative data from those with who the designs will eventually interact. These user-centered approaches have seen sustainable success in project level engineering design challenges. For consumer level products however, a user-centered approach can struggle to deliver design solutions that are able to be successfully scaled to greater varieties of customer environments.
A weakness present in existing user-centered design approach is the creation of overly specific designs that fail to operate as intended in an altered context. In order to address this paradox, a market-based approach can be leveraged in order to obtain quantitative data on users. Recent advances in market-centered design from lean startup methodologies hold promise for the development of new methods that allow effective product design for consumers in the developing world. This paper contributes a method from which consumer-level products can be designed to effectively supply the under-served markets of the developing world with innovative and sustainable solutions. Utilizing an iterative method based on three fundamental hypotheses, the LDW method seeks to provide products that are economically viable, have strong market growth potential, and have a net positive impact on the customers and their communities.