Minimize the risk of going too far with a solution that isn't truly responsive

I find that some ideas are piloted at too large a scale, incurring considerable costs, then we find out it doesn’t work, so we go back to the drawing board.

Program officer

Overview

Often times there is a tendency to think that we have the solution and to go all out with our idea without testing it with people first.

To place smaller and lower-risk bets upfront, you may want to bring a design partner into your investment who will have the explicit role of developing tangible markers/prototypes of progress through quick cycles of experimentation. This can create pragmatic and purposeful design parameters that reduce the risk of investment failure over the longer-term. It can also serve to de-risk the potential that a solution will not receive the uptake necessary because it fails to meet the bar of what people actually need, want, and are able to access. The iterative design process supports efforts to get to a viable and appropriate solution that meets the core needs of the target audience.

Common outputs or deliverables

Tips and tricks

  • The prototyping process will benefit from incorporating some flexibility into the process, and is the phase of the design process that can benefit from adopting adaptive management and implementation research principles and techniques.
  • If you have never been part of a prototyping process, it will be important to build time into this phase to ensure that you are learning about the process and that you are confident in the framework your design partners is using to evaluate various iterations of the solution(s).
  • Given that your solution will need to be picked up by an implementing partner, consider how to structure the investment to facilitate collaboration between your design and implementing partners.
  • Design sample sizes are meant to be exemplary - demonstrating the outlines and margins of a particular world or issue - and are not representative.
  • The prototyping process will benefit from incorporating some flexibility into the process, and is the phase of the design process that can benefit from adopting adaptive management and implementation research principles and techniques.

Traps

  • Be wary when the proposed scope only has time and resources for a single iterative cycle, as reducing the risk of investment failure will likely require multiple iterative cycles factored into the process.
  • Many large implementing partners have been building their design capability in-house. At the same time, they may not have fully incorporated the design mindset into their way of working. Do not necessarily assume that they will always be able to make the necessary decisions about when and how to most effectively bring in design expertise.

Questions for potential partners

  • Can you walk me through your process for setting up multiple rounds of iteration and testing with users/stakeholders?
  • I often feel lost in the prototyping phase of a project, can you share with me how you will document the process so that I can clearly understand what inputs are needed for the various decisions you will make along the way?
  • How do you determine what kinds of evaluation measures you will need to include to evaluate different iterations of the solution(s)?
  • How are you able to determine when there have been sufficient iterations?
  • Can you walk me through your process for identifying who are the key users/stakeholders necessary for a given prototyping process and how this changes over the life of the project?
  • Given that an implementing partner is key to ensuring that a new product or service is implemented in a sustainable manner, what is your process for working with implementing partners and bringing them in as key collaborators?
  • Have you ever brought implementation research or adaptive management expertise into your work? Do you ever partner with firms who have this capability?