Introduction
Three weeks ago, I and four other members in a team, participated in the Innobate for africa Hackathon.
WHAT IS A HACKATHON
A Hackathon is a competition where competing teams pick a sector and try to proffer a solution to an identified problem in that sector. The IFA hackathon consisted of 8 teams that got to choose from the different sectors including Agriculture, Education, Health, Climate change. During the entire process of the Hackathon, teams were taught how to apply the principles of design thinking and the end goal was to have at the end of the hackathon, a prototype and pitch deck, which would be presented on "Pitch day".
WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING
Design thing is a framework and iterative process that is used by designers and innovators to help guide and make efficient the process of innovation. It involves four stages:
Empathize
Here the innovator or designer empathises with the person whose problem he or she is trying to solve by literally and figuratively putting him or herself in the user's shoe. This is where the potential product user is interviewed with the aim to understand the user and the user's pain points and problems. It's also an immersive phase that leads the innovator to immerse themselves in the user's world. During interviews, asking open ended questions and questions that allow the potential user to talk about themselves while actively listening is one way to get to know the user. Another way is to watch the user do their daily task and observe their behaviour.
Define
At this stage, the problem gets defined based on the observations during the empathy stage. Defining the problem is very important because a poorly defined problem would lead to a poor solution. The defined problems should address the pain points of the potential user.
Ideate
At this stage of ideation, ideas on possible solutions are given. This stage needs to be done creatively and without judgement of ideas. Convergent and divergent thinking processes help to spur ideas and activate creativity.
Prototype
After the ideate stage, the best solution is picked based on feasibility, interest, viability and ability to address the problem being solved. The prototype is a depiction of what the actual product would look or work like and there are different forms of prototypes depending on the type of product being prototyped.
Test
The final stage is to test the prototype. The testing stage is where the users get to use the prototype and this involves observation on the part of the tester to see the user's reaction, ask interview questions in order to to see how the poduct is perceived and what changes need to be made.
CHALLENGE
My team had picked the sector of climate and climate change and focused on addressing the negative effects of climate change on food production in Nigeria. This is important now because there is an ever increasing gap in the ratio of food output and the population of people in Nigeria. The scarcity of food due to different problems that farmers face especially in Nigeria is already taking a toll on the nation's people and economy. It is urgent to address this now and help farmers meet the food demand in Nigeria.
The Process
Empathize
After brainstorming sessions we ended up voting for an initial problem statement "Climate change is affecting crop production and yield, worsening poverty and food security in Nigeria. How do we leverage technology and data analysis to improve crop production and ultimately reduce poverty in Nigeria?"
We then set up interviews with farmers as part of our primary market research. We quickly realized that our initial problem statement did not capture the farmer's interests and pain points. We also learned about our potential customer's way of life, their motivations and their goals which would help us to redefine the problem statement. See details on our PMR here
Define
Based on the result of our primary research which showed that the farmer were more bothered by their immediate problems such as lack of farm input and their inability to deal with the outcomes of climate change (unpredictable seasons, flooding, food spoilage due to increased heat, we revised our initial statement to solve these more ugent needs. "How might we help farmers mitigate the effects of climate change to upscale food production?"
Ideate
We proceeded to proffer solutions for these problems and after brainstorming, ideating through divergent and convergent thinking we narrowed our solutions to three. This was done collaboratively using the online brainstorm tool "stormboard". The solutions selected include:
i. Creating an affordable and simple water infiltration and attenuation system.
ii. Creating a service that offers training and provides research resources and consulting for Rural farmers
iii. Creating a digital platform for collaborative machinery and storage equipment hiring.
We eventually chose the third solution option by vote which we then went on to prototype.
Prototype
I designed a clickable digital prototype using proto io that depicted the process of registering and hiring machinery by dialing a USSD code. View the prototype at the link here
Test
The testing process was done with members of other teams and we learned that the prototype was simple and effective like we set it up to be.
The Product/Service
Say hello! to Agronovator, a digital USSD platform, easy to use and accessible to farmers in rural areas. This product platform makes it possible for farmers to easily access machinery and storage equipments, at reduced cost, through collaborative hiring. It also connects farmers in a community, encouraging community farming and improving food production output for farmers and the ever growing population.
Our market strategy is to serve as a link from our customers to already existing resource hiring companies.
FINAL PITCH DECK PRESENTED ON AGRONOVATOR
Reflection of the Process
I have learnt from this hackathon process, the importance of correctly framing the problem by using empathy when carrying out primary market research.
This would help me in the future as an entrepreneur to properly carry out research and define my user persona and pain points in order to provide innovative solutions that solve actual problems.
My team and I have decided to pursue this idea while still building on it and carrying out more research.