SPRING Accelerator – Design Research for women-focussed companies

Situation

SPRING was an accelerator program that worked with businesses in East Africa and South Asia to foster adolescent girls’ socio-economic empowerment, market inclusion and increase their wellbeing through private sector solutions.

Over 5 years, SPRING has supported 75 businesses in reaching over 2.5 Million adolescent girls in 9 countries across East Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) and South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar).

Spring was funded by:

After a highly competitive international tender, Spring selected Proportion as a winning human-centered design agency.

Assignment

Provide human-centered design support to 20 social businesses to enrich or pivot their business models in order to maximise the positive impact on girls & women

Approach

Proportion lead a research team of local research experts in Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan. 

• Bootcamp #1
  The support kicked off during a one week bootcamp on Nepal, where the international Proportion team met all the CEOs of the 20 social enterprises. During the bootcamp, each business strategy and business model has been challenged on its positive impact on girls and women. By the end of the bootcamp, each CEO came up with an innovative approach based on a set of assumptions to be validated in the field.  

• Design research
  The Proportion team conducted local field research among beneficiaries and local stakeholders. Research included in-depth interviews, focus group workshops, observations and prototype validation.  

• Bootcamp #2
  The research insights were presented back to the entrepreneurs, which enabled them to pivot or persevere their innovative approach.  

Results

20 social enterprises gained rich insights from their customer target groups, beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders that gave them to confidence on how to create more positive impact on girls and women.

Selection of companies we impacted:  

• Himalayan Rabbit Nepal –  research how users value health benefits of rabbit meat, design how to onboard farmers to venture into rabbit farming
• Khalti Nepal – Design recommendations on how to improve the agent business model for reselling mobile money services.
• Women in Digital – Design recommendations on how to increase the viability of the business model to train women in ICT skills. 

This project was commissioned by Spring and led by Thomas and Proportion Global consultants in Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan. If you’ve enjoyed reading this case and want to dive deeper, we’d love to hear from you and we will connect you with relevant designers like Thomas, who worked on this project Contact Us