Practitioners from Grameen Foundation and Thoughtworks joined the team from Stanford University -ChangeLabs and the RAN team to facilitate the Need Finding Workshop. Participants include innovators and Innovation Officers at RAN.
RAN has chosen a human-centered approach to designing resilience innovations to ensure that the communities’ needs remain at the center of all innovations developed and incubated within the Resilience Innovation Labs (RILabs) www.ranlab.org. The objective of the “NeedFinding” workshop is therefore to introduce participants to the philosophy, techniques and methodologies of incorporating a human-centered approach throughout the innovation process. During the two-day workshop, participants will be introduced to stakeholder mapping and articulating user needs, need finding techniques, and planning for and implementing a need finding survey.
One of the facilitators at the workshop said “keep in touch with the users even if the product is still a rough cut, early feedback results into a good product”.In addition,that in designing interventions once grounded then you know that you can do better. Today, the workshop participants were taken through understanding the value of Need Finding, practicing techniques: the Dos and Don’ts of NeedFinding and an applied learning activity. Prof. Banny Banerjee from Stanford University-ChangeLabs one of RAN’s Core Partners noted that “Risk and failure are part of the innovation process, never fear to take the risk and or fail-the earlier you fail, the more and better learning you acquire for an improved output”.
The key questions in NeedFinding are; who are the community or people in need, what is challenge they/he/she are/is facing and what kind of solutions do we need to provide?
Time to hear back from the different teams at the NeedFinding Workshop
Theo Gibbs (standing) from Stanford University-ChangeLabs attending to one of the group’s needs at the NeedFinding Workshop
Prof. Banny Banerjee (2nd from right) from Stanford University-ChangeLabs at the NeedFinding Workshop
An ariel view of the Workshop area
RAN Director Innovations, Dr. Wanjiku Nganga associates NeedFinding to developing the Innovations as Interventions
RAN Deputy Chief of Party, Dr. Roy William Mayega opening the NeedFinding Workshop