Blog Post #4

1. *Based on your life experience, skills and interests, what would a design process that is both uniquely yours and effective look like?

Our group decided to do this question separately since it was so personal.  It is beneficial to be aware of your group members’ different design processes that way you can adapt and see where they are coming from in times of disagreement.  For me, visualization is a huge part of my process.  I not only have to define the problem but be able to actually see or picture it in my head.  It can’t just be a high maternal mortality rate.  I need to see the whole picture.  Before identifying my personal limits, I think it is important to brainstorm any and all ideas.  No idea is too big and too far fetched at this stage.  If you limit yourself based on what you THINK you can accomplish, you may miss out on your best idea.  After I compile my list of ideas is when I look at what I can actually do.  You don’t want to restrict yourself from certain ideas too early on in the process because after some research you may find out something far fetched isn’t actually that far out of reach.

2. *Identify your three most important stakeholders and list five UNIQUE attributes for each one of them. 

Mothers→ low income, located in rural areas of Sierra Leone, price sensitivity goes up during the wet season, Religions: Islam and Christianity, low education level 

World Hope International→ Organization, Core Values: Transformation, Sustainability, Empowerment, and Collaboration, Christian, Motive: “To empower the poorest of the poor around the world so they can become agents of change within their communities.” (https://www.worldhope.org/about-us/), some staff members located in the U.S. and Makeni, Sierra Leone

The ordinary citizen of Sierra Leone: this is a key stakeholder because of the importance of mothers in the Sierra Leone household. Attributes include: dependence on the mother’s contribution to the household, personal interest/stake in the life of each mother, ability to encourage/support the mother throughout their pregnancy, influence on the mother’s mental well-being, and the motivation they may provide the mothers to seek better health when they think about how their health (the mother’s health) affects the whole family unit.

3. *Identify three ways in which you will validate your project concept, technology, usability, and business model.

Validate Business Model→ Does it solve a real burning problem? Yes, Sierra Leone has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.  A lot of women go untested for UTI and preeclampsia which can lead to birth complications.  

Competitive advantages over other ventures? Strong community connections on the ground, incredibly important for distributing and gaining trust from CHWs.

How do they solve the problem now? Currently people in rural areas of Sierra Leone visit Community Health Posts (CHPs) to receive basic medical care, however they are normally not screened by any diagnostic test due to lack of resources.  

Validate Usability→ How does it compare to the user experience of alternative

approaches? 9 parameter UTI test strip→ much more expensive, more complicated with 9 vs the 3 our strip has (color scheme harder to analyze). 

How easy/difficult is it for each stakeholder to interact with the product? CHWs are shown how to use it and read the results during training. 

Will people use your product? We currently have UHWs purchasing and using the test strips.

4. Give three examples of something very interesting you learned from a friend that was a completely alien concept to you.

  1. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the Frequency Illusion, is the thought that something that was recently introduced to you is now suddenly popping up everywhere.  You feel as if everyone is talking about this specific thing and you’re seeing it everywhere but it has nothing to do with how often it shows up.  Your brain can now identify the object and notice when it’s around you.
  2. The Six Degrees of Separation is the concept that any two people in the world can be connected by 6 or fewer social connections. For example, my sister’s friend is cousins with Adam Levine so I have 3 degrees of separation from Adam Levine.
  3. The Hawthorne Effect is the concept that people modify their behaviors based on the knowledge that they are being observed.   This is a huge issue within the social sciences because it can affect the integrity of data.

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