smc223’s Blog

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

We feel that for something to be uniquely ours is something that hasn’t been done before, and for it to be effective it has to treat the problem properly. For example, we are working on different recipes, all created by people in our group, making them unique to us. They are affordable and nutrient-dense foods that mothers can purchase for their children, making them as effective as they are unique.

-One design process would be to create a study that works toward research in our project of addressing malnutrition in children under the age of five years old. These research designs would contribute to background, purpose of research, questions and hypothesis; our design would provide information on reliability and validity on each measure based on data. In addition, our project would contribute to taste-testing, sampling or recruiting participants, and making sure we have the right supplements/ingredients for our recipes. 

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

• Mothers and their kids:
  • Will be the ones using our product the most, even though it’s available to everyone in Sierra Leone
  • Their feedback will be most important
  • Greatest need for product
  • Their feedback will help us make ingredient choices and create successful business and marketing plans 
  •  Main drive/motivation behind our entire project
    • Mothers with children will be approached and asked if they are interested in participating in our research 
    • Children are critical to our research because they are the target audience of the products 
• Vendors:
  • Will be selling our product and getting it out into the market
  • Will be our partners in this venture
  • Are going to help a lot in marketing the product
  • The vendors will be those who are responsible for integrating our product into the village’s culture
  • They will be the image of our product when mothers buy them
• Bakers:
  • Will be making our product before it goes to be sold
  • Partnership with them is one of the most valuable because without them, we can’t move forward in our venture at all
  • Provide them with our ingredients/recipes/preservatives 
  • Our best insight on local 
  • Interact with mothers and other members of families who may play a factor in the decision of purchasing our products

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

Three ways in which we will validate our project concept is through the usage of human subjects research– provide information on the reliability and validity of each measure; we will have references or results prior to each measure; and we will work towards stating the details of the statistical or qualitative analysis that we will use to analyze this data 

The purpose of our research is to nutrient-dense foods to alleviate malnutrition in Sierra Leone in children 6 months to 5 years. We want to see if women and children in Sierra Leone like our products and if they would be successful as a treatment for chronic malnutrition in children. Their feedback will help us make ingredient choices and create successful business and marketing plans.

Furthermore, we will have a questionnaire that we will use for mothers in Sierra Leone that will be used to get a better understanding of their family’s daily lives and whether they would buy our products. The questionnaire will give us feedback on the recipes and cost needs to answer our two main questions of our research.

Taste-Testing: During each interview, we will ask participants’ children to try our three products. For the children, we will observe their facial expression and reaction to each food. For children 18 months and younger, we will rely on behavioral observations and the help of their mothers to gauge whether or not they like each food they try. Children that are a little older can make decisive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, but we will most likely still need to observe their behavior to understand if they like or dislike our recipes. Children are critical to our research because they are the target audience of the products. Our recipes are designed to treat micronutrient deficiencies in children between six months and five years old. It is essential that we have a better understanding of whether or not children in Sierra Leone like our products before we finalize our recipes. Mothers will be asked to consent to the children’s taste-testing. 

Our plan is to recruit participants through the help of World Hope International (WHI), a non profit organization located in Makeni, Sierra Leone. We have worked most closely with Allieu Bangura, Global Director of Health and Nutrition at WHI. The pre-established relationship will help us build trust with members of the community. WHI and previous student researchers in Sierra Leone have recommended that this be our plan for recruiting participants, and they have explained that this is the most effective way to interact with people in Makeni. 

• List the top 20 questions your team needs to answer to advance the venture forward. Categorize the questions if necessary.

1. 1. What is the project about?

• Why is the project important?

1. 1. Who is impacted by the project?
   2. What is the main objective/goal?

• What steps will be taken to reach the objective?

1. 1. Where will we execute our project?
   2. Who says those people need help?
   3. Why can’t they help themselves?
   4. Why can’t someone else help them?
   5. Why do you think your project will be successful?
   6. What are some of the nutrients used for the project?
   7. How much culinary experience is needed for the project?
   8. Why do you think people will buy your product?
   9. How do you intend to keep the project running after you leave?
   10. What is the timeframe for your project?
   11. How will you use your time wisely?
   12. How are you qualified for this project?

•  How do you think the community will react to your project?

1.  How will you incorporate the project into their culture?
2. Will your community’s culture accept the project?

2. Develop and Visualize the Theory of Change (Logic Model) for your venture.

3. Develop a M&E plan for your venture. – Clearly list all assumptions. – Identify short-term and long-term success metrics. – (Optional) identify specific methods to measure the metrics

Spring outcomes/GOALS: 3+ new recipes (muffin,pudding, bouillon cubes/pb balls), developed packaging for recipes, analyzing the costs and taking them into consideration, make sure we use products that are accessible to the community in our recipes

Summer outcomes/GOALS: feedback on recipes, even if negative, progress based on feedback, continue work we’ve been doing; 100 of each product a day sold by end of fieldwork

Give three compelling examples of how cultural issues affect your project.

In Sierra Leonean culture, some villages prohibit certain foods because of ancestors that had created such laws generations past. It is frowned upon to prepare foods in certain ways or eat specific foods, depending on the village in Sierra Leone. This aspect of Sierra Leonean culture may be a barrier in our team’s malnutrition project because villages may prohibit consumption of our product if it does not correspond to their belief, despite our product’s nutritional value and beneficial value to the villager’s health. Another aspect of Sierra Leonean culture is the country’s commercial activity. Sierra Leone’s economy is dependent on small markets, shops, and bakeries around the country. To allow our product to have an impact, it is important for our team to focus on making sure consumers knows the inexpensiveness, health benefits, and nutritional value of our muffins and puddings. However, it is more difficult and time-consuming to spread information among each individual market or bakery instead of a chain of market like the United States. It is important to find a way to efficiently inform consumers and parents of the value of our food products to have an impact on malnutrition nationally. Additionally, a cultural issue in Sierra Leone is the lack of attention on healthcare. Most citizens of Sierra Leone are not aware of the issue regarding malnutrition and its consequences due to the lack of access to doctors or regular doctors. Thus, it will be hard to sell and market a product that advertises to nourish children if their parents are not aware of the problem.

Have you experienced or observed any of these social situations at home? Describe at least three such situations.

I have not experienced or observed food restrictions or limitations at home. However, I can be a picky eater, so I sometimes only have a limited range of foods I will be willing to eat. Relating to our project, this issue has been solved by researching how young children initially reacted to our food products based on taste and texture. I have observed small markets back home sometimes, such as small boutiques or shops. I have seen the difficulty behind advertising a product from one shop due to the lack of a “chain-owned” business. Instead of having multiple platforms to advertise from and gain exposure, a small business only has one platform and has to be more active in publicity and marketing. I have experienced a lack of knowledge on healthy habits or concerns I should have paid more attention to regarding health. Although I have a general doctor and regular check-ups, I am sometimes not aware of habits I have not been practicing, like staying hydrated with water for example. And the lack of awareness an individual has towards a problem is dangerous, because then they will not be able to fix it because they will not even know it exists.

Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to addressed community / market problems

In Sierra Leone, many common foods consumed by citizens are rice, sweet potatoes, and a wide variety of fruits. In our malnutrition project, we have incorporated sweet potatoes in our recipes to make consumers from Sierra Leone more familiar with our product. And since sweet potatoes are a staple food in Sierra Leonean culture, they leverage with most villages because it is rarely prohibited. Thus, the conflict in prohibiting certain foods is eliminated. Most villages function on their own, separate from others, with their own homes, shops, and centers for villagers to use. Since most of people from Sierra Leone live in a rural village, it would be ideal to advertise the food product in a village center or a popular bakery that Sierra Leoneans may frequently visit. By advertising the product in a smaller area that is more personal, the product will additionally be more reliable because villagers will confide in each other to buy these nutritious food products. Regarding healthcare in Sierra Leone, using the trust between villages and families is a good tactic to spread awareness of issues around health and malnutrition. Trained volunteers who work under the medical field can educate village leaders about the malnutrition crisis, which can lead to communication between village leaders and members to spread awareness of the issue. Once villagers are aware of malnutrition and its prevalence among their community, it will ensue them to look for a solution, which our food products can provide them.