2015
CATAPULT DESIGN
ANNUAL REPORT
PURPOSE
Catapult Design believes that all people, everywhere, should have access to thoughtful and inspired goods and services that suit their needs and their wallet. Our mission is to ensure that products and services aimed at marginalized communities are forward thinking, accessible, and people-centered. We accomplish this through three main activities: DESIGN supports organizations developing innovative products and services for lowincome and marginalized consumers with design and commercialization services. We help our partners explore, prototype, and realize great products driving social change. EDUCATION develops innovation capacity within organizations developing or supporting the development of products and services for low-income consumers. RESEARCH investigates and disseminates research focused on the acceleration and accessibility of quality market-based solutions to poverty.
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HELLO FROM CATAPULT
PROJECTS
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URBAN MOBILITY
CHANGE LABS 2015
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SIMPLIFYING GARI PRODUCTION
BUILDING A GLOBAL RESOURCE
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MAPPING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
TACKLING A SILENT KILLER
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ASME ISHOW
WORKSHOPS
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FINANCIALS
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CONTENT
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DONORS/SUPPORTERS
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HELLO FROM OUR CEO/CO-FOUNDER
2015 was a special year for my personal journey within Catapult Design. In the middle of the year, I took three months away from the team to welcome a daughter and adjust to a new life with an infant. We spent weeks internally preparing for a leadership transition, and it went off without a hitch. For me, it was a testament to the strength and commitment of our team, our Advisors, and our Board. While I was away, Catapult kicked off a major program in Ghana funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, embraced three new team members, and completed compelling work in Kenya with Agribusiness Systems International (ASI). Within days of returning to the studio, we hosted a second successful design and entrepreneurship event on the Navajo Nation and kicked off a new initiative for the tribe. 2015 was also significant for our community. We closed up shop in San Francisco at the end of 2014 and joined a new community of peers in Denver, Colorado. It was an opportunity to build new support networks, help establish the growing design community, and move closer to our partners and collaborators on the Navajo Nation. In the midst of all of this change, Catapult thrived. We had our most successful financial year to date, attracting new funders and partners. We also engaged in some of our most novel design work. These achievements are credited to the team, who worked tirelessly in my absence, and to our support network. Thank you for your commitment to Catapult Design and the mission to make design accessible to all.
Heather Fleming CEO Catapult Design
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Heather Fleming
Noel Wilson
Karin Carter
CEO/Co-founder
Lead Designer
Project Manager
Ben Cooper Client Manager
OUR TEAM
STUDIO TEAM
Alice Krenitski
Laura Markee
Jonathan Sabutis
Design Strategist
Designer
Designer
ADVISORY BOARD
David Kaisel
Lauren Peters
Evan Thomas
DK Design Research
Salesforce
Del Agua Health
Dawn Danby
Madiha Kotb
Catherine Lovazzano
Autodesk
ASME
Samsung
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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PROJECTS
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Our projects span the water, sanitation, health, energy, agriculture, transport/mobility, food security, and entrepreneurship sectors across Africa, Asia, North and South America. In every instance, we study and immerse ourselves in local contexts to gain insight into how a product or service integrates into daily life. We then conceptualize solutions and create prototypes to test directly alongside users to inform the final design. Finally, we analyze the market systems and business models that enable solutions to thrive and evolve.
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One Degree Solar has a strong network of national distributors and field staff in Kenya whom they trust and invite into their design and iteration process. The product prototypes and graphic assets assisted the company in getting quality products to market that distributors, field staff, and ‘off-grid’ customers have had a hand in shaping.
Catapult Design used Autodesk software (Fusion 360, Inventor, 3D Studio Max) to help One Degree Solar get their next round of product offerings to market. Our design team worked with One Degree’s team to create sketches, renderings and physical 3D prints of several concepts. We also developed packaging concepts and new logo design concepts to enhance the product ideas.
About One Degree Solar onedegreesolar.com
COUNTRY: Kenya
EXPANDING LINE OF SOLAR PRODUCTS
One Degree Solar has had a successful line of solar household products in the Kenyan market for the past years, and knew it was time to enhance their existing line with new products for their growing customer base. However, One Degree’s product team needed assistance visualizing and prototyping new product concepts that satisfied a broad range of product validation, co-design, and graphic design needs.
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Despite these barriers, many people in low-income areas are reliant on rickshaws for transport, delivery, and income for their family and livelihoods. To ensure the future of the rickshaw industry, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) wants to develop a modernized pedicab—a bicycle-powered rickshaw—in order to convince Southeast Asian city councils and entrepreneurs that rickshaws remain a sustainable public transport option and business opportunity. In collaboration with the ADB, Catapult gathered a team of international experts embedded in Southeast Asian countries and manufacturing hubs to take on this challenge. The team we put together contained many years of experience in the non-motorised mobility sector and more than 30 percent were living within the project locations. Our work included: • conducting design research in target Asian cities • developing multiple concepts and prototypes in China for user-testing • field testing 60 units in select cities to test key features and concepts • taking the final pedicab design into production working with Shanghai manufacturers • developing a distribution strategy using our in-team import/export and country
managers • enabling knowledge sharing around project findings and releasing the final vehicle specifications to help spur replication Catapult’s work will contribute to the sustainable transport movement and help ADB demonstrate how a thoughtful design approach can improve their overall impact. We anticipate the final design will: • provide a non-motorized, fossil-fuelfree, modern and manufacturable ricksha template for all Asian cities to replicate • equip ADB with a prototype to lobby Southeast Asian decision makers to actively change their public transport systems to be more environmentally and socially sustainable increase low-income public transport and employment options in Southeast Asia Countries: Nepal & Phillippines Asian Development Bank: adb.org
RE-THINKING URBAN MOBILITY
Rickshaws are ubiquitous throughout Asia and have been part of the city landscape for more than a century. While considered an economic driver, Southeast Asian rickshaw drivers and the broader industry face several systemic and localized challenges, including but not limited to: lack of government support, lax safety standards, and a perception of being archaic and antiquated. In extreme cases some localities are banning rickshaws all together.
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Many of these socioeconomic and environmental problems could be addressed through local business service providers, yet the lack of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and mentor networks on the Navajo Nation makes tackling the barriers a daunting task for people who may be inspired to start a business. In response to this challenge, Catapult partnered with local entities on the Navajo Nation to design a hands-on event called “Change Labs” to engage current and potential Navajo entrepreneurs. Our work includes: • securing support from local partners to identify stakeholder groups and workshop participants • designing creative workshops led by business leaders from Silicon Valley and the Navajo Nation • organizing community dialogue sessions on hot topics facing Native American entrepreneurs • setting up mentor meetu-ps to allow
participants to explore branding, business model, legal structure, fundraising, and other business issues • assembling an Tech Expo, featuring products and stories of social entrepreneurs from around the globe tackling issues similar to those faced on the Navajo Nation • featuring a storytelling panel with Native American business leaders who established successful and novel organizations In its second year, Change Labs again sold out and has attracted over 200 participants, including students, entrepreneurs, creatives, and community organizations. The majority of participants are from the Navajo Nation, but some attendees travel from as far away as New York. Catapult collects data after each workshop on participant knowledge before and after the session: • nearly all participants indicated an increase in knowledge after each workshop • several participants who meet at the event collaborate on future projects • when asked to jot down how the day made them feel, the majority of participants felt hopeful and inspired
CHANGE LABS 2015
In 2008, The Economist dubbed the Navajo Nation “Capitalism’s last frontier” highlighting the barriers and challenges inhibiting residents from starting or sustaining a business on tribal lands. In 2010, the unemployment rate on the Navajo Nation, which crosses Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, was estimated between 40 and 70 percent, significantly above the U.S. average of 9.6 percent. Despite resource-rich land and a viable workforce of 180 thousand people, the growth of Navajo small businesses is less than half the U.S. average growth rate. In addition, the Navajo Nation faces significant social challenges. As an example, 50 percent of homes lack modern plumbing and 20 percent lack electricity.
Country: Navajo Nation, USA Change Labs: catapultlabs.org
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Because gari is consumed on a daily basis by more than 70% of West African households, its production is an opportunity for small-scale producers to enter the market and increase their income, similar to what the WFP has done in Sierra Leone. To get there, we are excited to work with Burro, a West African social enterprise, to design new gari processing tools that aim to decrease processing time while improving health and safety of those making gari. Catapult is leading the design process with Burro and will begin the project with field research with select households with a goal of having a pilot-ready prototype in six-month’s time. In addition to households, we will collaborate with behavioral change specialists and M&E technology orgs to evolve concepts and prototypes to meet the needs of gari producers. Our work includes: • assessing and comparing similar cassava processing products worldwide • conducting in-country end user and key stakeholder research • vetting current prototype and design principles against insights from research • developing and field-testing alternative
prototypes • identifying and local manufacturers and designing for manufacturability • completing final designs and bill of materials Country: Ghana Burro LLC: burrobrand.biz
SIMPLIFYING GARI PROCESSING
Meal preparation in a West African household can be a multi-day task. Cassava, a staple crop across Africa, is often harvested, washed, peeled, grated, mashed, roasted, and milled in order to make gari, a popular West African food. Preparation is resource intensive. It also requires access to various tools, like graters, peeling tools, and roasting pans. The majority of these tools are informally made and the roasting process requires sitting over a hot campfire stirring hot grains, typically by women or girls.
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Our collaboration with IEEE yielded a resource for SIGHT volunteer engineers that is useful and accessible, real-time and easy-to-digest. It conveyed IEEE’s brand and SIGHT’s vision and mission. Even in area of low-bandwidth internet, IEEE volunteers with a connected device and an hour of time can get a solid grasp of how to implement their community idea with a few clicks and swipes. As an IEEE employee or SIGHT committee member, updating this information will be quick and easy within this microsite resource.
Catapult was responsible for the research, design, and implementation of an inclusive online tool, a microsite, for IEEE volunteers who wish to set up and sustain a successful SIGHT group. We began the project by conducting qualitative research with IEEE staff and volunteers to define objectives and protocols. With constant feedback loops from IEEE, Catapult curated and authored content, created visualizations to communicate complex processes or systems, and along with our digital design partner Peak Creative, designed and coded the interface.
IEEE SIGHT Toolkit: ieee-sight-toolkit.org
Country: Global
BUILDING A GLOBAL RESOURCE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (IEEE SIGHT) was recently formalized as an official platform within IEEE. As a new initiative, IEEE staff and SIGHT volunteers needed a way to help streamline information to new and existing SIGHT group volunteers. Because many engineers volunteering with SIGHT are new to the field of “community development,” this tool must orient groups to “do no harm,” one of the key values of IEEE SIGHT. IEEE imagined a resource that could help volunteers launch successful, impactful, and sustainable projects in their local communities.
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The Economist touches on the logistical barriers and challenges inhibiting residents from starting or sustaining a business on tribal lands. It can take years to obtain a business license because of the maze of regulations that were originally put in place to protect traders over 100 years ago. In 2007, the Navajo Nation government reformed their policies affecting business owners and reportedly decreased the timeline for establishing a business from several years to approximately one year. Regardless, navigating the steps to establish a business on the Navajo Nation remains a daunting task and a barrier to economic development and increased quality of live for Navajo residents.
Catapult is teaming up with Navajo Word of the Day and DGTL/NVJO to dissect and understand the process and steps, as well as the relevant policies, to start a business on the Navajo Nation. Our work includes: • mapping all processes and steps, as well as other influential factors such as policies and institutions, to establish a business • using the map as a visual foundation, designing a resource for Navajo residents that want to start a business • conducting interviews to provide anecdotal success stories from individuals who have successfully navigated the system Our goal is to decrease the timeline associated with starting a business and encourage individuals to establish their business by visually simplifying the steps. To achieve that, Navajo Word of the Day will assist with translating the material to Navajo and DGTL/NVJO will assist with visually translating the material to a digital and print interface.
MAPPING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Despite a land size comparable to the state of West Virginia and a population of just above 300,000 residents, there are only approximately 400 businesses (most micro and small) in operation on the Navajo Nation according to a 2008 article in the The Economist, titled “Capitalism’s last frontier.”
Country: Navajo Nation, USA
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The risk of aflatoxin is well-known in wealthy countries. There, it is controlled by carefully drying corn to under 14% moisture content (MC) using massive, complex, fuelhungry dryers costing $50,000 and up. In grain-growing regions of the US, Canada and Europe, dryers are an essential piece of farm equipment and a large industry has developed to meet farmers’ needs. But a typical Kenyan farmer, feeding his family with .5-5 acres of land, can barely afford used grain sacks to keep his maize off the dirt, much less an effective way to dry the crop. Under ideal conditions, small farmers may achieve 15%MC drying their maize under the sun, enough to reduce but not eliminate the threat of aflatoxin. Having worked with some of the most respected agricultural engineering programs and manufacturers in the world, Agribusiness Services International (ASI), a subsidiary of ACDI/VOCA,
engaged Catapult Design to employ a user-centered development process to develop unconventional strategies for maize drying targeting small farmers in Kenya, under a program funded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Catapult assembled a “dream team” of post-harvest processing experts, Kenyabased development partners, seasoned engineers and experienced prototype fabricators to explore intentionally diverse approaches to maize drying that address the unique needs of specific segments of Kenya’s population of small farmers. Our team honed in on three promising dryer concepts, and through a series of user and field tests, narrowed to one concept that promised commercial viability while meeting farmers’ needs in a robust, efficient and cost-effective way. After completing the fabrication of a revised design, Catapult and ASI documented the design such that multiple manufacturers in Kenya could adopt it and deploy grain drying tools to the Kenyan market. ASI continues to work with manufacturers while demonstrating the prototype with farmers and other local agricultural partners. For a full list of publications from this project, including instructions for manufacturing and assembly of the resulting prototype, visit the official AflaStop Publications Page maintained by ASI.
TACKLING A SILENT KILLER
In 2004, Kenyan health officials were baffled by an unusually lethal outbreak of jaundice. Over 300 people became infected, and nearly 40% died. A multinational team traced the cause of the deadly epidemic to moldy maize (corn), a staple of the Kenyan diet. The maize was infected with Aspergillus a common mold found in soil, grain and all types of decaying organic matter in warm, humid environments. Certain types of Aspergillus produce aflatoxins, one of the most toxic and carcinogenic substances found in nature. For reasons not clearly understood, Kenyan soil is heavily contaminated by aflatoxin-producing molds. Once exposed, food contaminated by aflatoxin cannot be made safe. As awful as acute aflatoxin poisoning is, chronic low-level exposure causes insidious damage – stunting childrens growth and development, and eventually causing liver cancer in adults.
Country: Kenya Agribusiness Services International: asintl.org
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ASME
The 2015 ASME ISHOW was held across three continents, in Pune, India, in Washington, DC, and in Nairobi, Kenya. Between 9 and 12 teams competed as finalists in each city. Three teams in each location won, receiving a share of $50,000 and intensive coaching in product and engineering design with Catapult Design. Hardware-based products presented by ISHOW teams were designed to solve problems in water distribution, farming, healthcare delivery, the supply of offgrid energy, and internet infrastructure in remote areas. Teams ranged from student entrepreneurs to seasoned engineers driven by a deep passion to help individuals and communities facing poverty, digital and physical isolation, and shortages of food and clean water. Country: Kenya, India, USA ASME ISHOW: thisishardware.org
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DAI/USAID WORKSHOP
In January, Catapult collaborated with Engineering for Change to design and facilitate a 2-day workshop with design and development practitioners from around the globe. We developed a set of activities designed to iniative discussion and decision-making for a new catalog of market-based solutions being sold in developing nations. At the close of the workshop, the participants had helped shape and inform an evaluation framework for all entries in the catalog and the selection and prioritization of data. The framework and data was implemented by Engineering for Change later in the year when they launched the Solutions Library in Beta mode.
Catapult, DAI, and the Global Development Lab teamed up to host a one-day workshop to organize the strategic activities to inform the budget for the USAID Ebola Recovery Team. We designed a series of activities intended to guide teams through an ideation, selection and prioritization process with the intent of creating a collective list of actions and priorities. The workshop incorporated 30 team members in Washington DC as well as USAID Mission Directors in three countries. The workshop helped inform a congressional budget proposal for USAID’s Ebola recovery efforts in Western Africa.
WORKSHOPS
E4C SOLUTIONS LIBRARY
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The bar chart (below) displays Catapult’s total revenue growth from 2011 - 2015.
$1,170,162
FINANCIALS
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In 2015, we increased our revenue stream by 156%. The reason for the significant discrepancy compared to previous years is in part due to project grant funding intended for 2015 and 2016 that was paid upfront.
REVENUE
Earned Income Donations & Grants Event Revenue Total Revenue
$580,243 $589,919 $0 $1,170,162
NET REVENUE
$661,412 $90,592 $0 $752,004
$404,500
Program Management Fundraising Total Expenses
$418,158
ASSETS & LIABILITY
$456,300
EXPENSES
ASSETS
Accounts Payable Payroll Liability Total Liability
NET ASSETS
Net Assets (beg. of year) Net Assets (end of year) Change in Net Assets
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$262,600
LIABILITIES
$449,968 $18,030 $0 $467,998 $9,648 $0 $9,648
$458,350 $40,192 $458,350 $418,158
$121,800
Cash Accounts Receivable Donations Receivable Total Assets
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Anurupa Rao Lauren Peters Rajiv Bhatia Sharon West Travis Kupp
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Barry Katz Patrick Coyle Richard Flaster Tim Brown Zhu Li
IN-KIND Autodesk Foundation Google UNM-Gallup
GRANTS Autodesk Foundation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Endownment of the Arts
DONORS & SUPPORTERS
INDIVIDUALS
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