Innovation for Social Impact

Are we on the same page about innovation?

Understanding Financial Impact of Direct Benefit Transfer CGAP, World Bank

Government to People (G2P) payments in India amount to USD 100 billion annually. A massive public program is underway to provide every individual a unique digital identity. Linking this to a bank account will allow government benefits to be transferred directly to beneficiaries.

While the new system is designed for improved efficiency, has the end user benefited at the last mile?

Reducing Plastic Bag Waste in Major Cities of Cambodia Switch Asia EU

Cambodia is one of the fastest growing economies in the region. A large informal sector has contributed to reported unemployment rates of less than 1%. The flip side is the growing dependence on plastic bag as means of doing business, which in turn has led to littered streets and bags clogging the urban waste management infrastructure .

How does one tackle the enormous waste and litter problem in Cambodia?

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Redesigning Last Mile Malnutrition Diagnosis & Treatment International Rescue Committee

For a country with a total land mass of 620000 square kms, the total length of built roads in South Sudan is a mere 300kms. Access to some of the remote villages in war-torn South Sudan is often a few days of travel on foot. Coupled with low levels of literacy of the population, providing last mile diagnosis and treatment is a major challenge for public health services.

How can we empower community health volunteers to reliably diagnose and treat acute malnutrition? /38

Tackling the Urban Sanitation Crisis Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

India has about 600 million people lacking access to basic sanitation.

Public services have been a failure and are being abandoned as planned infrastructure. And yet public and community toilets are a critical stop-gap before the vision of “a toilet for each household� is realised.

How do we re-design a failing but critical public and community sanitation services model? /38

Disruptive Innovation in Home Care for the BoP Unilever

The base of the pyramid constitutes a $15 Trillion economy represented by 4.5 billion people globally. Unilever’s mission is to double its turnover by 2020 driven largely by growth in these new segments. Using it’s home care portfolio as a starting point, it became evident that the current product mix and business model fails to address the unique needs of low income households in Nigeria, India, Indonesia and China.

How does one create market propositions that are valuable (for consumers) and viable at the Bottom Of the Pyramid?

Quicksand is a design strategy & innovation consultancy headquartered in India.

We work across a diverse range of contexts in emerging markets.

Our experience across sectors

We work with international development partners to drive social impact through innovation.

We partner global corporations to envisage new business opportunities.

We explore and incubate open networks for creativity and collaboration.

Innovation for social impact entails some unique challenges

What does innovation entail

Understanding Behaviours

Leveraging Technology

Shaping Policy

Thinking Systems

What does innovation entail

Understanding Behaviours - The motivations and attitudes that drive peoples’ behaviour are often at the heart of the change we are looking to bring about.

Leveraging Technology - Far too often, technology is pitched as the solution instead of being seen as an enabler.

Shaping Policy - Achieving scale for promising innovations in the development sector cannot be done without steering policy in a new direction.

Thinking Systems - These are problems with multiple externalities and any solution must take into account a complex web of stakeholders and relationships.

Strategy & innovation anchored in the principles and process of design is a powerful way to achieve high impact outcomes.

Strategy and innovation anchored in design

Design is immersive - it helps frame entire ecosystems as it does not place a product or service, its use, the users, and the context of use in silos. In our experience, high impact solutions lie at the intersection of different contexts starting with the individual but taking into account aspects of culture, commerce and technology.
 Design is actionable - within design, there is a focus on synthesis of observations, rather than on only analysis of information. What this means is that the focus is on framing themes, storytelling and creating prototypes that are actionable. 
 Design is iterative - it lives and evolves on a day to day basis. The actionable research and development process starts with the first moment of inquiry in design research.

Human centered design is a robust framework that cycles flexibly between insight generation, framing, prototyping, and testing

Process of Human Centered Design

empathize

define

ideate

prototype

validate

Process of Human Centered Design

empathise - immersing in the everyday experiences of one’s users or beneficiaries with an aim to understand their behaviour and aspirations define - framing potential opportunities by aligning user insights with trends, capabilities and context ideate - exploring a breadth of solutions by creating platforms for collaboration and ideation prototype - making ideas real and testing their viability through quick and lowresolution prototyping validate - keeping the design process close to users by channeling feedback on prototypes and iterating accordingly

Process of Human Centered Design

When applied to innovation mandates within complex systems, human centered design must also be understood as a set of principles rooted in:

a Practice that depends on user as its source of inspiration and guidance. a Team that shares values of curiosity, empathy, and collaboration. a Process that embodies values of learning, iterating and adapting.

Quicksand’s articulation of human centered design is summarized through three simple tenets Meeting People Telling Stories Crafting Experiences

Meeting People

Meeting People

Framing an opportunity through the lens of peoples’ needs or desires is our entry-point in the innovation journey.

Telling Stories

Telling Stories

Stories have the power to bring together teams and provide a rich, fertile ground for insights, ideas and inspiration.

Crafting Experiences

Crafting Experiences

MATRIX FLOW

INITIATION INTO COUNSELLING

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ALUMNI SHARING

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ALUMNI MENTORING >

ONLINE MENTORING

Raghu re built based on criteria that are thought through and facilitated by the teachers.

These groups w

Raghu re built based on criteria that are thought through and facilitated by the teachers.

These groups w

Class Blog re built based on criteria that are thought through and facilitated by the teachers.

These groups w

mentoring

Initiation into counselling sessions Students know that they have an unbiased and supportive resource to enable them overcome personal hurdles and inhibitions and to discuss aspirations and plans. This also gradually enables them to build career plans and growth paths for themselves.

The counsellor also acts as an initial mentor and continues to be so, but less intensively, once the alumni mentoring starts.

Alumni experience sharingphysical/virtual

Alumni mentoring

Mentoring - online forums

Alumni who have gone through the same course could be brought in to share their experiences. This gives students realistic role models that they can relate to and help them envision their own future.

Alumni could mentor groups of students. This could be through physical and online modes. It creates a sense of connect and provides a support structure.

Ongoing Alumni interactions on a one to one basis through online platforms alongside with the counsellor supporting the student .

Sharing could be enabled through group lunches, online forums, and field visits.

The institute could encourage this by giving appreciation certificates, refresher courses to the alumni

A well designed solution is a standout experience first that depends as much on design craftsmanship as it does on a systems perspective that takes into account all possible touch points with the user

Delivering impact through design led strategy and innovation

Transforming Financial Impact of Subsidy Transfers for CGAP, World Bank

“Quicksand provides a vibrant team of lateral thinkers that are able to apply ethnographic and qualitative research skills to a range of policy questions. They also work well within mixed methods teams, supporting quantitative surveys with deep dives into communities and working on solutions in a collaborative manner. Definitely amongst the top human centered design firms working in India today.�

Shweta Banerjee Program Officer, World Bank

Disruptive Innovation in Home Care for the BoP for Unilever

“Unilever Household Care’s dedicated workstream for the BoP could develop its own unique perspective on innovations primarily because of the passion with which Quicksand pursues human-centred design. Their knowledge on how to shape innovation from observation of people, objects and their interrelated behavior makes them quite inseparable to us as we foray into the exciting business of market development.”

Arindam Som Global Brand Director, Innovations for BoP

Quicksand is set up as

a Consulting Practice working with a diverse set of clients on strategy and innovation. a Lab, incubating and supporting various independent projects such as B.L.O.T, Blindboys, Off Grid, Kites and GamesLab. founders of UnBox Cultural Futures Society, our attempt to build momentum around inter-disciplinary thought and action. a member of REACH, a global consortium of design research and strategy firms.

Our consulting work spans a variety of sectors

Consumer Technologies Google, Facebook , Nokia, Samsung Consumer Goods Unilever, Coca-Cola Cultural Industry British Council, Dutch DFA, Goethe Institut Education & Livelihoods Cisco, International Youth Foundation, One World South Asia Financial Services IDFC, GIZ, The World Bank Humanitarian International Rescue Committee Water & Sanitation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Our incubated projects explore emerging facets of art, design and technology

Clockwise from L: Antariksha Sanchar, a point and click video game inspired by the life of famous Indian mathematician Ramanujam; Blow-up, impromptu street exhibitions organised by community members of blindboys.org; Audio-visual performances by Blot; Off Grid, a mobile first social network

UnBox is our ecosystem for innovation manifesting as festivals, fellowships and cultural events since 2011

UnBox Festival 2011, Delhi

We are part of Reach, a global network of design research and strategy firms spread across Europe, Latin America and Asia

www.quicksand.co.in hello@quicksand.co.in @helloQS linkedin.com/company/quicksand-design-studio