Category Archives: Process

Financial Behaviour Patterns Observed Among Households in Rural Informal Economy in Asia

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 24, 2017

This is the original working paper of the research conducted on rural household financial management, in developing country conditions, pioneering the use of methods from human centered design for discovery, during Nov 2008 to March 2009, aka the Prepaid Economy Project. It was peer reviewed by Brett Hudson Matthews, and I have incorporated his comments into […]

Also posted in African Consumer Market, Airtime, Alternative currency, Analysis, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Banking, Base of the Pyramid, Biashara Economics, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Cattle, Consumer Behaviour, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Flexibility, FMCG, Frameworks, global, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Livestock, Marchés africains, Marketing, Migrant worker, Mobile platform, Philipines, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Projects and Reports, Research, Retail in Africa, Risk, rural, Rural Economy, Savings, Scarcity, South Asia, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, User research | Tagged asean, biashara economics, bottom of the pyramid, cash based markets, design research for development, financial management, household finance, india, informal economy, irregular incomes, philippines, prepaid, prepaid business model, prepaid economy, research, rural economy, seasonality, south asia, The prepaid economy | Leave a comment

A theoretical approach to Value for Money in aid & development: Optimizing research and design for ‘best fit’ iterative programming

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 11, 2017

Last year, I briefly touched upon this concept as an approach to cost effective programme design that was still flexible enough to provide room for iteration for best fit. Today, I want to explore the concept further to evaluate its potential as a framework for incorporating the concurrent shift in development thinking towards Value for […]

Also posted in Ecosystem, Flexibility, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Strategy, Systems, UCSD, User research, Value | Tagged aid, Best Fit, design for development, design methods, design planning, design planning for policy, framework, international development, iterative programming, optimal solution, systems design, theory, value for money | Leave a comment

The importance of user agency for good design in the humanitarian and development context

By Niti Bhan | Published: April 21, 2017

This is a topic that has come up so often on Twitter that I thought to write it out once and for all. A link would be ever so much easier to argue with than to make the case for recognizing the agency of the end user – whether an intended customer or beneficiary – […]

Also posted in Biashara Economics, Design, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Strategy, UCSD, User research | Tagged agency, biashara economics, design planning, human centered, informal economy, international development, recognition, user research | Leave a comment

India: Dragging the reluctant elephant into a digital, cashless future

By Niti Bhan | Published: March 29, 2017

My recent immersion in Delhi a mere four months after demonetization (or, notebandi as it’s locally known) was a bit of a letdown. Oh sure, there were numerous, visible changes in the 2 years since my last trip – mostly very clear indicators of India’s socio-economic development – but none of the sense of chaos […]

Also posted in Alternative currency, Analysis, Biashara Economics, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, India, Innovation Planning, Mobile platform, Perspective, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, South Asia, Strategy, Systems, Technology, urban, User research | Tagged aadhaar, demonetization, design for complex adaptive systems, digital identity, india, notebandi, platform | Leave a comment

Unforeseen outcomes of India’s demonetization shine light on the value of our design philosophy

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 28, 2016

Latest news on India’s demonetization informs us how the rural economy is bearing the brunt of this initiative. The action was intended to target wealthy tax evaders and end India’s “shadow economy”, but it has also exposed the dependency of poor farmers and small businesses on informal credit systems in a country where half the […]

Also posted in Analysis, Assumption filter, Banking, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Frameworks, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research, Rural Economy, South Asia, Strategy, Systems, User research, Value | Tagged cash economy, cash intensive, demonetization, design, design for complex adaptive systems, design for development, design for policy, rural economy, segmentation, strategy | 2 Responses

Systems design and the Monster who squats between the formal and the informal

By Niti Bhan | Published: September 21, 2016

This framing of the real challenge to development and poverty alleviation comes from Ken Wong writing on his experience in Malawi: We can only win the war on poverty and hunger in Malawi by targeting the real enemy – and that enemy is the system of how the world tries to help. Specifically: — The system that […]

Also posted in Design, Ecosystem, Flexibility, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy, Systems, Value | Tagged system monster, video | Leave a comment

Part 2: Enabling development’s paradigm shift from ‘best practice’ to ‘best fit’

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 23, 2016

Programming in International Development jumps directly into the Design phase of the projects. This is the root of the challenge they face now as they seek to change the paradigm away from ‘best practice’ to putting the end users at the center of their strategies, with ‘best fit’. I identified this problem in the Autumn […]

Also posted in Design, Ecosystem, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Research, Strategy, Systems, User research | Tagged Best Fit, business model design, design for complex adaptive systems, international development, systems design | Leave a comment

Borderland Biashara: Mapping the Cross Border, National and Regional Trade in the East African Informal Economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: June 10, 2016

And, we’re back! With apologies for the long delay in posting on the blog, we’d been busy wrapping up our groundbreaking design research for development programming project for Trade Mark East Africa this past month or so. As you can imagine, the last few weeks of any project suck all the bandwidth out and leave […]

Also posted in Africa, Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Design, Economy, Ecosystem, Frameworks, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Kenya, Literature review, Mobile platform, Perspective, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Projects and Reports, Research, Retail in Africa, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Systems, User research | Tagged biashara, biashara economics, border, Borderland Biashara, cross border trade, design ethnography, design research for development, East Africa, Emerging Futures Lab, final report, human centered design, icbt, informal cross border trade, informal trade, kenya, literature review, Trade Mark East Africa, uganda, user research | Leave a comment

The formal sector and economic development: A lesson from marketing

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 4, 2016

Pursuing the thoughts introduced in the previous post further, I looked up the original reference on “formalization of the informal sector”1. Alan Gelb, et al. 2009. “To Formalize or Not to Formalize? Comparisons of Microenterprise Data from Southern and East Africa.” CGD Working Paper 175 “…in East Africa, weak enforcement of tax payment and no […]

Also posted in Africa, Analysis, Assumption filter, Business, Design, Ecosystem, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Perspective, Research, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged biashara, informal economy, informal sector, international development, prepaid economy, programme design, pull marketing, push marketing, sustainable development design principles, vcd | Leave a comment

Design research as a method for discovering & understanding the world around us

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 1, 2015

Variously known as User Centered Design (UCD) or Human Centered Design (HCD), the fundamental philosophy underlying the designer’s approach to problem solving is that of discovery – “figuring out how to make something that will work in this context”. Innovation, invention and novelty rarely have pre-scripted processes due to the as yet unknown, and often, […]

Also posted in Africa, Assumption filter, Design, Ecosystem, Emerging Markets, Frameworks, Innovation Planning, Perspective, Research, Sub Saharan Africa, UCSD, User research | Tagged design, design research, discovery, exploration, uncertainty, understanding | Leave a comment