Community | *iHub

Prix Ars Electronica: iHub attains Honorary Mention

The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. The Golden Nica, the highest prize, was awarded in the following categories:

iHub received an honorary mention in the Digital Communities category. This is a great accomplishment in a span of 2 years in Kenya

By: Research Admin

08-05-2012

iHub Research Office Hours

Born out of a need to give back to the community, Office Hours are a way for iHub Research members to engage with the tech community and to interact with the iHub Research team to understand what they are working on.

Just one month into the Office Hours program, the iHub Research team have found that Office hours have become an important way for them to share their unique skills sets with iHub members, adding value to the iHub community.

Some of the interesting Office Hours have included: legal consultancy for start-ups (at no cost!), business development , experience design and writing proposals, grants and reports – important skills for any entrepreneurs. These have largely been based on the feedback we have received from the iHub community, who expressed a need for skill-sharing among the tech community.

If you would like to engage iHub Research to find out more about on-going projects and request for information, you can access the website -www .research .ihub .co .ke . This schedule will be updated every month on the iHub Research website (research.ihub.co.ke).

The May schedule:

*This schedule is subject to change every month.

The team invites members who have skills that they would like to share to send an email to the iHub Research team research@ihub.co.ke

By: Jessica Colaco

06-05-2012

Community Creatives iHub iHub-Research Members

Research Advice: Designing An Infographic

Information graphics, visual representations of data known as infographics. Over the past few months, iHub Research has being creating infographics to represent data. Well here are some of the lessons we have learnt in the design process:

Keep it simple and try not do too much in one picture.
Decide on a colour scheme and template
Think of it as a visual essay: ensure your arguments hold and are relevant.
Draw conclusions.
Reference your facts in the infographic.

Some infographic formats include:

Timelines;
Flow charts;
Annotated maps;
Graphs;
Venn diagrams;
Size comparisons;
Showing familiar objects or similar size or value.

Source: http://spyrestudios.com/

Creating your infographic

Plan and research.
Use free software to create simple graphs and visualisations of data.
Use vector graphic software to bring these visualisations into the one graphic.

If you have a little design skill, the very best approach is to create all the simple graphs and illustrations yourself using vector graphic software. Your end result will be more visually attractive and you will have more freedom to be creative with it. Here is a great link to get you started.

Need an infographic done by iHub Research, well email us at: research@ihub.co.ke with the subject INFOGRAPHIC CREATION

By: John Kieti

06-05-2012

Applications Community Events m:lab

Using mobile tech to overcome post harvest challenges in horticulture – Wireless Wednesday Recap

On Wednesday 25th April 2012, m:lab East Africa hosted the second Wireless Wednesday meetup in a series aimed at promoting the use of mobile technology in agriculture. The theme of the meetup was “using technology to overcome post harvest challenges in horticulture”.

Mobile developers, entrepreneurs and other enthusiasts of mobile technology use in agriculture engaged agricultural domain experts from the grassroots in a lively discussion. Three farmers growing fruits and vegetables in the South Eastern part of Kenya contributed their thoughts and insights especially on the post harvest challenges that farmers are often faced with. A community based food processor – Chuluni Growers and Processors from Kitui County enriched the debate by sharing insights on challenges facing processors and other stakeholders in the post harvest stage of the agricultural value chain. A representative from KIVA also shared information on credit financing opportunities the non-profit organization presents to farmers and other entrepreneurs.

A summary of key observations made during the meetup is as follows :-

1. Awareness and uptake of mobile tools for agriculture

Most farmers are unaware of the existence of market transparency and productivity tools using mobile technology such as Mfarm, iCow, FarmPal and Mkulima Calc. Awareness creation, and driving uptake of these tools continue to be a priority for mobile entrepreneurs, farmers and other stakeholders.

In the two agriculture focussed meetups held so far in the year, younger farmers were quick to single out mobile technology as the way out for delivering information services to farmers. An opportunity was noted therefore to target the emerging class of younger farmers to drive initial uptake of mobile solutions for agriculture.

Wireless wednesday participants networking and sharing insights

It was observed that uptake of mobile solutions for agriculture is not necessarily impeded by illiteracy or cost of devices and services. As with the case of M-PESA, adoption of mobile technologies in agriculture was noted to be driven by farmers’ demand to access information services on mobile devices. Participants noted that adoption of technology by farmers could be accelerated through awareness creation and capacity building among farmers by community workers.

2. Technologically organized groups of farmers and agro-processors

As the discussion of challenges faced by farmers and agro-processors went on, it was increasingly apparent they struggle to organise themselves into groups. For instance a tomato farmer in the meetup wished they could be linked up with other tomato farmers to make tomato paste when prices are low. Grouping of farmers was seen to be useful in facilitating collective produce storage, transportation and bargaining with buyers. Benefits of groups among farmers were also seen to revolve around knowledge sharing and access to information.

Community based agro-processors also experienced challenges managing their membership. These challenges affect access to produce for processing and contributions from members. Further this threatens the existence and sustainability of such community based organizations.

Where players in the agricultural value chain succeed to form groups based on geographical proximity and special interests, the groups often experience challenges such as difficulties in communication, governance and access to information for the groups. Participants noted that creation and optimal running of stakeholder groupings can be facilitated through through mobile technology solutions. Mobile developers and entrepreneurs were challenged to create mobile platforms for farmers and other players in agriculture addressing the above needs.

3. Agro-processor Financing Challenges

Challenges noted among community based agro-processors included accessing capital for acquiring refrigeration and modern food processing facilities. This was noted to relate to access to information on opportunities such as grants, debt and equity financing. Such information could be publicly available but is not easily accessible to community groups operating away from capital cities and major towns. An opportunity therefore existed for mobile solutions to facilitate dissemination of such information on raising funds for capital investment and expansion among community based agro-processing organizations.

: Kiva representative sharing on financing opportunities for entrepreneurs at the meetup

4. Middlemen and their contribution to the value chain

The topic of middle-men continued to elicit varied reactions among participants. The matter was highlighted in a previous Wireless Wednesday event. Many participants in the meetup continued to consider middlemen as being exploitative of farmers. Some participants also noted the middleman’s action of aggregating produce and providing transportation to markets as being facilitative to the agricultural ecosystem.

The next wireless wednesday meetup on using mobile technology for agriculture is scheduled for 27th June 2012. The theme and further details for the event will be announced through the Pivot East and iHub blogs.

Additional Information

In East Africa, mobile developers and entrepreneurs have in the recent past attempted to introduce new innovations intended to inject efficiencies in the agricultural value chain. It is in an effort to amplify these attempts and their potential impact that m:lab East Africa has got support from USAID to organize a series of “Wireless Wednesday” meetups throughout the year. The focus group discussions are aimed at facilitating knowledge sharing between developers and subject matter experts in agriculture. Wireless Wednesday meetups are also opportunities for networking among mobile developers, entrepreneurs, domain practitioners and development partners. The expected outcome of these events in increased development and uptake of mobile innovations to improve productivity and livelihoods in the agricultural sector. Results of this are already being seen as is described in this Business Daily Article.

By: Leo Mutuku

01-05-2012

Community Events iHub iHub-Research m:lab Uncategorized

Kenya’s Mobile Money Revolution: M-Pesa turns Five

courtesy of Squad Digital

Safaricom’s mobile money phenomenon, M-Pesa, clocked 5 years, early this year on March 6, 2012. These five years have seen M-Pesa grow from humble beginnings as a small unit, when it was started in Kenya by a Safaricom -Vodafone partnership, to a fully fledged department.

To celebrate its five years of existence, Safaricom came up with a campaign dubbed ‘celebrating five years of changing lives’ which has been captured in both interactive and static infographics (HT the Safaricom Limited and Squad Digital teams respectively). This campaign highlights the key milestones that have been marked by M-Pesa over the years including various awards and innovations coming from that end.

courtesy of Safaricom

A snapshot of M-PESA:

The number of MPesa users has risen from 19,671 in 2007 to an astounding 15 million users to date transacting between them over Kshs.1.4 TRILLION .
The number of MPesa agents has also risen from 355 in 2008 to over 37,000 agents countrywide.
Safaricom reduced the minimum value of MPesa transaction from Kshs. 50 to Kshs. 10 in this first five years of operation to cater for all segments of the population while the maximum value of an MPesa transaction has also risen from Kshs. 35,000 initially to Kshs. 140,000
There are 25 banks in the M-PESA network with a coverage of 700+ ATMs where you can withdraw your money from. Further, through Western Union, we can now receive money on M-Pesa from over 70 countries worldwide.
Safaricom has been recognized by GSMA as the Best Mobile Transfer Service, by Africom for Innovative Technology and Life Changing Solutions, among many other international acclaims.
Kenyans for Kenya successful campaign to raise funds for the 3.5 million drought-stricken people facing starvation in Kenya in 2011 used M-PESA as one of the main platforms to receive donations; over 150 million raised via M-PESA alone.

M-Pesa’s success has been attributed severally to the fact that it provides options to many of the country’s unbanked to move and receive money in a relatively easy and affordable manner. We congratulate Safaricom for their flagship innovation’s 5 years anniversary and wait to see what greater impact M-Pesa will have on our society in the coming years.

In case you missed the links, check out these infographics: Celebrating 5 Years of M-Pesa and M-Pesa’s Timeline, Celebrating 5 Years of Changing Lives

By: Jessica Colaco

18-04-2012

Community Creatives Events iHub Members

Creative Robotics Boot Camp

The Creative Robotics Boot Camp organized by iHub Research in partnership with FabLab Nairobi is a two-day boot camp/workshop, whose main aim is to bring together the tech community in Nairobi in creating innovative robotics projects made by and for the Kenyan market. The event will be taking place on the 20th and 21st of April 2012.

It will run concurrently with the International Space Apps Challenge under the Open Hardware category, which will be taking place at the iHub on the same dates. If you would like to find out more please visit http://spaceappschallenge.org/

More information on open hardware can be found at http://spaceappschallenge.org/challengedescriptions/#hardware

Objectives

The program aims to bring together tech enthusiasts with an interest in robotics. The participants will undergo a short, intensive course on the use of the Arduino board as a platform to program robots.

The boot camp aims at providing a platform for techies to explore robotics, develop their skills and come up with innovative ideas on how to apply robotics in the context of the Kenyan tech community, and in the manufacturing sector.

Platforms

Arduino Platform

Arduino is a popular open-source single-board micro-controller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible.
Arduino hardware is programmed using a Wiring-based language (syntax and libraries), similar to C++ with some simplifications and modifications, and a Processing-based integrated development environment. You can find more information about the Arduino Platform here.

Programme

Day 1: Introduction (From 5pm – 8pm)
Venue- FabLab Nairobi (University of Nairobi Science and Technology Park)

A brief run through of what the Programme will entail, in terms of the requirements, objectives and expected outcomes of the workshop.

This will start with refreshments and a tour of the FabLab, which is a centre for building prototypes and incubation of companies, the projects and incubations under it, and programs and opportunities available. This session will involve a guided class on how to design and build a motor driver which will be used together with the servo motors during the boot camp.
It will also be a opportunity for participants to get acquainted with each other.

Day 2: Robotics Boot Camp (From 8am)

Venue- iHub

Morning session

Overview on Arduino: the parts, components and installation of the software. This will also involve an introduction on basic electronics.
The participants will have an interactive session involving videos of the interesting innovations made by other techies using robotics, with a special focus on project that are from developing countries.
Basics on using Arduino boards. This involves testing the classic “hello world” example using an LED.
A class on the use of variables and procedure calls, with an emphasis on the use of the special procedures setup() and loop(). The participants will then learn how to compile the example programs and test them on the Arduino board.

Mid Morning

This lesson will focus on the integration of various sensors, actuators and components which can be used with the Arduino board.
Separation between digital,analog and serial sensors. This class will also be taught using breadboards so that the participants can get a better understanding of how to connect components to the board.
This class will cover the different kinds of serial communication and how to intergrate the Arduino with different kinds of hardware. The core of this class will be serial protocol communication.

Afternoon

The teams begin working on their projects, while under supervision from the coordinating team.

Requirements

The participants will be required to each have a laptop.

The participants will be divided into teams of up to five, with each team being required to come up with a robotics concept. This idea will be entered into the Robotics Contest which will be held on the last day of the boot camp/workshop.

Each group will be required to each have a blog post, which should be ready before starting the competition.

Robotics Contest Ideas

Below are some of the challenges that the participating teams will be required to develop solutions for using the Arduino platform:

1. Creating a digital score board for the foosball game at the iHub.

2. Developing a mapping robot that once let free in an enclosed room, will collect information and send it to a nearby PC using Bluetooth or ZigB. This is information in temperature, humidity and light intensity.

3. Make a obstacle-avoiding robot.

4. Create a device/solution that can monitor traffic and work with traffic lights on Ngong Road. This solution should also be accessible on the open-data platform.

Take-aways

There will be prizes for the top 3 entries:

1st Prize: Ksh 50,000, t-shirts and a 1 year silver membership to Github
2nd Prize 30,000 and 1 year bronze membership to Github
3rd Prize 20,000 and 6 month bronze membership to Github
The t-shirts and and GitHub membership are courtesy of Github.

Registration

If you would like to participate in the Space Apps Challenge only, please register here.

If you would like to participate in the Robotics Boot Camp, please register here. Please note that due to space restrictions we can only accept the first 30 people who register.

By: Simeon Oriko

12-04-2012

Community

Developer Economics 2012: The new mobile app economy

Developer Economics is back for a new research on some of the hottest trends of the developer ecosystem; investigating key themes, such as developer mindshare, app monetization and marketing, as well as regional app economics.

So – kindly take 10 minutes to complete the online survey – and stand to win great prizes ( a $1,000 Amazon voucher, a new iPad, and a Kindle Fire up for grabs). The results of this survey will be published as a FREE report in the last week of June – Q2.

Developer Economics 2012 – Key themes

This research revolves around five main themes:

Developer Mindshare
App Store Fragmentation
Making money from apps
App Marketing
Apps supply vs. demand per region

Why are these themes important? Let’s take them, one at a time:

Developer Mindshare – which are the top platforms for developers?

Two previous Developer Economics reports have shown clear trends in terms of the migration of developer MindShare (i.e. the average % of developers using each platform) away from traditional platforms, such as Java, Flash Lite and BlackBerry and onto newer platforms – mainly Android and iOS. One of the biggest surprises in last year’s report was the emergence of mobile web as the third most widely used platform in mobile – as the app economy is shifting the balance of power among key players of the mobile industry, software developers flock to mobile, claiming their own piece of the pie. The increasing usage of cross-platform tools reduces the barriers to entry and allows developers of all inklings to create apps that have the potential to be downloaded thousands, if not millions, of times.

App Store Fragmentation – how many app stores do developers use concurrently?

At the same time, all and sundry are attempting to tap into the app economy, creating new app stores left and right. There are currently over 70 app stores– and that’s just for Android! Traditional players, like Telcos and handset manufacturers, have also created app stores and are allowing access behind their proverbial walled gardens, leaving developers lost in a sea of app stores. Since the choice of app stores is largely dependent on the platform used to create their apps, developers need to carefully target the stores they will use. The majority of these app stores have a limited range and scope – do take the survey and let us know which ones you think are the most important.

Revenues vs. costs – which developers are making money?

As the number of apps available in the big stores has reached immense heights, discoverability has become a thorny issue for developers. An app that has taken time and money to be developed might be lost amidst the crowd of similar apps, providing very low revenues to the developer who created it. Despite an abundance of opportunities and the fact that many companies, both from within and outside the mobile industry, view developers as an asset, there’s a long tail of developers who don’t manage to break even.

There are many parameters that govern monetization. Choosing a revenue model is extremely important, as the trend is moving away from the traditional pay-per-download model and into in-app purchases and premium features. Moreover, choice of platform seems to be equally important, since not all platforms are created equal, at least in terms of monetization.

Monetizing a great app is more than actually creating it – it’s a mixture of several parameters, such as selecting the right audience, the right platform and the right distribution channel. Which brings us to our next theme; marketing.

App marketing – what’s the best way of marketing your apps?

It’s not enough just to create a great app; most of the time, you have to spend money in order to make money, which means developers need to invest in marketing. There are numerous of ways of marketing an app – through the usual suspects (social media, own website/blog etc.) to paying for Google AdWords, Facebook ads or even premium placement in app stores. As with everything marketing-related it not just a matter of throwing money at your problem, but of tailoring your message to the right audience and selecting the best channel to reach them. Which means that marketing goes even further back in the app supply chain – i.e. the design board. It’s imperative that developers know whom they’re making their apps for, how large their audience is and what is the best way to reach them.

Have more ideas on app marketing? Take the survey and give us your views.

Regional vs. global demand – what is the balance between developer supply vs. app demand across regions?

The app economy has allowed players from all around the globe to join in and make a killing. China, India, Brazil and Africa have huge developer communities, of increasing importance. In previous Developer Economics reports we found that platform use varies with region – for example, there’s a large concentration of iOS developers in North America, while Asia holds a higher-than-average percentage of Java developers.

At the same time, users are looking for more localized content – local apps in their own language. China is now the second largest market in terms of app downloads – and is expected to grow even more, as China has now overtaken the US in Android and iOS activations. As app markets are growing all around the globe, the importance of localized content becomes paramount – which is the next app heaven?

So – if you’re interested as much as we are to know the answer to all these questions and the themes presented here – Take the online survey and let us know what you think.

If you’re not a developer you can always help us spread the word!

By: Jessica Colaco

02-04-2012

Community Entrepreneurship iHub iHub-Research Members Start-Ups

Announcing funding from Google to support the iHub community

The journey with Google and iHub over the last 2 years

Google and iHub have grown together with the community over the last two years learning from each other through events such as Ladies Mapping parties, Trainings on Google Earth, Fireside Chats with Marissa Mayer, Office Hours with Bob Aman and Hackathons . These sessions have strengthened our collaboration and through them we have identified areas to work together and strengthen the iHub community further this year.

Joe Mucheru during the 1st year anniversary last year in March

The funding and plans

Today, we are proud to announce funding of USD 150,000 (Ksh. 12M) from Google to support the iHub community. This funding will help accelerate our mission in catalyzing technology innovations within the iHub by providing them with the infrastructure and skill-sets to fuel their innovations to the next level. With this funding, we seek to:

Expand our infrastructure (network and server technology) to provide the tech community with a “sandbox” to host and test their applications
Set up a UX testing lab to provide training on design thinking and carry out UX research in the tech world
Setup the “ExchangeBoard Project” to support high-quality G+ hangouts and display the latest newsfeeds within the tech community
Set up an experimental super-computer cluster environment (“rackspace”) to host data intensive applications with require high performance computing

About the iHub

Founded 2 years ago, the iHub has grown tremendously to become the go to place for all things techie in East Africa. This space is home to many of Kenya’s young entrepreneurs, freelance software developers, designers and researchers. It also acts as a nexus point for them to interact with our network of investors and VCs while providing them with a co-working space.

As entrepreneurs engage with their peers and bounce ideas off each other, a culture of open innovation is nurtured. The iHub has given rise to new promising startups and technologies. With an average membership age of about 24 years, these youth are embracing technology in innovative ways to create sustainable impact in Kenya.

The iHub model has had great impact in the local tech scene and more and more young people are embracing the idea of co-working for their ventures. As a result of constant interaction through collaborations and meet-ups, a solid network and synergistic tech community has grown in Nairobi. Our mission at iHub is simply to catalyze technological innovations in Nairobi, by creating an open space for entrepreneurship, research, hacking and connecting industry stakeholders.

By: Hilda Moraa

29-03-2012

Applications Community Entrepreneurship iHub iHub-Research Members Start-Ups

M-Maji Launch: A USSD application to improve clean water access in the slums

It’s not every day that a mobile application is launched to the accompaniment of songs, dances, and gymnastics. That’s exactly what happened at Sarangombe in Kibera, where a crowd gathered to launch M-Maji (“mobile-water” in Swahili). M-Maji is a mobile phone-based water information system that aims to empower under-served communities with better information about water availability, price, and quality. Water vendors use their mobile phones to advertise on M-Maji and water buyers query the M-Maji database to find the closest, cheapest, and cleanest water. All this is free and accessible on even the most basic GSM phones.
M-Maji was developed by Weza Tele, a visionary firm that applies mobile technologies such as USSD, Mobile Web, and SMS to solve problems. Weza Tele teamed up with a group of Stanford students, as well as Umande Trust, an organization based in Kibera that addresses water and sanitation issues. Because M-Maji is a novel approach to improving clean water access, it was critical to conduct a randomized, controlled evaluation of our system. Weza Tele’s contribution to M-Maji involved requirements analysis, design, development, prototyping and testing.
The problem:
When water is scarce, a resident of Kibera may trek for miles in search of it with no guarantee of success. Simply finding the water takes up valuable time and energy. M-Maji makes it possible for vendors to advertise for clean water at specific landmarks and allow customers to be able to look up the places where they can find water vendors in their specific location through the use of the mobile phone.

: Access to water is limited

How M-Maji works

Step 1: At the start of each day, water vendors notify M-Maji via USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) that they have water to sell, the price they are selling it for,and where they are selling it. They also have the option to advertise whether or not their water is purified. All of these vendor notifications from across Kibera are collected and stored in a central M-Maji database in real-time.
Step 2: Water buyers who are searching for water initiate a USSD session with M-Maji, through which they obtain a location-relevant listing of local water vendors who have water to sell, their price, location, and vendor ratings.
Step 3: If a water buyer subsequently finds out that a vendor misreported water availability, price, or quality, the buyer can file a complaint with M-Maji via USSD. The database will keep track of complaints and alert future buyers of such negative histories through the use of vendor ratings.

Today’s launch
The launch had the honor of hosting government officials such as Chairman of ODM Mr. Ombongo, Area Chief of Sarangombe Mr. Ongweso, Area councillor Kodiao, Chief of Makina Christine Lithwa also availed herself. There were also Stakeholder representatives from Umande Trust among the few were Musimi Boni. Stanford University was also represented by Professors Joshua Cohen and Terry Winograd.

: Presentation from Umande Trust

The launch was breathtaking filled with entertainment from the Kibera Hamlet school who brought a splash of colors to the day with their acrobatic dances and flexible moves, a musician spoke about the importance of water and marveled the crowd. Songs were sung by local primary schools from Kibera, a play was done to showcase the lifestyle of water vendors who were faced with obstacles from harsh customers who complained about the quality of water.

: Presentation from the chief

Mr. Ongweso the Area Chief of Kibera talked about some few challenges that Kibera inhabitants faced. He addressed the issue of contaminated water being something that could be controlled if people took responsibilities of where they dispose waste. He saidSarangombe has five tanks for water and pipes that direct water to different locations however, people always interfere with them and cut them so as to get water. This exposes the clean water to germs and external waste that could as a result cause diseases.
Vendor registration was also being initiated at the launch where we had different vendors putting down their phone numbers and location so as to be part of the system. Customers who wanted more explanation of how M-Maji works were also putting down their names and numbers so as to be given a text of how it actually functions. However, a practical demonstration was done to everyone who came on the simple process of M-Maji.

: Water vendors signing up

Although the code was not activated the people were excited and anticipated the new solution of water access. They were informed of its soon activation and embraced it positively.

By: Hilda Moraa

28-03-2012

Community Creatives Entrepreneurship Events iHub iHub-Research Start-Ups

Design Thinking Workshop at iHub

It was a super cool and interactive workshop with Terry and Joshua from Stanford d.school and Dan from University of Nairobi. If you are a techpreneur,researcher, a designer and you did not attend then you missed out! We learnt a bunch of interesting and eye-opening things.

The workshop started off with an interactive session entitled ‘The Wallet Project’ , an immersive activity meant to give participants a full cycle through the design thinking process in as short a time as possible. The project itself gives facilitators the opportunity to touch on the fundamental values of the d.school that include:

Human-centered design: Empathy for the person or people you are designing for, and feedback from users, is fundamental to good design.
Experimentation and Prototyping—Prototyping is not simply a way to validate your idea; it is an integral part of your innovation process. We build to think and learn.
A bias towards action: Design thinking is a misnomer; it is more about doing that thinking. Bias toward doing and making over thinking and meeting.
Show don’t tell: Creating experiences, using illustrative visuals, and telling good stories communicate your vision in an impactful and meaningful way.
Power of iteration: The reason we go through this exercise at a frantic pace is that we want people to experience a full design cycle. A person’s fluency with design thinking is a function of cycles, so we challenge participants to go through as many cycles as possible—interview twice, sketch twice, and test with your partner twice. Additionally, iterating solutions many times within a project is key to successful outcomes.

The second phase of the workshop, the team went out to understanding how designers approach problems to try to solve them, individuals and businesses will be better able to connect with and invigorate their ideation processes in order to take innovation to a higher level. Teams of 8 had interviews with ‘Mama Njoroge’s’ to find out what they want and possible solutions. The teams got interesting findings such as:

Lack of proper roads to transport their products and services
Lack of storage facilities and lots of food wastage
Lack of an ordering platform to advertise and the vendors to get more traffic for their products
Insecurity and no community policing
No proper water and sanitation facilities
Insufficient capital and financing for business expansion

Summary points:

Point of view= user + need + insight, this is the anchor/focused challenge that grows from empathy.
Often you could build on a bad idea and get a good one that relates to it
Imagination! Empathy! Reframing the problem! Generate alternatives! Iterate based on feedback! Build and test!
Fail Early, Fail often then learn from that!
The fundamental way to test prototypes is by letting users experience them and react to as well as your perception of your users and their needs.