Our Research & Discovery Process
Recently, Briico designed and executed a Research & Discovery initiative using IDEO’s Human-Centered Design approach.
Human-centered design has been developed by an organization called IDEO. And they define it this way:
Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem solving. It’s the backbone of all our work at IDEO. It’s a process that starts with the people you’re designing with and ends with new solutions that are purpose-built to suit their needs. Human-centered design is about cultivating deep empathy with the people you’re designing with; generating ideas; building a bunch of prototypes; sharing what you’ve made together; and eventually, putting your innovative new solution out in the world.
This HCD process is one that we've returned to again and again over the last couple of decades of work. It's the process I used to start my company Liga Masiva. It's the process we used to develop a microloan and training program with the smallholder farmers we worked with in that company. We returned to it again to start Wholesale In a Box. And now as we develop Briico, it's the ethos, principles, and process we lean into.
HCD is more of an art than a step-by-step process. But we have found a concrete resource to be helpful in each of these projects: the IDEO Field Guide.
The most crucial parts of HCD in my mind are:
Talking with, living with, observing, and collaborating with the people you're serving -- throughout your entire design process. Usually this means talking with and collaborating with the people you'll serve much earlier in the process than normal.
Starting with a problem or "how might we" question rather than starting with your hunch for a solution.
Moving through a process of discovery, synthesis and prototyping that usually involves many stickie notes... and a much faster and more intense pace than a normal project.
With HCD, you start with a guiding question to focus the work. In this project, our question is: how might every aspiring entrepreneur in the US -- especially immigrants and refugees -- get the tools and support they need to grow a small business?
To dive into finding answers to this question, our HCD process included the following. We:
Distilled the crucial quantitative and qualitative insights from our previous work with small businesses in NYC, Denver, Puerto Rico, Ulster County NY, and nationwide.
Conducted in-depth case studies of 12 small/micro businesses in (Ulster County and beyond) run by low-income entrepreneurs and immigrants from 6 countries.
Reviewed 100+ academic papers and RCTs relating to small business support and teaching entrepreneurship.
Gathered key guidance from nonprofit leaders working closely with immigrant and refugee populations.
In these field interviews and research, we found multiple challenges causing small businesses to stay unprofitable and others to never get started. Key findings from our Research & Discovery Initiative suggest that these entrepreneurs:
Struggle to envision viable growth for their business and need to see credible and inspiring pathways forward.
Don’t benefit from broad business courses but rather need help acting immediately and steadily to grow/start their business.
Often benefit from learning a “capital flexible” approach to growth rather than a dependence on debt which can be risky and rigid.
Need support shifting to what the academic literature calls a “Personal Initiative” mindset. It turns out that the most powerful entrepreneurial characteristics can be taught and they relate to key mindset approaches like long-term thinking, practical problem solving, self-starting, etc.
Don’t have effective understandings of what investments they could make in their own growth. They need cutting-edge marketing frameworks to prioritize and execute marketing plans that will drive income.
Frequently have limitations in literacy, numeracy, or English skills that make more conceptual, wordy, or classroom trainings inaccessible and impractical.
Find existing tools, courses, advising, and loan access (including the SBDC and the Chamber of Commerce) to be inadequate to their needs.
Our initial prototype in response to these findings is our pilot workshop series: the Kingston Business Boost. But in keeping with the HCD process, these findings are a starting point not an end point. So our prototype workshop series WILL provide a lot of value to the entrepreneurs. But it will also be a learning laboratory for us to continue developing and answering our key question: how might every aspiring entrepreneur in the US -- especially immigrants and refugees -- get the tools and support they need to grow a small business?
And that's what our everyday work at Briico is all about.