Imagine

Phase 2: Design & Test - Imagine

Sierra Leone, Design & Test

During the Design & Test Phase, Flow Chart users translate problems into solutions using a highly creative, collaborative, energetic, and human-centered approach. Using the insights and opportunities identified during the Define Phase as inspiration, groups of designers, health experts, development specialists, stakeholders, and representatives from the audience come together to rapidly generate a broad array of ideas for possible solutions. Users iteratively refine, prototype, and test these ideas several times in increasing levels of fidelity, using user feedback to inform the final solutions and ensure that they are both useful and usable for those involved in the design.

Phase 2 Design & Test: Imagine, Refine, Prototype, Test

Imagine

How do we come up with creative ideas?

By the end of this step, you will have as many ideas generated as possible (ideation) from a diverse range of individuals, embracing out of the box thinking to find innovative ideas/solutions through an imagine workshop.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Craft “How Might We?” Questions

Crafting “How Might We? (HMW) questions means creating open-ended, user-centered queries to inspire innovative solutions. These questions help you uncover opportunities, challenges, and drive creative problem-solving within a specific context. Framing questions with HMW focuses your brainstorming and collaborative exploration of potential solutions.

HMW Question Template

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Suggested time:
3–4 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: HMW Question Template

The HMW question template is a tool for transforming challenges or problems into openings for creative problem-solving. By structuring questions with the phrase “How Might We?” it stimulates brainstorming and ideation by directing attention to potential solutions instead of fixating on the problem itself. Discover how to craft your own using this template.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Generate Ideas

During this step, your creativity comes to life through brainstorming and developing new ideas, solutions, and perspectives. It involves exploring various angles, questioning assumptions, and thinking innovatively to find fresh and effective ways to address problems.

Brainstorming Template

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Suggested time:
2–3 hours
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Brainstorming Template

Brainstorming is an effective strategy for swiftly generating a multitude of ideas aimed at addressing specific challenges. It is most often conducted within a group setting, where participants freely and openly exchange their thoughts and suggestions without criticism. This template provides key principles and guidelines for successful brainstorming sessions.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Existing Solutions Bucket Template

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Suggested time:
2–3 hours
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Existing Solutions Bucket Template

Great ideas can emerge from various sources. The template allows you to refine existing ideas to test in your context and to delve into critical analysis and leveraging feedback loops. Use this tool to uncover hidden potentials, identify gaps, and fuse concepts for a superior solution.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Prioritize Ideas

This vital step involves careful evaluation and ranking of ideas, weighing their potential value and feasibility. Through this process, you identify the most promising ideas to pursue, setting aside others for future consideration.

Impact Effort Matrix Template

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Suggested time:
2–3 hours
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Impact Effort Matrix Template

The impact effort matrix, a potent decision-making tool, evaluates ideas by considering their potential impact and the effort needed for execution. This tool involves plotting items on a grid to facilitate the prioritization of ideas and concepts. Tasks falling in the high impact, low effort quadrant represent quick wins, while those in the high impact, high effort category necessitate strategic planning. This matrix greatly assists in the efficient allocation of resources and decision making.

Effort required:

Two out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

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Second Point of Convergence

Point of Convergence - Women meet in a conference room in Indonesia

Indonesia, Point of Convergence

Decision points sit between each phase. These are called points of convergence. During this transition, the project team validates the quality of the solutions and feasibility with implementing partners and stakeholders. This is a time for accepting the presented solutions, moving them forward, and promoting buy-in.

Second point of convergence between Phase 2 Design and Test and Phase 3 Apply

Solution Validation

How do we know if we have an accepted solution?

By the end of this step, you will have validated the selected prototypes with community members and key stakeholders, moving the prototype from testing to a product or solution ready for implementation.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Validate with Implementers & Stakeholders

Once your solutions have been validated with users, the next step is validating them with implementers and stakeholders. Conduct a validation workshop, a collaborative event where solutions, results, and potential for scalability will undergo analysis. Participants analyze results, feasibility, and implementing conduction to ensure scalability.

Decision-Making Tool

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Suggested time:
3–4 hours
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Desirability, Feasibility, Scalability Decision-Making Tool

Feedback gathering assists stakeholders and implementing partners in decision making. It fosters an environment for collecting input, ensuring diverse perspectives are taken into account. Analyzing this feedback helps teams make informed decisions to ensure the relevance of final solutions.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

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First Point of Convergence

Point of Convergence - Meeting of mothers of young children in Guatemala

Guatemala, Point of Convergence

Decision points sit between each phase. These are called points of convergence. During this first transition, the project team validates the quality of the insights with communities and stakeholders. This is a time for refining the insights and promoting buy-in.

First point of convergence between Phase 1 Define and Phase 2 Design

Insights Validation

How do we validate our insights?

By the end of this step, your team will have assessed the quality of the insights generated and have a set of validated insights by communities and stakeholders.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Gather Feedback

While the creative process of generating insights from available information can be fun, it’s equally vital to dedicate time to validate them. A validation workshop serves as a collaborative occasion where these insights are subjected to rigorous analysis. Participants collectively scrutinize the findings and the subsequent preliminary insights to ensure their accuracy and relevance.

Feedback Gathering Activity

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Suggested time:
5–6 hours, depending on scope
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Feedback Gathering Activity

Feedback gathering aids teams in validating the insights they’ve developed. This process involves engagement with communities and stakeholders, fostering an environment for collecting input and ensuring the inclusion of diverse perspectives. Analyzing this feedback is instrumental in guiding teams to make informed improvements, transitioning from draft to final insights.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Develop Design Criteria

How do we know if our solutions are user-centered?

By the end of this step, you will have defined a set of clear and actionable design criteria that are informed by user needs. These criteria will serve as guiding principles, ensuring the developed solutions are user-centered.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Craft Design Criteria

A robust design process relies on a shared reference point, which, combined with your unique insights, forms the foundation for your design criteria. By formulating actionable criteria that steer the evolution of your designs, you establish a solid framework that paves the way for project success.

Design Criteria

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Suggested time:
3–4 hours
Participants:
Design team

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Tool: Design Criteria

This concise guide empowers teams to craft impactful design criteria. It offers step-by-step methods for understanding user needs, and brainstorming criteria. Packed with practical tips, this guide accelerates the development of clear, actionable, and user-focused design criteria, enhancing team collaboration and product innovation.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

Provide Feedback

Deepen Understanding

Phase 1: Define - Deepen Understanding

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Define

The Define Phase establishes the foundational understanding of the challenge from two perspectives: (1) existing knowledge and published literature, and (2) new, shared knowledge of lived experiences in households, communities, health systems, and political environments. It provides the opportunity to immerse oneself into the world in which people live and to design better solutions. This phase also provides an opportunity for key stakeholders to align with shared intent for the activity or project objective, building relationships and buy-in from the outset.

Phase 1 Define: Mine existing knowledge, Intent statement, Deepen understanding

Deepen Understanding

How can we learn even more?

By the end of this step, your team will have a different perspective of the challenge to be addressed and will have built empathy for those you are designing with by filling gaps that arose during the mine existing knowledge and intent steps.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Conduct Immersive Research

Immersive research puts you in the heart of the action, offering unique perspectives often missed from a distance. This approach not only widens the frame but allows you to inhabit the space where lives and interactions unfold, fostering empathy and shaping your creative work.

Immersive Research Package

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Suggested time:
Multiple days depending on size and scope
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Conducting Immersive Research Package

The immersive research package is a comprehensive resource containing a research protocol framework, a suite of methodological tools, and data collection templates. These materials are crafted to provide support to researchers in their studies. The templates, being adaptable to various contexts, promote in-depth exploration and understanding of the needs of the people you are designing for.

Effort required:

Five out of five on the effort scale

Synthesize the Data

Synthesis allows you to take the data you collected during your research and organize it into themes by distilling and clustering findings. You can use empathy tools like journey maps or personas to summarize the data while remembering the human element of the people with whom we are working.

Root Cause Analysis

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Suggested time:
3–4 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Root Cause Analysis

A root cause analysis is a process used to identify the primary source of a problem. In social and behavior change, a root cause analysis is used to examine why there is a difference between the desired state of a health or social issue (vision) and what is happening now (current situation).

Effort required:

Two out of five on the effort scale

Behavioral Journey Map Template

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Suggested time:
5–6 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Behavioral Journey Map Template

A behavioral journey map is a visual representation employed for the analysis and comprehension of an individual’s actions, emotions, and experiences within a particular process or interaction. It delineates significant touch points, emotional states, and pain points, offering valuable insights for researchers and designers into user behavior.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Generate Insights

The collection of new data provides so much to learn. Analyzing the discovery findings, in conjunction with the existing knowledge, leads you to potential levers for change, or insights around which your programs will be designed. An insight is a significant shift in perspective that helps to uncover unthought-of opportunities. Insights connect information and inspiration in new ways to see a situation in an unexpected way.

Insights 101 Playbook

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Suggested time:
2–4 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Insights 101 Playbook

Insights are the distillation of the formative research, that allows you to include the research findings in the design. The Insights Playbook is an introductory guide to one of the key building blocks of SBC project design: Insights. The playbook offers concise and practical guidelines with examples – from identifying insights to applying and sharing them across project partners.

Effort required:

Two out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

Provide Feedback

Intent Statement

Phase 1: Define - Intent

Guatemala, Define

The Define Phase establishes the foundational understanding of the challenge from two perspectives: (1) existing knowledge and published literature, and (2) new, shared knowledge of lived experiences in households, communities, health systems, and political environments. It provides the opportunity to immerse oneself into the world in which people live and to design better solutions. This phase also provides an opportunity for key stakeholders to align with shared intent for the activity or project objective, building relationships and buy-in from the outset.

Phase 1 Define: Mine existing knowledge, Intent statement, Deepen understanding

Intent Statement

What is the clear goal we are aiming for?

By the end of this step, your team will have a draft intent statement that builds consensus with key stakeholders by developing a shared vision and setting project objectives and future outcomes.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Prioritize Audience & Behaviors

Prioritizing is an important skill for building a strong program. It allows you to focus on where you will have the largest impact and helps inform future steps of the process.

Audience Profile Template

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Suggested time:
3-4 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Audience Profile Template

Audience profiles encapsulate the characteristics of product or service users, encompassing their needs, goals, and activities. These profiles are constructed through research involving real individuals and draw upon shared characteristics within a particular ecosystem. This tool serves as a valuable resource for organizing the wide-ranging needs and contexts of people. It offers a solid reference point to gain insight into the target audience and determine the most suitable solutions to support them.

Effort required:

Two out of five on the effort scale

Draft Intent Statement

The intent statement is a comprehensive agreement among stakeholders, consolidating discussions from the intent workshop into a finalized, reviewed, and agreed-upon document. It helps you to summarize the approach, goals, and processes and offers a snapshot of desired outcomes.

Intent Statement Template

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Suggested time:
5–6 hours
Participants:
Design and research team, partners and stakeholders, individuals you are designing for

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Tool: Intent Statement Template

The intent statement stands as a cornerstone tool for clarifying the rationale behind the need for change. This valuable resource leads you through a structured process, prompting you to contemplate and achieve consensus on various project aspects. These include the current state, the envisioned future state, and the necessary changes to bridge the gap.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Develop a Theory of Change

Create a theory of change as your guiding beacon, alongside the intent document. This document outlines how and why the desired change is expected to occur in a specific context. Regularly revisit your theory of change during design, implementation, and evaluation to ensure alignment and strategic impact.

Theory of Change Template

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Suggested time:
5–6 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Theory of Change Template

This template walks you through how to develop a basic theory of change. It will help you to determine where you want to go as a project (desired results), how you are going to get there (the inputs, activities, and outputs directly associated with activities), and what you have to account for along the way (e.g., assumptions and external factors).

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

Provide Feedback

Mine Existing Knowledge

Phase 1: Define - Mine Existing Knowledge

Guyana, Define

The Define Phase establishes the foundational understanding of the challenge from two perspectives: (1) existing knowledge and published literature, and (2) new, shared knowledge of lived experiences in households, communities, health systems, and political environments. It provides the opportunity to immerse oneself into the world in which people live and to design better solutions. This phase also provides an opportunity for key stakeholders to align with shared intent for the activity or project objective, building relationships and buy-in from the outset.

Phase 1 Define: Mine existing knowledge, Intent statement, Deepen understanding

Mine Existing Knowledge

How can we find and use what is already known?

By the end of this step, your team will understand the existing data and be able to concisely summarize what members of the field already know through a literature review and/or situation analysis.

How to conduct this step and achieve its main objectives:

Develop a Research Plan

A good research plan becomes your roadmap for advancing through the Define Phase. It allows you to set clear research objectives, enabling the systematic conversion of chaotic data into relevant categories and the specific information you require. In essence, it’s your tool for achieving focus, ensuring you’re on the right path to uncover the information you need.

Lines of Inquiry Canvas

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Suggested time:
5–6 hours
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Lines of Inquiry Canvas

Lines of inquiry represent the essential questions and prompts that steer your research when engaging with stakeholders. This template is designed to assist you in precisely defining these inquiries. Typically, these lines of inquiry are structured around overarching research themes, such as understanding audience motivations, values, beliefs, or delving into both structural and non-structural barriers. They serve as a fundamental compass, directing your efforts and priorities throughout the research process.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Review Existing Knowledge

A literature review is a powerful tool to thoroughly examine existing literature and data. When done well, it allows you to identify common themes, patterns, and compelling areas for exploration. Leverage the literature review to guide your and inform the Define Phase, pinpointing research gaps and areas demanding further inquiry.

Literature Review Template

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Suggested time:
Multiple days, depending on size and scope
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Literature Review Template

Conducting a comprehensive literature review can be a daunting task, especially considering the extensive array of resources at your disposal. This template serves as a valuable tool to assist you in structuring and managing the information. As you initiate the process of delving into existing knowledge, it helps keep a systematic record of data and information, making the task of reviewing literature more manageable and organized.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Research Synthesis Template

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Suggested time:
Multiple days, depending on size and scope
Participants:
Design and research team

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Tool: Research Synthesis Template

Once you’ve gathered the pertinent information, this tool facilitates the process of synthesizing it. The guide leads you through a structured synthesis process, assisting you to distill the most relevant knowledge. It achieves this by helping you harvest and cluster relevant data, identify key themes, and extract critical insights from the gathered information.

Effort required:

Three out of five on the effort scale

Have you used any of the tools in the SBC Flow Chart Toolkit?

We’re always striving to make the Toolkit better and more relevant. We would love to hear from you! Please complete this brief survey.

Provide Feedback