Design for Extreme Affordability
The University of Pennsylvania partnered with IDe (https://www.ideglobal.org/) to travel to Guatemala to conduct research and develop solutions for smallholder coffee farmers who are struggling with product yield and quality. We went to analyze the cause of the problem and develop extremely low-cost solutions to help aid these farmers. I traveled there during Penn's Winter break for 10 days, along with 5 other Penn Students, our program director, and 2 employees from IDe Global. One of the employees, Abby Nydam-Urmeneta is the Global Director at IDe and helped lead the project along with our Program Director of IPD, Sarah Rottenberg.
Our Challenge:
How might we design a product/service solution for smallholder coffee farmers during production (cultivation, harvesting, processing, drying, and/or transporting)?
Our Methodology:
Human-Centered Design Research, Ideation, Prototyping, Refinement for Product and Service
Where We Went:
User Research
Who We Met:
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24 farmers, 12 of whom were technicians.
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Smallholder landowners with no greater than 3 hectares.
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They grow a variety of items to eat and to sell.
Smallholder coffee farmers are faced with challenges and opportunities including:
Opportunities:
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Guaranteed market access with either a co-op or coyote
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Additional income from remittances
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Co-op/Organization involvement
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Changing consumer tastes/trends (Honey process)
Challenges:
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Lack of water access
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Uncertainty
of their coffee quality after their household processing -
Unpredictable weather conditions due to climate change
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Pests/diseases
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Low market price
Quality is of the utmost importance. Both farmers and technicians want the highest quality coffee in order to see the benefits on all income levels. While co-ops provide a great deal of value-add to farmers, co-ops have not yet begun introducing water innovation or water conversation practice with their farmers.
Farmer's focus
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Water
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Inputs (fertilizer)
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Shade
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Berry ripeness
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Fermentation (too much)
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Drying: not knowing when dry enough, what material to dry on, overdrying, space, even drying.
Technicians focus on these things plus
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Longer drying times
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More accurate drying times
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Drying in the shade
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Precise input formulas
Design Principles
How Might We…
...design a product innovation that improves the overall quality of the coffee for the farmer and the co-op leading to higher prices.
...design a product innovation that does not create additional labor or water for the farmer.
...design a product innovation that increases the yield of high-quality coffee.
...design a product that shows its benefits quickly and can be taught/demonstrated.
...design a product innovation that is paired with a strong educational/training component.
...design a product innovation that is scalable across a range of coffee farmers (land size and experience).
…design a product innovation that uses existing behaviors, materials, and practice in order for them to adopt without reservation.
Lo-Res Prototyping
Our Ideas :
The Bean Buddies
Pocket-sized Training Cards to show photos/drawings of optimal and nonoptimal bean/leaf color so that farmers would know when to pick/when they have problems.
Teaching beans of optimal and nonoptimal bean color so that farmers would know when to pick/when they have problems.
The Rock n’ Roller
A manual or electric drying roller for the household level. Reusing the motor from the wet miller, shade based drying, protected from rain, cutting down on labor, and standardizing the drying process.
The Rack and Stack
To provide an easy and inexpensive product for farmers to dry their cafe by maximizing drying space with a vertical footprint.
The Shady Wall
To provide an inexpensive, easy solution to provide adequate, quick shade to coffee plants while shade trees are still growing.
The Magic Bean
To provide an inexpensive, easy solution for farmers to be able to tell when their beans are perfectly dry -- to live next to their drying beans.
Prioritization based on User Feedback
Higher Priority Lower Priority
positive response and interest from respondents on these
Feedback from Users: Shade trees are too important for other things (household wood), and shade trees just work best..
Feedback from Users: Cards made more sense but are too similar to things that already exist.
Feedback from Users: Too expensive, thought it would use a lot of energy, too loud.
Medium Res: Elevar Alto Value Proposition
For smallholder farmers who dry their own coffee, Elevar Alto is a drying rack that allows farmers to earn more money by selling their coffee by increasing the quality. Unlike African beds or ground drying, our product is a ergonomic solution that can be used to protect coffee from rain, dry in the sun/shade, and reduce the physical labor inherent to the drying process.
What our Users Liked:
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Elevated from the ground
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Ergonomic
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Cleaner
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“Looks nice”
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Would improve quality
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Shade or sun drying potential
Design Recommendations:
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Price: 300Q to 2500Q (general desire to purchase if affordable)
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Purchase the complete product at one time
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Usability: Coffee on shelves need to be visible and easily accessible
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Slanted roof
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Dimensions: 2 meter x 1.5 meters
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Comfortable height for farmers
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100-150 pounds of coffee per rack
Medium Res: Elevar Alto Service Model
Step 1:
Pilot Elevar Alto
Step 2:
Carpenters produce Elevar Alto
Step 3:
Technicians demonstrate racks
Step 4:
Farmer buys Elevar Alto
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Production and Market Model
to specifications to make and sell the racks as sales agents
and provide farmers with approved carpenter sales agents
and adopts the technology and increases quality and sales
Medium Res: Grano Guardiàn Value Proposition
For smallholder coffee farmers, who have difficulty knowing when their beans are perfectly dry, Grano Guardiàn is a bean-moisture measuring device that provides a low-cost and accurate method to know when beans are dry. Unlike tactile methods or expensive meters, our product is cost-effective, easy to understand, and highly accessible.
Feedback:
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Target User: Smallholder farmers drying their own beans
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Price: Between 300-1000 quetzals depending on materials and lifespan of the product
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Usability:
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Size: large enough to be visible in drying bed but not large enough to make transportation and storage inconvenient
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Longevity: Durable in context of transportation, children and animals (i.e., “ruggedized”)
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Color: should be brightly colored to be visible in the drying bed
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Accuracy: should provide high level of precision
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Scope: Several questions regarding scope of detection
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Implementation: materials and use can’t go against organic principles
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UX: should align with current behavior - i.e. repetitive checking of beans
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General Concept: easily and intuitively understood as a device to determine dryness of beans
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Design Recommendations:
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Size: 6 inches in diameter and height,
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Color: orange and grey plastic or silicone body
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Scope: Average size of a drying bed - 5mx2m or 102
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Precision: within .5% of 10.5%
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Price: 500 quetzals
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Guarantee: 5 years
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UX: Product would include clear directions on placement, timely checking, and set up with an orientation toward technician training
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Medium Res: Grano Guardiàn Service Model
Step 1:
Refine design & polymer functionality
Step 2:
Source Polymer
Step 3:
Manufacturing
Step 4:
Product Distribution
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Production and Market Mode
US development of polymer and specs
Guatemalan assembly and manufacturing
Demonstrate the Technology and Distribute to Speciality Stores
Next Steps...
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Refine the collaboration model with IPD/iDE + in-field implementers
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Further research and testing on prototypes
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Pilot Testing in Guatemala
