This is a great piece when it comes to what HCD can add to the way international NGOs design programs and the importance of nimble prototyping and testing. I’d also add that design thinking brings much better communications into play and this has the potential to be very powerful. It would have been even better if it had linked this to the decades of rich experience in the sector growing out of the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) field and related approaches to project and program design. Exciting times.
Programme/Project Development Specialist have been a core part of INGO HR mix for as long as I can remember. We place them with our M&E teams to ensure iterative learning informs new programme/project design. They and M&E team members also participate in project steering committee meetings to inform adjustments to project strategy/design during the life of the project based on periodic (quarterly/six monthly MEAL activities). The biggest constraint to making changes to project design periodically and systematically is not lack of expertise in design thinking or approach, rather it is the perception that donors view change requests negatively. The key has to be donors encouraging and welcoming change requests during the project life cycle and allowing the necessary adjustments to budgets and activities.
I would add that successful social enterprises are forced into HCD, whether they call it that or not. For most businesses, the only way to be successful is to operate with the customer’s needs first and foremost in mind, and to iterate and change rapidly as one’s understanding of the customer changes. Successful social enterprises also understand that collecting data about what is working and what is not working—and acting on that data rapidly—is critical.
COMMENTS
BY Kate Simpson
ON July 27, 2016 06:41 PM
This is a great piece when it comes to what HCD can add to the way international NGOs design programs and the importance of nimble prototyping and testing. I’d also add that design thinking brings much better communications into play and this has the potential to be very powerful. It would have been even better if it had linked this to the decades of rich experience in the sector growing out of the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) field and related approaches to project and program design. Exciting times.
BY F Mia
ON July 27, 2016 11:20 PM
Programme/Project Development Specialist have been a core part of INGO HR mix for as long as I can remember. We place them with our M&E teams to ensure iterative learning informs new programme/project design. They and M&E team members also participate in project steering committee meetings to inform adjustments to project strategy/design during the life of the project based on periodic (quarterly/six monthly MEAL activities). The biggest constraint to making changes to project design periodically and systematically is not lack of expertise in design thinking or approach, rather it is the perception that donors view change requests negatively. The key has to be donors encouraging and welcoming change requests during the project life cycle and allowing the necessary adjustments to budgets and activities.
BY Meri
ON August 3, 2016 08:29 AM
I would add that successful social enterprises are forced into HCD, whether they call it that or not. For most businesses, the only way to be successful is to operate with the customer’s needs first and foremost in mind, and to iterate and change rapidly as one’s understanding of the customer changes. Successful social enterprises also understand that collecting data about what is working and what is not working—and acting on that data rapidly—is critical.