The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
IMPLEMENTATION SPOTLIGHT
Going to Market
An IDEO.org team working with Marie Stopes
International (MSI) and Hewlett Foundation on
how to empower teens to take control of their
reproductive health arrived at a truly novel
solution—a pop-up nail salon where teenage girls
can get contraception information and services.
But to truly expose the nascent service to market
forces, to test it in real-world conditions, they
needed to run a live prototype.
Because we’re always testing our solutions with
the communities we’re looking to serve, this live
prototype was the perfect opportunity to test three
elements in particular: the communication, the
outreach, and the physical space.
The communication consisted of the Divine
Divas, five fictional archetypes who represent
five different methods of birth control. Not only
would the Diva characters be put to the test to
learn if they had broad appeal to teens, but more
importantly, the team would see if the Divas could
then spark the kinds of conversations that MSI
staff and nurses wanted to have with local teens.
Could leading with an aspiration instead of a
treatment lead to better outcomes?
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Though we got great results with the pop-up
nail salon, we needed to learn if it could
generate more than short-term interest. And
because we learned that teens routinely got
questionable information from schools, churches,
and their parents, we also wanted to test
whether a series of teen connectors—trained,
college-aged women who can approach teens on a
peer level—would work.
Finally, a redesign of the clinic space itself—
where historically girls had been reluctant to get
services—was also a major concern. The team took
a teen-centric approach by outfitting part of an
MSI clinic in bright colors and posting signage
with the Divine Divas. Could a more approachable
physical space lead to more information and
services provided?
With these three questions in mind, MSI ran a
three-month live prototype and in that time
nearly a thousand girls came for services and
treatment. It’s a vast increase over MSI’s typical
numbers, and now, thanks to an extended run
in the market, we are confident that our
approach has legs. And so is MSI.