DESIGN THINKING ASSINGMENT 

 DARDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL – COURSERA 

 OFF - GRID REFRIGERATION CHALLENGE IN ABUJA - NIGERIA 

 Habibu George 

 Abuja , October 30 , 2016 

 CONTENTS 

 1 . CHALLENGE ; Market penetration   … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… ……   3 

 2 . TOOL SELECTED ; Learning Launches … … … … … …… …… …… …… ..........   3 

 3 . APPLICATION and INSIGHTS … … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… …… …… ..   3 

 4 . APPROACH   … … … … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… …… …… …… .. … .. ..   4 

 CHALLENGE ; Market penetration 

 Power is a significant challenge in Nigeria . In about two decades this nation has expended   over twenty billion U.S. Dollars yet our total power output is about Five thousand   megawatts . This is a country with a population of about a hundred and seventy million   people occupying about a million square kilometres of land . Many people need power to   run their fridges , freezers , air conditioning etc but this lack of it created a challenge and an   opportunity . So we set up a factory to produce blocks of ice that we could provide the   people in our state to use in meeting some of their refrigeration needs . Because of the   burning nature of the need and huge population we believed this would be a no brainer   and would hit the market in a huge wave . This did not happen . As a matter of fact , we   struggled to make sales of 20 blocks a day from a 1000 block a day factory . This was not   sustainable and we had to take significant action and fast if were not going to shelve the   business .     This way we would get hard facts on why the market was reacting with such poor reception   to a product that was designed ( as we thought ) to meet an ardent refrigeration need . 

 TOOL SELECTED ; Learning Launches 

 Lucky for us I had this challenge in mind while taking the course and it seemed sensible   to use the learning launches . This would keep is in the market experimenting to get to the   truth we required to take a decision on our current business and or , model . The whole idea   was that we would get the true market feel and information we would use . From the videos   Estela Perez on learning launches it seemed reasonable to get our product into specific   markets , get feedback and act on the feedback .     We could not continue to run the factory in perpetuity if were not utilizing the factory at   least at 80 % and making 100 % sales of whatever came out of it . We would not be able to   pay for equipment , diesel to run generators , maintenance , salaries and all would make us   bankrupt . So trying out well designed darts at the market and using the feedback to adjust   our offering cum operations would be our best bet and not just a set of brainstorming   sessions with the team . 

 APPLICATION and INSIGHTS 

 We first decided to call in for a meeting with all those we had tried to sell to who had made   claims of being re - sellers of ice - blocks for other producers . The meeting was a town hall   type set - up that would allow us hear from them what it was that made them purchase the   product from the competition despite what we believed were the attributes of our product ;   high quality , hygienically produced ice , cost efficient since it lasted longer than their current   purchase ( great value for money proposition ) , and we delivered to the client . We also   hoped to share with them our vision for the business and what benefits lay in store for re- sellers who worked with us .     The meeting held with us asking questions to participants like , how long they had been in   the business , what advice would they give to those who wished to start up such a business ,   what were the pitfalls to look out for , what would a producer do for them that would make   them loyal , what sort of support would they wish they had , what kind of support where they   currently getting , had they tried out our product , what issues did they have with it , what   could we do to address these issues ? Through this process we learnt about the seasonality 

 of the product demand which rhymed with the natural season . We also learned that pricing   was usually variegated from season to season and did not remain same especially for our   target market . That is not all , we also gained other insights as to what kind of support   would keep them loyal , their thoughts on our offers and other concerns . 

 APPROACH 

 What we did thereafter was to offer variegated pricing to those who would commit to certain   minimum volumes per week . We would also require their daily feedback so we could keep   tabs on our performance . In addition , we would attempt to support them further with storage   facilities such as coolers and freezers , not to mention ad campaigns that would now be   focused on them and not on us . This so far has increased sales volumes to about 30 % of   installed capacity based on signing on 3 dedicated resellers out of our target of 10 .     I think that going forward it would make sense to have stakeholders in a business give some   form of guided feedback that would allow for the launch of any product . Then launch out in   small areas based on that feedback continue to adjust where necessary . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Habibu George
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: DESIGN THINKING ASSINGMENT 

 DARDEN BUSINESS SCHOOL – COURSERA 

 OFF - GRID REFRIGERATION CHALLENGE IN ABUJA - NIGERIA 

 Habibu George 

 Abuja , October 30 , 2016 

 CONTENTS 

 1 . CHALLENGE ; Market penetration   … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… ……   3 

 2 . TOOL SELECTED ; Learning Launches … … … … … …… …… …… …… ..........   3 

 3 . APPLICATION and INSIGHTS … … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… …… …… ..   3 

 4 . APPROACH   … … … … … … … … … … …… …… …… …… …… …… …… .. … .. ..   4 

 CHALLENGE ; Market penetration 

 Power is a significant challenge in Nigeria . In about two decades this nation has expended   over twenty billion U.S. Dollars yet our total power output is about Five thousand   megawatts . This is a country with a population of about a hundred and seventy million   people occupying about a million square kilometres of land . Many people need power to   run their fridges , freezers , air conditioning etc but this lack of it created a challenge and an   opportunity . So we set up a factory to produce blocks of ice that we could provide the   people in our state to use in meeting some of their refrigeration needs . Because of the   burning nature of the need and huge population we believed this would be a no brainer   and would hit the market in a huge wave . This did not happen . As a matter of fact , we   struggled to make sales of 20 blocks a day from a 1000 block a day factory . This was not   sustainable and we had to take significant action and fast if were not going to shelve the   business .     This way we would get hard facts on why the market was reacting with such poor reception   to a product that was designed ( as we thought ) to meet an ardent refrigeration need . 

 TOOL SELECTED ; Learning Launches 

 Lucky for us I had this challenge in mind while taking the course and it seemed sensible   to use the learning launches . This would keep is in the market experimenting to get to the   truth we required to take a decision on our current business and or , model . The whole idea   was that we would get the true market feel and information we would use . From the videos   Estela Perez on learning launches it seemed reasonable to get our product into specific   markets , get feedback and act on the feedback .     We could not continue to run the factory in perpetuity if were not utilizing the factory at   least at 80 % and making 100 % sales of whatever came out of it . We would not be able to   pay for equipment , diesel to run generators , maintenance , salaries and all would make us   bankrupt . So trying out well designed darts at the market and using the feedback to adjust   our offering cum operations would be our best bet and not just a set of brainstorming   sessions with the team . 

 APPLICATION and INSIGHTS 

 We first decided to call in for a meeting with all those we had tried to sell to who had made   claims of being re - sellers of ice - blocks for other producers . The meeting was a town hall   type set - up that would allow us hear from them what it was that made them purchase the   product from the competition despite what we believed were the attributes of our product ;   high quality , hygienically produced ice , cost efficient since it lasted longer than their current   purchase ( great value for money proposition ) , and we delivered to the client . We also   hoped to share with them our vision for the business and what benefits lay in store for re- sellers who worked with us .     The meeting held with us asking questions to participants like , how long they had been in   the business , what advice would they give to those who wished to start up such a business ,   what were the pitfalls to look out for , what would a producer do for them that would make   them loyal , what sort of support would they wish they had , what kind of support where they   currently getting , had they tried out our product , what issues did they have with it , what   could we do to address these issues ? Through this process we learnt about the seasonality 

 of the product demand which rhymed with the natural season . We also learned that pricing   was usually variegated from season to season and did not remain same especially for our   target market . That is not all , we also gained other insights as to what kind of support   would keep them loyal , their thoughts on our offers and other concerns . 

 APPROACH 

 What we did thereafter was to offer variegated pricing to those who would commit to certain   minimum volumes per week . We would also require their daily feedback so we could keep   tabs on our performance . In addition , we would attempt to support them further with storage   facilities such as coolers and freezers , not to mention ad campaigns that would now be   focused on them and not on us . This so far has increased sales volumes to about 30 % of   installed capacity based on signing on 3 dedicated resellers out of our target of 10 .     I think that going forward it would make sense to have stakeholders in a business give some   form of guided feedback that would allow for the launch of any product . Then launch out in   small areas based on that feedback continue to adjust where necessary .
### Output: 