Case Study: Design That Matters

Design that Matters has built a collaborative design process through which members of academia and industry professionals donate their design expertise to create breakthrough products for communities in need.

The Opportunity

The growth and efficiency of social enterprises is inhibited by a lack of access to financing, information technology, consulting services, and other forms of intellectual capital.  Social enterprises in developing countries can offer better services and scale more quickly if provided access to better products, particularly those designed specifically for their
needs.

The Model

DtM’s strategic approach to pro bono service stems from a thorough understanding of design as a process of developing a clear understanding of needs, articulating it as a product, and aligning it with supply and demand. Their model consists of three “value added” activities: opportunity identification, design innovation, and product implementation. By demanding only the most valuable skills from top tier talent, DtM is able to deliver high quality products to communities in need. CEO and founder Timothy Prestero says of their model, “We’ve found an enormous unmet demand among students and professionals for opportunities to donate their skills to real-world problems. On the other side are world-class social enterprises trying to change the world with lousy tools, or no tools at all.  We can fix this.”

DtM selects clients from existing social entrepreneur networks, such as Ashoka and the Draper Richards Fellows, for whom a new product or service represents an opportunity to overcome barriers to scale. Their clients are recognized leaders in their field and credible representatives for their beneficiary organizations. They also serve as reliable distribution channels for the new products and services that result from the collaboration.

The Investment

DtM’s services include design talent, ethnography, and new and creatively repurposed intellectual property. All of their design work and business analysis is performed by volunteers from academia and industry, leveraging the infrastructure available at their host institutions. Their academic contributors include MIT, Stanford and Cal Tech, and corporate partners include IDEO, Fisher Price, Solidworks and Optikos.

DtM has structured their collaborative design process such that participants are motivated by self-interest as much as altruism. For academic partners like MIT and Stanford, DtM “design challenges” serve as curriculum materials in existing university courses, engaging students in real-world problems while helping faculty to meet recent university accreditation requirements for “capstone” or experiential-learning courses. For corporate design partners like IDEO and Optikos, DtM works with management to convert staff “whitespace” (paid, but un-billable hours) into collaboration opportunities for their best employees. The engagement provides an opportunity for skill development in what is called “minimum resource design,” and recognition that boosts staff retention.

The Impact

DtM’s most successful products are the “Kinkajou” Microfilm Projector, which transforms teaching conditions for nighttime adult literacy classes in West Africa, and an intravenous flow controller, which saves lives by improving accuracy and reducing errors during drug delivery in developing countries. In order to measure the impact of the “Kinkajou” Microfilm Projector, literacy exams were administered for sessions using the projector as well as for sessions that had not. With USAID funding, DtM also conducted a thorough assessment of the projector’s multiple uses and impacts.

Over 700 volunteer students and professionals from around the world have contributed to the development of Design that Matter’s products over the last four years. The DtM project experience is for many volunteers their first exposure to problems faced daily by people in underserved communities. DtM alumni are embracing their role as citizens of the world, and many have realigned their life trajectories to include careers in the social sector. Furthermore, by delivering such high quality products to these communities, DtM demonstrates that underserved communities and NPOs alike  need not settle for second hand or lesser quality services.

Lessons Learned

Because DtM demands the most valuable professional skill sets, the organization had to learn how to manage the issue of intellectual property very early on. As a result, all DtM volunteers are given the opportunity to patent their products individually or through DtM, and they carefully maneuver these intellectual property agreements in order to avoid any restrictions on future career opportunities for volunteers.

DtM also learned the importance of managing client and volunteer expectations and transforming it into functional idealism. The organization strives for a level of idealism that promotes groundbreaking design, but is not mislead by an undisciplined desire to solve all the world’s problems. DtM firmly believes in helping their volunteers develop a clear understanding of what change is, and how to make it. Prestero says, “Designing great products is the purpose of the organization–at the same time we’re thrilled to see the many volunteers who’ve changed their career trajectories towards social enterprise as a result of their DtM experience.”

About Design That Matters

In 2001, graduate students at the MIT Media Lab launched Design that Matters as a design studio and seminar course for fellow students looking to connect their education to real needs in poor communities. The DtM founders believed that the university system could become a catalyst for the creation of new tools to better serve basic needs in developing countries. The seminar course was a smash success, but proved difficult to scale as an extracurricular student project. In 2003, Timothy Prestero and Neil Cantor committed themselves to the concept full-time, and launched DtM as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and a low-cost design company serving the developing world.  DtM CEO Timothy Prestero was named the winner of the 2009 World Technology Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Awardees are selected by their peers as those doing the innovative work of “the greatest likely long-term significance.”