Category Archives: Design

A design challenge for agric service innovation in rural Africa

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Niti Bhan

Find a way to embed principles of sustainable good agriculture for the smallscale farmer in a socio-economically beneficial way. How would we do this? Where do we begin? The answers to these questions and more will be forthcoming on this … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Flexibility, Frameworks, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Rural, Rural Economy, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Tagged agriculture, business models, design, design challenge, prepaid, prepaid economy, rural economy, vcd | Comments Off

Exploratory User Research in the Rural Economy

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Niti Bhan

When I first began developing the attributes by which to select representative user profiles for the original fieldwork to begin understanding the “prepaid economy”, that is, household financial management in rural India, The Philippines and Malawi, it was based on … Continue reading →

Posted in Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Design, Economy, Expenses, Flexibility, Frameworks, global, Income, India, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Philipines, Rural, User research | Tagged agriculture, cash, design ethnography, exploratory user research, farmers, gem, informal economy, pay as you go, prepaid economy, rural economy, user research | Comments Off

Reflecting on this blog’s genesis after 5 years

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Niti Bhan

I started this blog in late December 2008, in earnest and every day during the first prototype fieldwork for The Prepaid Economy project, one of the iBoP Asia Project’s first batch of Small Grant winners from the ASEAN region. For … Continue reading →

Posted in About, Africa, Airtime, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Collection, Design, Economy, Flexibility, global, Income, India, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Kenya, Migrant worker, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, South Asia, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, Urban, User research, Value | Tagged 5 years, africa, asean, asia, bop, five years, india, prepaid economy, project, rural, update | Comments Off

In sum

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Niti Bhan

Irregular income streams from a variety of sources pose their own challenges to both buyers and sellers but offer an opportunity through the flexibility designed into business models for the informal economies where this pattern of cash flow tends to … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Design, Flexibility, global, Income, Informal & Flexible, Strategy, User research, Value | Tagged business model, flexibility, framework, informal economy, payment plan, prepaid, principles, schema | Comments Off

Spain’s woes show behaviours reverting to patterns from pre-formal economies

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Niti Bhan

This recent WSJ article on the emergence of coping mechanisms among the economically challenged in Spain caught my attention today for a couple of reasons. What struck me first was the fact that time (labour) was becoming a viable alternate … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Business Models, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Economy, global, Informal & Flexible, Urban, User research, Value | Tagged alternate currency, barter, cashless, informal economy, prepaid, spain | Comments Off

Core values: business models meant to serve the BoP

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Niti Bhan

(Republished from old Perspective 2.0 blog March 10th 2009) The biggest shock for me in the Phillippines was learning that airtime minutes purchased on a prepaid plan came with an expiry date. The smaller the amount the faster the expiration. … Continue reading →

Posted in Airtime, Alternative currency, ASEAN, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Design, Income, Informal & Flexible, Loans, Mobile platform, Philipines, Rural, Savings, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research | Comments Off

iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – Part two

Posted on March 7, 2010 by Niti Bhan

Posted in ASEAN, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Culture, Design, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, Value | Comments Off

iBoP Asia 2008 Small Grant Projects – March 2010 Jakarta

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Niti Bhan

Exhibits of projects completed displayed at the Frontiers seminar on March 3rd in Jakarta, Indonesia. Click on photos to see details. continued in next post.

Posted in ASEAN, Bottom of the Pyramid, Culture, Design, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, User research, Value | Comments Off

Introducing Meena Kadri

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Niti Bhan

New Zealand born Meena Kadri has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology and a Masters in Design. She has taught at design schools globally, notably for two years at the National Institute of Design in India. She currently resides in New … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Design, India, South Asia, Urban, User research | Comments Off

Synthesis of the Prepaid Economy Project

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Niti Bhan

The impetus for the Prepaid Economy project came from field observations during other projects which focused on the design and development of products and services for those at the BoP. It was noted that the majority of the BoP lived … Continue reading →

Posted in Airtime, Alternative currency, Assumption filter, Banking, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Models, Buyer Behaviour, Cashless transactions, Culture, Design, Economy, Expenses, Indigenous & Traditional, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Philipines, Project report, Rural, Savings, Strategy, User research, Value | Comments Off