Design Thinking - D-Rev Example
D-Rev is a non-profit development company. It designs, develops, and delivers products to people who live below $4 a day. Their projects are in the field of mobility, newborn’s health, agriculture, healthcare, and a few other domains.
Their products have been a result of design thinking process. The organization drives all the aspects of design process, from identification of high impact opportunities to scaling up its impact. Its process is as follows.
Identify − The organization identifies high impact opportunities that can increase the incomes or health of more than 1 million people who live on less than $4 a day.
Design − The design of products take place considering the fact that it must be capable of meeting the target customers’ needs. This step takes care of manufacturing, distribution, and servicing.
Deliver − The products are integrated into the market to maximize and sustain the impact. These products are delivered to the users.
Scale and Measure − Maximum global impact requires scaling up. The organization also measures if the product is reaching the people and places in need of the products.
The organization has come up with an innovative idea of ReMotion Knee. This is a high performance knee joint for the amputees of the developing world. The team realized the issue that globally over 30,000,000 people need mobility devices for their locomotion. Around 80% of the amputees globally don’t have access to modern prosthetics.
Existing low cost knees throw up a lot of limitations to mobility to the users. Using design principles, D-Rev came up with a solution called ‘ReMotion Knee’. The device is durable, water resistant, and lightweight along with being affordable. Its price is below $80. The universal design, noise dampening facility, and other features make it a good solution for amputees.
Similarly, design principles helped D-Rev to come up with a solution for the death of newborn babies due to diseases like jaundice. Every rear, around 6 million babies don’t receive the adequate treatment that they must receive to survive severe jaundice. Current treatment devices are quite expensive. 95% of the devices in the low-cost hospitals and clinics did not meet the standards set forth by American Academy of Pediatrics.
The product called ‘Brilliance’ brought by the innovative minds of D-Rev is set to solve this issue in hospitals where the sickest kids are treated. The product needs minimal maintenance, which helps to save cost. It is energy efficient and holds the promise of solving the issue of newborn deaths.
The problem of people, especially kids, dying of malaria in Africa was also addressed by DRev. Moreover, the non-profit organization also realized that the farmers who live below $4 a day cannot afford access to appropriate information on the latest farming practices and technologies. However, the awareness of the latest farming practices and technologies can increase the income of these farmers by manifolds. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the Access for Agriculture, which was a comparative landscape study.
D-Rev surveyed 12 available devices for information on their cost and features. The farmers’ feedback was also taken. This experiment happened in India. D-Rev was interested in creating an affordable and effective solution to provide the farmers with the latest farming practices and technologies.
A number of other projects were also taken up by D-Rev. D-Rev remains as one of the leading examples of design thinking success.
