Jocelyn Wyatt, IDEO.org, We Went to West Africa and Learned Our Key Assumptions Were Wrong @ The Lean Startup Conference 12/3/12

1. IDEO formed a partnership with Unilever and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor to
tackle the challenge of providing in-home sanitation to families in Kumasi, Ghana

2. We went to West
Africa and learned
our assumptions
were wrong
IDEO.org, Unilever and WSUP
IDEO formed a partnership with Unilever and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor to
tackle the challenge of providing in-home sanitation to families in Kumasi, Ghana

3. Kumasi, Ghana
2.5 million residents
72% without access to sanitation at home

4. Most are using public toilets and paying $.10 - $.40/person/day.
Public toilets are in disrepair, have long wait times, and are inconvenient for many.

5. Prototyping products.

6. We decided to come up with a solution that would provide people with affordable in-home
sanitation without requiring access to a sewage system.
We built rough prototypes and flew to Ghana with 5 toilets.

7. We expected people would want an option with water flush because that would be
aspirational - close to a toilet in a home with running water and sewage.

8. We actually found that those toilets got really messy - they filled up fast and people didn’t
know how to use them.
They preferred something much simpler - a seat with urine diversion and a bucket
underneath.

9. The feedback we received about the toilet prototypes led us to design the Clean Team toilet
after we returned home.

10. Before knowing if there was a business model and sufficient demand, Unilever and WSUP
didn’t want to invest in manufacturing a new product.
We selected the closest off-the-shelf approximation to the Clean Team toilet and they
bought 100 for the pilot test.

11. The pilot test is now running with 100+ Clean Team toilets in the homes of local families
(serving 1,000 people)
People are paying approximately $15/month for the toilet to be emptied 3x/week
Unilever and WSUP plan to expand to 1,000 toilets in the next 6 months and 10K within a
year and a half

12. Prototyping services.

13. When we did our research, we asked people whether they would prefer to carry their own
waste for treatment or if they would prefer to pay someone to do it. Universally, people said
they would rather do it themselves.
We were skeptical.

14. So, after we had left the toilets in their homes for two days, we went back and asked them if
they would want to dump the waste or have someone else do it.

15. Universally they said they preferred to pay someone to do it. We hired a local guy who worked
at a nearby public toilet and he served as our operator for a couple weeks.

16. As we’ve moved into pilot, this service model has continued successfully.
We heard a story about another NGO who asked the same question in a survey, trusted the
answers they heard, and expected people to carry their own waste. Because of the stigma and
disgust associated with it, no one would and the toilets are going unused.

17. Prototyping brands.

18. To understand brand preferences, we started asking people what was important to them
related to sanitation - cleanliness, cost, convenience, smell, etc.

19. ‘CLEAN TEAM’ WAS THE FAVORITE NAME BY FAR
PRIVATE SERVICES ARE TRUSTED MORE THAN PUBLIC ONES
CORPORATIONS ARE TRUSTED MORE THAN INDIVIDUALS
CONVENIENCE AND EMERGENCY ACCESS ARE KEY BENEFITS
LOCAL LEADERS ARE POWERFUL VOICES IN THE COMMUNITY
This led us to design four brand directions and when we left the toilet prototypes with
people, we also asked them to select a sticker for the toilet.
11 of the 12 families selected Clean Team.

20. We thought we’d explore a local version of the brand and brought it to a local sign painter.
We thought the Ghanians would like the local version, but they were very clear that they
wanted something that looked more western and credible.

21. So, we refined the Ghanian version of the brand that we initially started with and came up
with this.

22. However, it was a bit too intricate and needed a further round of refinement as we prepare to
scale.
We returned to Ghana again with iterations on the Clean Team brand.
We tried more abstract versions and people really pushed us to stay with something that
made it really clear that this brand was about a toilet service.

23. So we did and got to this version of the brand.
In sum, we learned again and again that so many of our initial assumptions are wrong and
that they only way to get it right is to try. To prototype. And to learn and iterate.

24. thank you.