IDEO.org Fellow Danny Alexander -- who is back in Kenya for Phase 2 of the Juhudi Kilimo project -- has an update on two of the team's prototypes and a Wes Anderson-like hotel experience. 

Rolling with the Punches

Field work never goes as planned, but this trip seems especially rife with curveballs and obstacles. From the beginning, when we had to adjust flights and travel for Stacy’s delayed arrival (our third IDEO.org team member), right through the end of our time here in Kenya when a National Holiday seemed to emerge from nowhere, we’ve dealt with a handful of significant hurdles. Torrential downpours during film shoots, canceled group meetings, broken-down cars—you name it and we’ve dealt with it. Nevertheless, I’m amazed at how well the team has handled it all and how much we’ve been able to accomplish.

Window Shopping for Hotels

This won’t be a surprise for anyone who has traveled with my colleague Robin Bigio, but we spent a couple hours during our first night looking at every hotel in Kericho in order to find the best working space in town. We ended up at the Tea Hotel, a “charming” hotel that looked straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. We then proceeded to try almost every room in the hotel until we found the perfect combination of rooms. It was laughable at first, but paid off big in the end, as we spent many late nights working out of our new “office.” We all laugh at Robin for how particular he is, but but when we're in the field, finding the ideal space to download and synthesize our thoughts at the end of a long day is enormously important. 

Prototype 1: Call Center

As planned, we built a test of a farmer-support hotline, handing out fliers (with multiple messaging and pricing options), hiring experts to (wo)man the phone, and waiting for the calls to come in. To be honest, I don’t think any of us expected it to be nearly as successful as it has been. We received about 25 calls in four days, and farmers asked excellent questions that they likely wouldn’t have been able to have answered anywhere else. The best "tough" advice our expert gave? To a woman wondering if her cow (a mother of nine) could produce any more calves: “You’re better off finding a good butcher.”

Prototype 2: Video Lessons

The call center worked incredibly well, as mentioned, but it will only be as good as the farmers’ questions submitted to the call center. In order to reach all of Juhudi Kilimo farmers and inspire them to adopt best practices, we recognized that we also needed to provide proactive, inspirational content as well. After spending a lot of time developing concepts for farmer-to-farmer networks and model farms, we decided to go test Juhudi Kilimo’s original concept—instructional farming videos on tablets. We recruited a farmer to star in the video, scripted, filmed and edited a six-minute instructional video in about 24 hours—all in Swahili. We took it to groups yesterday who were inspired to try what they saw for themselves. We circulated flyers about the video and people are now calling our call center asking to speak with the farmer in the video. Success!