On a very tight timeline as part of the IDEO.org Innovation Fund deep dive with Juhudi Kilimo, Danny Alexander explains his design team's approach to Hear research in Kenya.

We have 7 days in Kenya to conduct field research for Juhudi Kilimo, a fast-growing asset-based microfinance organization with the goal of delivering agricultural training to a network of 17,000 farmers. Though access to financing, new technologies and shifting markets are creating opportunities for farmers to improve their income, many don't have access to technical guidance to ensure they're making changes properly and maximizing their returns. Juhudi Kilimo wants to fill this gap.

With little time to prepare because of the tight time constraints on these two-week Innovation Fund deep dives, we literally grabbed some Sharpies and Post-its and jumped right in. Here’s how we've approached our one week of field research with Juhudi Kilimo.

Day 1: Introductions and interviews with key staff (totally unscheduled—the benefit of working in an environment with a less strict interpretation of time).

Day 2: Brainstorm with client, followed by very basic research plan and visual prompts

Day 3: Drove to field site, interviewed a few field staff and customers

Day 4: Interviews with field staff and customers

Day 5: Interviews with field staff and customers, drive back to Nairobi

Day 6: Analogous interview, downloading all interviews

Day 7: Met up with client and gave overview of research and next steps.

We've learned a heck of a lot about cow feed, artificial insemination and the dairy market, and more importantly, we've observed some great opportunities for Juhudi Kilimo to deepen their impact. And I’ve found the quick-and-dirty research approach to be refreshing and surprisingly effective. In the next stage of the project we'll be downloading all of our observations and translating them into opportunities for design.