Almost one year ago to the day, one of our design teams geared up to head out to Lusaka, Zambia. With little more than a design brief and a very committed group of partners, Marie Stopes International (MSI) and the Hewlett Foundation, we couldn’t have dreamed the amazing program that would come to life as a result of these efforts.  We built together a live prototype of the service we designed, and in the first three months of operation we've reached about 800 girls, empowering them to take control of their own reproductive health decisions. Building upon the learnings from this experiment, IDEO.org is now working with MSI to design the service for scale. 

At the beginning of the project, MSI and Hewlett brought IDEO.org into the picture to see how we could help them improve their access of reproductive health services for teens in Zambia. Over the course of two field visits at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014, the design team found that in order to engage teen girls in reproductive health services we had to change things from the ground up—change the way nurses typically talked about contraceptives, change MSI’s approach to outreach, and even change the clinic setting itself. We had to speak to teens on their own terms and in a way that truly relates to them as an individual. 

As you’ve seen from previous blog posts, our IDEO.org design team tried out a number of different ways to reach out to teens and find out what worked best. How can a clinic best connect with teens? Through a pop-up nail clinic? Through a teen “speakeasy”? Through peer-to-peer engagement? Turns out it was a bit of a combination of all of the above. 

Through a series of prototypes during the second visit to Zambia and further refinement, the design team created a new teen experience centered around the Divine Divas. The Diva experience encompasses a number of things:

The Communications: The Divine Divas are five inspirational characters, each representing a different contraceptive method. They bring these methods to life throughout the new teen experience, making qualities of each method understandable and memorable. They make talking about contraceptives and reproductive health a conversation about lifestyle rather than side effects, and help teens understand how this decision would fit into their lives, without the intimidation of clinical jargon. So instead of jumping right into depth about IUDs versus the Pill, a teen can discuss with a nurse what type of lifestyle she leads and the nurse can direct her to options that seem like a good fit. If she’s Ms. Perfectionist—organized, on time, and never missing a beat—then maybe the Pill is right for her. 

 

The Outreach: Teens don’t have much information about contraceptives, and what little information they do have is usually inaccurate. Before we can offer services to teens, we need to reach out to them first, providing them accurate information in a way that they understand. To do this, we’ve built a proactive outreach strategy, reaching teens through both pop-up nail salons and teen connectors—trained, collage-aged females who can approach teens on a more peer level. The aim is to be unobtrusive, yet available and informative, giving teens the proper guidance as to how to engage in services, if they so choose. 

The Physical Space: To make sure teens feel comfortable with their decision to visit the clinic for services, it’s important to make the space inviting and teen-friendly. In urban Zambia, this meant bright and colorful, with nail polish to help them pass time in the waiting area, and posters of the Divas for the nurse to walk through. Most importantly, though, this meant hiring approachable nurses and clinicians who were trained in how to talk to teens: never judge them, always explain all their options, and always listen. 

With such a great turn out already, we’re excited to work with MSI through the next phase of our engagement to see how to scale this live prototype into a full program. 

We look forward to keeping you in the loop with future updates!