Post on 20-Jun-2020
FRUGAL INNOVATION
Betty Enyonam Kumahor (@enyok)
GOTO Chicago - April 2019
ACCRA
ACCRA
KETA
HATORGODO
Successful technology solutions on the continent require ◻ domain-driven design ◻ constraint-driven development.
What is frugal innovation, practically?
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
“CDD” leads to frugal innovation
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
TYPICAL CONSTRAINTS
Power / ElectricityConnectivity LiteracyAddress SystemPeripheral devices Cash payments
Engineering - Skills Availability - Techstack- Lifecycle
Domain … makes ALL the difference
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Africa is NOT mobile first …
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
… it is mobile only.
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Story 1 : It’s about the domain context...
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Story 3: It’s about the context …
How toprovidesecurityservices?
Story 1: Browsing on a budget…
Story 2 : Constraint inspiration ….
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Poor connectivity
Expensive data plans
Poor download speeds
Story 3 : Simple sophistication …
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Scratch card with
value
Processing Server
SMS
Validation Server
SMS
Verify value remaining
SMS Return verification
number
ScratchCardPayments
SMS-basedValidation
Story 4 : Engineering where required….
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
TWENDE
IBM Research
Utilising lowfidelity cameras
Directions bySMS
Story 5 : Building ecosystem solutions...
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Facilitatemicro-manufacturing
Access tomarkets
Story 6 : Many innovations …
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Technologymanagespaper
Many frugalinnovations= one biginnovation
Story 6 : … in a single solution
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Technologymanagespaper
Many frugalinnovations= one biginnovation
Story 6 : … and then evolve
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Technologymanagespaper
Many frugalinnovations= one biginnovation
Story 7 : Beyond borders?
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Lack of anaddresssystem
How to enable packagerouting?
Story 8 : It’s really about the design
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
Designthinking
Many frugalinnovations= one biginnovation
Story 8 : To scale for impact …
Betty Enyonam Kumahor
How much technology do you build?
What technology do you leverage?
Many frugalinnovations= one biginnovation
BETTY ENYONAM KUMAHORManaging Partner
+233 24 30 30 309 enyo.kumahor@thecobaltpartners.com
The Cobalt PartnersF 393/4 Otswe Street , Osu Ako-Adjei, Accra, Ghana.
info@thecobaltpartners.com+233 (0)30 291 8772 / +233 (0)55 811 4526
www.thecobaltpartners.com