We have now been working with our Grantees in Africa and Asia since 2013, and it has been an amazing experience. Whilst in Cape Town for the GSMA Connected Women Working Group Meeting & Conference, we took the opportunity to meet our grantees and have an open discussion around their projects and our support, with two key questions in mind: What have we learned so far?, and What could we have done differently? The key themes that emerged are summarised below so that others can benefit from the insights gained through designing and launching offerings for resource-poor women:
- Consumer insights We agreed that research around consumer insights is key, in particular when designing a new offering, or developing new content. A well thought-through methodology seems to be a key success factor in getting as much as possible from such research. The research should not only cover new potential customers, but also existing customers, especially dormant or low-usage ones who could be “activated” through the offering.
- Product/Service development The offering must be simple, relevant to the target, and affordable. It can be a good strategy to start with an entry-level offering with limited features and gradually add new components according to a clear roadmap. And a good offering will not only include the product or service, but also distribution, marketing, customer care… (Our Marketing Handbook can provide more detail on this point). Finally the offering should be designed with commercial sustainability in mind and align with the strategic goals of the wider organisation.
- User testing Involving the user at every step of the development of the product/service is incredibly valuable. Testing of concepts and prototypes has to be done as early and often as possible. There are agile ways to do user testing than can save time and resources, such as paper prototyping, a method used by Grameen Foundation among others.
- Relevant Content The availability of localcontent seems to be a pain shared by most of our Grantees. Content is key to encourage customers to use their phones more, and hopefully climb the usage ladder to access VAS, mobile internet… Content creation should be delegated to subject matter experts – whether they’re internal or external to the organisation -, and tested with experts and end users. For more on this topic, you can read GSMA Intelligence’s “Local world — content for the next wave of growth” paper.
- Marketing and Communication Just as the product should be simple, the communication should be made as simple as possible, using day-to-day language and local vernacular. Marketing should not only be about promoting the service, but also about building awareness around the value of mobile and life-enhancing services. Customer education should be undertaken not only at the point of acquisition, but on an ongoing basis by sales agents.
- Distribution Distribution to resource-poor women is a challenge and it is necessary to develop a specific Sales & Distribution strategy with carefully selected sales agents, which is also integrated in the wider distribution strategy. There is a lot of value in leveraging existing structures: savings groups, community health workers… If it cannot be done internally, organisations can rely on external distribution partners (see Partnerships). In all cases, training is absolutely essential.
- Partnerships People in the room were unanimous when it came to the importance of partnerships. Partnerships can be formed to find reliable content, to distribute the offer, to perform good impact analysis (“Monitoring & Evaluation”)… and will usually save the organisation from “reinventing the wheel”. Choosing a partner with a good track record and an understanding of the target (resource-poor women in our case) is key, and partnerships will only be fruitful if the partners are involved early enough in the process, and if roles are clearly defined from the start. For more on partnerships, you can read our Partnerships Insights Paper.
- Project Management A motivated project manager – a “champion” – is key to the success of any project. Time must be spent on planning, budget, and the business case early on in the process. But s/he won’t be able to deliver great results if the project does not have the necessary support from the top management, especially a “sponsor” internally.
- Impact assessment Everyone now seems to see the value of what we usually refer to as M&E, Monitoring and Evaluation. The performance indicators (“KPIs”) need to be set from the very beginning of the project, agreed with top management, and if possible integrated in the overall performance reviews for the department/organisation. They must not only cover the traditional commercial assessment of the offering (number of users, usage, revenues…) but also “social” aspects (satisfaction, relevance, impact on empowerment…)
If you would like further information on any of the topics listed above, or if you wish to share your experiences, please get in touch by email connectedwomen@gsma.com or on twitter @GSMAm4d #ConnectedWomen.