Overcoming the Biggest Challenges in Frontier Tech: Introducing the Playbook
A blog by Asad Rahman, a Frontier Tech Hub Coach.
What is the playbook?
The potential of frontier technologies to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges has never been greater.
Two years of experience implementing frontier tech has taught us that technology’s potential to unlock positive progress is often hampered by things that have nothing to do with technology at all. Regulatory concerns, business model sustainability, supply chain logistics and other intangible cross-cutting challenges have all been faced by our pioneering teams all over the world.
The Frontier Technology Playbook is a set of activities, strategies and methods that anyone anywhere can use to apply cutting edge technology to complex, high-stakes environments.
These plays showcase the smart, quick, cheap and often counter-intuitive ways in which our partners around the world have worked through and around the most common challenges. Currently at version 1, we will keep adding more plays as we go.
Click here to download the entire v1 Playbook (PDF).
The 12 Plays
Play #1: Deposit, Referral, or Bust?
Make the most of early hardware by doing two things: testing the whole ‘bundle’ and getting users to play: deposit, referral or bust?
James Bell and Maura Smyth installing freshly-charged cameras to use in another test
Use this play to answer two of our key challenges:
Sustainability post-pilot stage: the tech use case is not sustainable post pilot stage, either through donor funding, private investment, government take up or commercial revenue.
Awareness building: Our end user (person or organisation) isn’t aware of the tech or its benefits.
The Pilot: Electric Motos in Rwanda
If electric motorcycles are successfully introduced and taken up by the Rwandan moto taxi market, they could decrease transport costs for customers, improve livelihoods for drivers, and reduce emissions.
The Pioneers: Ampersand
Electric motos are expensive to produce; within our pilot we could only produce a handful. And we needed them to answer two key questions: 1) what bike design and access to charging should we offer to taxi drivers, at what price? 2) How might we spread the news about this new taxi in a market with lots of established players?
To answer the first question, we designed three sales pitches to taxi drivers: one with a traditionally designed bike, a second with a traditionally designed bike + battery swaps included; and a third with a modern bike in look and feel. We gave these three pitches to three separate groups of taxi drivers, to see which generated most interest.
To answer the second, we gave these three groups of taxi drivers three options after the pitch: 1) put down a 5% deposit; 2) refer 5 other taxi drivers to sign up; or 3) do nothing. The first gave us a tangible sense of interest in the sales pitch and provided our first users. The second gave us our first advocates and spread the word, giving us more potential sign-ups and helping attract further investment.
Email info@ampersand.solar to find out more.
The Practice: Top Tips for Success
This works best when your users are relatively homogenous — the findings from small groups can be better extrapolated to the rest!
If doing multiple pitches, change only your most critical variable(s) and keep everything else constant
Honour your commitments, manage expectations and don’t over-promise to users
Play #2: Same Side of the Table
When you have a number of stakeholders involved in regulation, invite them all to a workshop to share ideas and insights to get everyone on the same side.
The Pilot: UAVs for TB in Mozambique
If we integrate drones into routine tuberculosis (TB) sample transportation, then the turnaround time for TB case detection will improve, particularly in rural areas.
Use this play to answer our challenge around regulatory barriers: where implementing the tech is hindered by a non-favourable regulatory environment. I.e. it is non-existent, not keeping pace with technological change, difficult and costly to engage, and so on.
The Pioneers: VillageReach
Because we are transporting TB sputum samples from health clinics to laboratories using drones, this pilot needed regulatory input from the ministries of health, aviation and science & technology in Mozambique. We needed to tap into their collective wisdom and get their buy-in.
So before doing anything else, we took the time to host a workshop inviting all key stakeholders. Anyone can do that, right? We believe the main success factor here was that we allowed our stakeholders to lead it. The Director General of Mozambique’s National Institute of Health introduced the session by speaking about existing infrastructure problems. The National Disaster Management Unit spoke about the successful and safe use of drones in Mozambique today to map areas after flooding.
The workshop moved our regulatory stakeholders from ‘reactive and neutral’ to ‘proactive and engaged’. After the workshop we shared the details of all attendees with their permission, to keep both the conversation and this collaborative frame of mind going.
Email barbara.jones.singer@villagereach.org to find out more.
The Practice: Top Tips for Success
Tell stories about how the tech has been used before and if possible, invite the very people that used it
Give space for stakeholders to voice and input their ideas — not just on regulation but wider uses of the tech. Really listen!
Be sure to position the endeavour as a shared problem and shared opportunity and solution
Play #3: The Humble Checklist
When the tech build takes place far away from the installation/use case, make sure you have a very clear checklist of exactly what is needed and share this across your supply chain.
The Pilot: Smart Solar Energy for Healthcare in Zimbabwe
If we introduce internet of things (IoT) connected solar energy systems to rural health clinics, we will enable a 10x increase in out of hours procedures.
Use this play to answer our challenge around supply chains: where the supply chain infrastructure is not good enough to support the tech operating at scale
The Pioneers: Africa Power Storage
Our smart solar energy system is built in the UK using components from all over the world, assembled in Harare, Zimbabwe, and then transported to rural health clinics across the country. Knowing exactly what to pass down this supply chain, when, and by how much, is critical.
We did a full assessment of our first two clinics before shipping any tech. What was the structure of the roof? Where was their most sunlight? Which room could the inverter and battery be stored in? Then, after installing we iterated our checklist based on what we wished we’d known when we started.
Now we can scale with a much tighter understanding of what we need to build, ship and provide for different types of clinics. Just as importantly, it’s created a tangible way for the team installing the panels to provide feedback and improve our work. We’ll keep iterating our checklist over time to make it more and more accurate.
Email mike@aps.network to find out more.
The Practice
Run the full end-to-end supply chain on a couple of sites so you can conceive, get feedback on and edit your checklist for final site installation quickly and cheaply.
Engage your supply chain. Those who transport, build and maintain on-site are the ones with the most knowledge.
Build profiles for different sites and have different checklists for each one.
Play #4: ‘If This, then That’
When you are fitting tech into a system with multiple stakeholders, get feedback early on what would be most useful through a quick survey (we use a Google-form), instead of guessing.
The Pilot: The Humanitarian Supply Blockchain
If we introduce blockchain to humanitarian supply chains, we will be able to increase trust and cost-effectiveness, and influence wider uptake of the technology.
Use this play to answer our challenge around fitting into existing systems: when the tech isn’t a fit for existing planning, decision making, execution or implementation systems in the country or domain area.
The Pioneers: Datarella
The humanitarian supply chain saves lives through rapid distribution of goods post-disaster. Building an application to monitor these goods on the blockchain, even for part of the supply chain, is costly and time-consuming.
Before we’d built anything, we created a Google-form with our concept and some key questions: asking “if we did [x], would it increase [y]”. For example: “if we provided a real-time view of goods, would it increase your trust in suppliers?”. Then, after we’d drawn up our basic wireframe (no coding yet), we sent another Google-form asking which features stakeholders found most useful and which they did not.
For time-poor stakeholders, this proved a time-effective way to gather feedback on our concept. Our first survey let us know which outcomes our supply chain was most interested in; our second gave us clarity on which features we should build out. Everyone filled out the survey on their own (no groupthink), so disagreements were clearly surfaced for discussion.
Email kira.nezu@datarella.com to find out more.
The Practice
Be specific in your questions. The more specific you are, the easier it is to answer questions and more feedback you’ll have
One benefit of Google-form is it enables you to embed photos and videos. Make your form visual to get better feedback
Have clear success metrics for what you expect. For example, we gave ourselves a threshold of 50% or more to agree before implementing a concept
Play #5: Get to ‘Yes, If’ from Future Investors
When you want to make sure what you are doing maximises your chance of future investment (from commercial investors or donors), talk to as many of them as possible, as early as possible.
The Pilot: Electric Motos in Rwanda
If electric motorcycles are successfully taken up by the Rwandan moto taxi market, they will decrease costs for customers, improve livelihoods for drivers, and reduce emissions.
Use this play to answer our challenge around post-pilot sustainability: when the tech use case is not sustainable post pilot stage, either through donor funding, private investment, government take up or commercial revenue.
The Pioneers: Ampersand
Having found product-market fit by workshopping customers and letting them try prototype bikes, we now faced an altogether different dilemma: how might we make the most of our remaining pilot funds to secure further investment?
We spoke to 5 donors/investors active in cleantech and Rwanda, asking what it would take for them to invest in us. We pushed for metrics and clear answers: for example, when they said ‘bikes on the road’, we asked ‘how many’? We looked at which themes came up time and again to help guide us on what to focus on.
Stepping back and considering what it would take to get others to help us scale was vital in guiding the way we spent our time and money. These insights shifted our focus to getting 20–30 bikes on the road and to aim for recurring revenues. This led us to shift our focus from getting lots of bikes out there (high CAPEX) to charging stations to sell our batteries (lower CAPEX, more recurring income).
Email info@ampersand.solar to find out more.
The Practice
Don’t let fear of rejection hold you back. We found investors and donors to be generous with their time and feedback
Always ask for a follow up: another meeting, an introduction, or so on. These are all possible signals and the advice is really valuable!
Speak with a range of investors if possible. We spoke with both early stage and late stage investors to get a range of perspectives
Play #6: Simulate it, then make it
When regulation is moving too slowly to test a proposition with the live technology in place, fake the tech … and then use the data to build your case to regulators.
The Pilot: Pay-as-you-go Bikes in Zambia
If we introduce a pay-as-you-go or lease-to-own business model to rent or own a bicycle, then we will increase bike uptake and enhance mobility in rural Zambia.
Use this play to answer our challenge around regulatory barriers: where implementing the tech is hindered by a non-favourable regulatory environment. I.e. it is non-existent, not keeping pace with technological change, difficult and costly to engage, and so on.
The Pioneers: Onyx International
GPS-equipped bicycles are a key part of our tech plan for pay-as-you-go bicycles in Zambia. Tracking the bikes is how we intend to find them if payments aren’t made or bikes are stolen. However, the regulation around tracking in Zambia takes ages and is very expensive.
So instead, at pre-scale phase, we distributed 8 bikes and told users of the service that the GPS tracker was switched on, when it wasn’t, allowing us to get testing other things like logistics, perception of lease-to-own as a business model, and bike use.
Then, armed with data on how these bikes and business model worked, and the impact we made on mobility and income for users, we could go back to regulators with a stronger argument for letting us use GPS.
Email wyson@onyx-international.co.za to find out more!
The Practice
Clearly identify which part of your solution needs regulatory approval and assess how you might simulate it instead
Determine what kind of evidence would be useful to generate to influence regulation down the line
Don’t do anything illegal — in this case we pretended GPS was ON, when it was OFF. Doing it the other way around is unacceptable
Play #7: The Tech Forum
When you are incubating a new sector within a country, focus on grouping together the innovators and entrepreneurs into a forum — giving them a collective voice and leverage.
Use this play to answer our challenge around skills infrastructure: when there is a shortage of technical skills for local installation and maintenance of tech, or a lack of local ecosystem to develop and sustain the technology.
The Pioneers: Field Ready
Nepal has the beginnings of a 3D printing sector, with tens of organisations. We believed that the sector needed to be formalised if manufacturing on demand was going to be seen as viable to those buying items in a humanitarian response.
We created the Forum for Digital Manufacturing, a membership body for 3D printing organisations in Nepal. Giving local organisations prominence (instead of bringing tech in from outside Nepal) gave us local insight into critical leverage points, such as import costs and filament production.
Together, we lobbied government for a reduction in import tariffs for 3D printers, getting this from 40% to 5%, and explored the production of recycled, plastic filament — reducing cost relative to imports.
To learn more email ben.britton@dt-global.com.
The Practice
Spend time in country (or engage someone who can) to identify local pioneers of a technology
Give local organisations the space to suggest smart ways of developing the sector
Create a buzz. We found Facebook to be the best tool to generate engagement from 3D printing pioneers, potential buyers and the wider public
Play #8: For Learning, More is More
When installing in the field, start as small as possible to give yourself the space to learn and pivot — even if this means you ignore economies of scale.
The Pilot: Smart Solar Energy for Healthcare in Zimbabwe
If we introduce internet of things (IoT) connected solar energy systems to rural health clinics, we will enable a 10x increase in out of hours procedures.
Use this play to answer our challenge around post-pilot sustainability: when the tech use case is not sustainable post pilot stage, either through donor funding, private investment, government take up or commercial revenue.
The Pioneers: Africa Power Storage
With a 21% rural electrification rate, the need for energy in Zimbabwe’s rural health facilities is widespread and desperate. In the face of such need, it’s human instinct to want to do as much good as possible with what you have. So, why did we install our smart solar energy system in two facilities, even though we had pilot budget for more?
Experiencing the end to end installation meant we learned across every point in our journey: including regulatory obstacles, the best way to install in a health clinic, how to train locals to maintain it, and so on. Optimising for learning (and not scale) meant we could optimise our process within the pilot time and budget.
Our objective on the pilot was not to try the tech once and conclude a yes or no on whether the tech creates impact, but to iterate to move towards as much impact as possible for every dollar spent. Ultimately, this is what we know would build the case for this tech being mainstreamed in large-scale donor solar energy programmes.
Email mike@aps.network to find out more.
The Practice
Pick installation sites that are as different, to learn in as many environments as possible — we picked a two-room clinic and large hospital
Leave space for both simple and profound shifts. We shifted towards providing cleaning mops (simple), as well as a new business model where clinics sell excess energy (profound)
Empower all people working on the pilot with a learning mindset — what could we do even better?
Play #9: The Marketplace of Ideas
When you have a novel idea for using technology, convene a marketplace of tech innovators and experts in the problem and enrol them in framing the problem and concept.
The Pilot: Smart Contraceptive Vending Machines in Kenya & Malawi
If we introduce smart contraceptive vending machines in areas where vulnerable adolescent girls’ needs are going unmet, then we can provide consistent, discreet access to contraception.
Use this play to answer our challenge around supply chains: where the supply chain infrastructure is not good enough to support the tech operating at scale
The Pioneers: The Frontier Tech Hub
If you have an idea for how tech can help you better solve a development problem, it can be difficult to know where to start without being an ‘intelligent customer’ in all of the technologies you might need to use.
Instead, make your idea and all the assumptions you are making, public (we use Google Slides) and invite people to a marketplace of ideas. Invite them to help frame your problem, map user personas, identify the most critical assumption, and explore what skills you need to pull it off.
We had 40 people from 4 continents join in person and online (we use Zoom). A combination of healthcare, IoT and logistics experts helped us develop the idea and explore assumptions around tech, user and business model. One of the attendees, an IoT startup founder referred to the event through a connection, later came on board as our technology partner.
The Practice
Make it two hours or less. People are naturally curious about tech to solve development challenges, so make it easy for them to take part
Host it in person, but make it online to have as diverse a group as possible. Have the link to join online, as well as the presentation, in one place (we use Medium blogs)
Make space for everyone to contribute — use breakout groups and facilitated exercises rather than unstructured discussion
Play #10: Pick the Easiest, Smallest Target
When you are looking to fit a technological solution into an established and well-worn process, try to fit within the easiest, smallest part of the system first.
The Pilot: Automated Road Condition Surveys in Tanzania
If we introduce drone imagery and machine learning to road condition surveys, we will be able to assess the condition of roads more quickly and cheaply (and to the same quality).
Use this play to answer our challenge around fitting into existing systems: when the tech isn’t a fit for existing planning, decision making, execution or implementation systems in the country or domain area.
The Pioneers: N-Labs, University of Nottingham
Road condition surveys today are a big job: requiring thousands of man hours in traversing tens of thousands of kilometres of roads. Today (and for many years prior), they are carried out using cars and clipboards. In Tanzania, the process is managed by the National Road Fund Board.
We knew that trying to catalyse a new way of doing road surveys at the Road Fund Board would be a long process. Instead, we identified the Zanzibar Dept. of Roads (ZDoR) — a 20–30 organisation based in one building in Zanzibar, Tanzania — as a smaller partner we could work with to prove the tech and gather evidence of it working.
With the ZDoR’s buy-in, we were able to carry out a test survey using drones and machine learning in Zanzibar. Their feedback (for example, on wanting a more precise scale) was invaluable. By embedding the tech within the working processes of a smaller bureaucracy working in a smaller geography, we better understood what was needed to eventually fit into a much bigger system.
Email James.Goulding@nottingham.ac.uk to find out more!
The Practice
Energising a smaller part of the system is often easier. The promise of much cheaper data, and the drones to generate the imagery, helped get the ZDoR engaged.
Work in partnership. The ZDoR weren’t just there to give credence and support, but to guide our plans so the tech could best fit into existing Tanzanian systems.
Identify the bit of the system that has shown signs of early adoption when it comes to tech. Zanzibar’s Dept. of Roads had worked on previous technology programmes.
Play #11: The Studentship
When you need versatile and enthusiastic talent to develop and maintain the tech, tap into the local student population.
The Pilot: 3D Printing in Nepal
If we significantly develop the 3D printing sector in Nepal, then regular-use items in the health and humanitarian response sector will be 3D printed as standard.
Use this play to answer our challenge around skills infrastructure: when there is a shortage of technical skills for local installation and maintenance of tech, or a lack of local ecosystem to develop and sustain the technology.
The Pioneers: Field Ready
Nepal has the beginnings of a 3D printing sector, with tens of organisations. To grow this sector from green shoots to scale, we needed people to be able to use 3D printers, develop businesses, and promote the technology.
We set up a Studentship for engineering students at a local university. Participants were invited to make hands-on use of our 3D printers to learn and experiment with designs. Over time, they fulfilled briefs for specific pieces of work.
These Studentships contributed to 100% year-on-year growth in 3D printing organisations in Nepal.
Email ben.britton@fieldready.org to find out more!
The Practice
Tap into existing student groups — they can be your entry point to mobilising people in the university
Emphasise the ‘for good’ nature of our work. Our ‘humanitarian design challenge’ captured the imaginations of engineering students
Get Faculty members on board. We were able to get valuable advice on how our 3D printing Studentships could be a practical project on students’ curriculums
Play #12: The Town Hall
When you’re not sure how your tech is going to be received by a new community, host a meeting in the local town hall people to gather, see the technology, ask questions and provide feedback
The Pilot: Sustainable eWATER Supply in Tanzania
If we collect shared taps in rural Tanzania to the internet of things, people can use top up cards to buy their water, eliminating the need for cash, cutting corruption and ensuring sustainability.
Use this play to answer our challenge around awareness building: Our end user (person or organisation) isn’t aware of the tech or its benefits.
The Pioneers: eWaterPay
eWATER taps can dispense water 24/7 using contactless payment. To access the water, villagers use eWATER tags, which they can top up with mobile money or cash. When presented at the eWATER tap, water is dispensed and credit it deducted from the tag.
This system was completely new to villagers, who had never seen these taps or tags before. Weeks ahead of installation, we hosted a Town Hall meeting, where the technology was explained, people could play with the tags and become familiar with the setup.
This opportunity also allowed us to understand pricing thresholds and answer questions. It meant that by the time the taps were installed, people knew exactly what to expect.
Email lea@hellobrink.co to learn more!
The Practice
Work with local leaders (in this case it was the local water authorities) to make sure that you have the right appeal to draw the crowds
Keep the session informal, make sure everyone feels welcome and give everyone a voice
Use it as an opportunity to test many dimensions of your product, do more listening than speaking and remain open-minded about what you might learn
The 6 key challenges
For our v1 Playbook, we surveyed all of our Frontier Tech Hub pilots. From a long-list of 20+ challenges, six were identified as ‘key’: encountered most frequently and with greatest intensity. All of our plays help mitigate one or more of these challenges.
1. Regulatory barriers: a non-favourable regulatory environment i.e. it is non-existent, not keeping pace with technological change, difficult and costly to engage, and so on.
2. Supply chain infrastructure: the supply chain infrastructure is not good enough to support the tech operating at scale
3. Skills infrastructure & ecosystem: there is a shortage of technical skills for local installation and maintenance of tech, or a lack of local ecosystem to develop and sustain the technology.
4. Fitting into existing systems: The tech isn’t a fit for existing planning, decision making, execution or implementation systems in the country or domain area.
5. Sustainability post-pilot stage: The tech use case is not sustainable post pilot stage, either through donor funding, private investment, government take up or commercial revenue.
6. Awareness building: Our end user (person or organisation) isn’t aware of the tech or its benefits.
If you’d like to dig in further…
⚡ See the playbook in action in our pilot portfolio
