Human Centered Design at KIPP

While reading week 2’s Design Thinking for Social Innovation (Brown, and Wyatt, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2010, pgs. 30-35), I wondered whether it is possible to use a human centered design approach to create a service rather than a product?  Reading about the “three I’s” (Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation) and pulling from my background in education, I recognized that the founders of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a system of charter public schools, used this process to create their first school.  In a 60 Minutes report on KIPP, Mike Wallace talks with the founders about the history of the organization (http://www.kipp.org/index.cfm?furl=/press-center/multimedia-archive/kipp-videos/kipp-video-display/&video_id=22).

In 1994, after several years of teaching, Dave Levin and Michael Fienberg recognized that low-income students were performing below grade level (inspiration phase).   They began to study the techniques of highly effective teachers like Harriet Ball (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/harriett-ball-texas-teach_n_748446.html) and started to identify how they might implement those techniques on a larger scale.  They put together a unique business plan of sorts centered on several key tenants to increase students’ success:

·      More Time in School: Longer school days, longer school weeks (6 days per week), and longer school year, such that students have 70% more time in class than students in other public schools)

·      Highly Structured, Disciplined Environment: Students are held accountable for their actions or lack thereof

·      Access to Teachers via Telephone 24/7: As a part of their contract, all teachers must be available via phone to help students with their school work.

·      Student, Parent, and Teacher Accountability: All parties must agree to do whatever it takes to achieve academic excellence and sign a contracting showing this commitment.

·      Focus on College Readiness:  The focus of all classes and most conversations between teacher and student is on preparing students for college and the “real world”.

·      No Excuses: This speaks for itself.

This was all a part of the ideation phase.  Lastly, they opened just one school to test these techniques and ensure that they perfected them before expanding (implementation).  Today, KIPP operates a network of schools nationwide. 

Knowing that it is possible, to use HCD to create innovative services, I’m curious to know what other such services exist?