DIY Innovation

Rather than the traditional bigger, better, faster, and pricier mentality of creating new products, social innovators look for ways to make products smaller, more efficient, cheaper, and more responsive to the needs of their customers . Two of this week’s articles showcased the achievements of Joshua Silver and Salman Khan, who greatly embrace this mentality and add a do-it-yourself mentality. This DIY mentality answers to the unmet demand in hard to reach and difficult to manage markets, such as spectacles and education, but at a low-cost, low-maintenance angle. These organizations also take into account the customer’s agency and their desire to keep it.

Joshua Silver’s, recently short-listed for and EU award, self-adjusting glasses are only one example of the changing mentality in the community of social innovators. An estimated one billion people suffering from poor eye sight in the developing world may finally have access to a sustainable, viable solution that does not require constant professional attention. This easy-to-use invention has been tested in rural villages in China as well as inner-city classroom in Boston, showing positive results.

As the largest school in the world, the Khan academy provides online videos, quizzes, and other free learning material. The videos and materials have been translated to over 24 languages and enjoy about 6 million new daily viewers.  Khan’s organization has a token characteristic of all successful organizations, for profit or not: it has utilized the growing use of technology in education, i.e. it has adapted to the changing dynamics in the classroom and in society.

These two services provide more than simple products, but act as an avenue for economic and social advancement. As Silver explains, lacking good eye sight greatly impacts one’s social and economic opportunities. Khan’s academy has proven to work better than online tutoring. While Silver’s self-adjusting glasses cost £15 each to make, Khan has experience a 1000% return and has reached 10 million students.  However, keep in mind that Silver is dedicated to bringing the cost down to a price accessible to his target population.

These types of sustainable solutions are vital in social innovation. These two organizations embody the conversations around human-centered design and frugal engineering. The products are human-centered because of bottom-up design trajectory and show characteristics of frugal engineering through their commitment to low-cost solutions. While working in separate fields (education and health), the two organizations had similar visions about creating a useful product that fills the demand gap in their respective markets.