It is an exciting time in the Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge as finalists Ginger.io and Chewable embark on a set of community uptake exercises where people living with diabetes, the ultimate users of their services, provide them with real feedback on their prototypes.
The multi-stage process of the Innovation Challenge is purposefully designed to mentor teams in the methods of human-centered innovation. By illustrating their concepts and showing their prototypes to real people as early as possible, they will quickly gain insights to further improve their work. The result is a product that is not only technically competent and market viable, but also thoughtfully appropriate for the audience it is intended to benefit. Armed with these insights, Ginger.io and Chewable move one step closer to creating the next breakthrough in diabetes.
The Community Uptake phase of the challenge is broken into two components:
1) In-person interactive sessions with members of the target audience
2) Input from a broader online community of people living with diabetes
The finalists will travel to Sacramento, CA to collaborate with potential users of their products. They will engage in a set of exercises with community members in order to gain empathy for their views on food, mood, and the lifestyle associated with managing their condition. Activities include co-creation of daily interventions around food choice, a deep dive into social support networks, and a discussion on the role of mobile phones in everyday life. Concurrently, teams will garner feedback on specific aspects of their prototypes from an online community of 300 individuals living with diabetes. Using the insights gleaned from these activities, each finalist will write a final report detailing how they will refine their concept into a truly human-centered solution.
On November 14, World Diabetes Day, the Challenge winner will be announced and awarded $100,000 to further develop his product. Join us in wishing the finalists luck as they launch into the final stage of the Data Design Diabetes Innovation Challenge!