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[Adopted Experiment]: Fuel Timor-Leste February 2019 - Stoves Usability Testing (1/2)

Lean Phase: Solution   Assumption: The stove developed is intuitive to use.   Time box: 1 week testing, 1 week iteration, 1 week testing.   Key Metrics: Percentage of customers that can use the product without assistance or explanation.   Success Points: Green Light Proceed: Major improvements are not needed to be made to the design. Continue to tweak minor issues with the stove based on feedback. Begin research into long term product quality and...

Ben Disher
by Ben Disher
2 Votes
Comments 4
Ben Disher
by
Ben Disher

[Project Summary]: Fuel Timor-Leste December 2018

Following the inception of Fuel Sustainability in July 2018, our main goals for the month were to conduct offer and currency tests, and then to begin developing prototypes for the top two to three solutions. This involved determining whether individuals had a problem with their current method of cooking and if they would be interested in a solution to the problem(s). Our first two weeks in country were heavily centered around empathising and offer testing with local populations in the...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
2 Votes
Comments 1
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Adopted Experiment]: Fuel Timor - Cost Analysis of Solutions January 2019

Lean Phase: Cost Structures, Solution Assumption: The three currently proposed solutions are economically feasible to produce in Timor at a scale of 100+ customer sales or production rate of 25/month for each solution. Time Box: January Project Month Key Metrics: Cost of goods sold (COGS), including materials and any manufacturing/labour costs Cost of transporting and/or storing the products once they are made Manufacturing capacity, how many units/volume of the solution can be made...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
4 Votes
Comments 4
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Solution]: Fuel Timor - December 2018

Fuel in Timor-Leste in December have come up with three possible solutions to problems that we have identified, most significantly the large amounts of smoke produced in the current cooking process, and the costs and availability of wood or alternative fuel sources. These solutions are briquettes, a briquette press and rocket stoves.   Briquettes Fuel has created energy briquettes made from biomass materials such as sawdust, a cornstarch binder and carbonised coffee husks. A majority...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
6 Votes
Comments 2
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Work Update]: Fuel Timor-Leste - Briquette Press Prototype - December 2018

Fuel has worked on creating a prototype of the Briquette Press, which we are currently refining for later testing and demonstrations. The original design is based off of Engineers Without Borders’ Micro Compound Lever Press. The prototype uses briquettes made of standard biomass materials and was made to be easy to use, assemble and provide a significant amount of force. The Briquette Press would also be used for later testing to see if villagers interested in the solution like the...

Erica Bell
by Erica Bell
2 Votes
Comments 6
Erica Bell
by
Erica Bell

[Experiment Adopted]: Fuel Timor - Currency Testing

Lean Phase: Problem, Solution, Revenue Streams Assumption: Potential customers are willing to pay for a solution to their fuel problem. Timeframe: Two weeks of testing or until statistical significance ( > 45 responses due to varied customer segments)   Success Metrics: Percentage of people that pay for information on possible solutions to fuel problems. Also the percentage of people that progress and then put down money for a refundable presale of our solution....

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
5 Votes
Comments 3
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Experiment Results]: Fuel Timor-Leste - Offer Testing - December 2018

Reassert Lean Phase: Problem   Reassert Assumption: Our assumption was that the communities in Hera and Dili will be interested in a solution to address their problem(s) with cooking fuels.   Offer Test: Do individuals in Hera and Dili have a problem with their cooking? Would communities be interested in a solution to address their problem(s) with cooking fuels?   Results: Hit Green Light Target The results so far have been 75.6% positive responses from 45...

Erica Bell
by Erica Bell
5 Votes
Comments 1
Erica Bell
by
Erica Bell

[Experiment Adopted]: Timor Fuel - Offer Testing

Lean Phase:  Problem Assumption : The community in Hera and around Dili will be interested in a solution to address their problem with cooking fuels (see separate Problem post). Timeframe : 2 week of testing in the Hera & Dili region. Success Metric: Success will be measured through the number of people who are interested in or actively looking for a solution to their fuel/cooking issues. Post-experiment actions: Success point: If 15% of the responses are positive, that...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
5 Votes
Comments 3
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Experiment Adopted]: Fuel Fiji - December Goal 1: Iterate on the prototype to implement current customer feedback and ensure possibility for scalable manufacturing - December 2018

Lean Phase: Prototyping - Solution   Assumption: That the Buka 5.0 accurately addresses the problem space like the 4.0 did, whilst enabling scalability and cost reduction in manufacturing. This is an important assumption to validate as the redesign of the Buka stove in July 18 made critical alterations to the stove design. Whilst the underlying principles were held the same and the rough design of the 4.0 kept, the change in materials alters many aspects of the stoves.   Time...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
3 Votes
Comments 3
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Project Summary]: Fuel Fiji July 2018

Fuel in Fiji this July was split into two teams, roughly separated as 1) Supply and Distribution and 2) Prototyping and Sales. Both teams made huge strides forward for the project, with an outline of their achievements this month set out below.   Fuel I  set out goals for the month of July with the main goal in sight of establishing a supply and distribution chain for the production of the rocket stoves within Fiji. We are so excited and proud to announce today that Fuel I has made...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
6 Votes
Comments 5
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Experiment Adopted]: Fuel Fiji - Case Studies - July 2018

Summary: Fuel teams need more feedback on current and past models of Buka stoves in order to determine which direction to take the stove into in the future. This feedback will be gathered starting August and continuing through to December via two separate case studies on one individual who owns a buka 3 and one who owns a buka 5. Something that Fuel in Fiji has been lacking, is solid feedback on the Buka stove. Most interactions this far have been around qualitative data and even then...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
4 Votes
Comments 3
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

[Work Update]: Fuel Fiji - Potential Distribution Partners - July 2018

For new readers and a reminder for old ones, one of Fuel I’s main goals this month is to establish a supply chain and distribution network for the current Buka Stove 4.0 and the freshly produced Buka 5.0. In recent news, on the 19/07/2018 three members of the Fuel I team and Lucy Noble travelled to Suva to perform demonstrations for two potential distributors and to collect quotes from various supplier and manufacturer businesses. The first demonstration was in the morning with the...

Tim Tsiflidis
by Tim Tsiflidis
17 Votes
Comments 13
Tim Tsiflidis
by
Tim Tsiflidis

[Proposed Experiment]: SoCon Malawi - Lending to Village Banks - July 2018

Background Village banks have proven to be a fascination due to their ingenuity in providing their communities access to loans that normally would be totally inaccessible due to a lack of collateral. A detailed summary of how they operate can be found here . In short, village banks can reliably distribute loans to their communities with a very low risk of default. From our interview with one village bank, we discovered that they were not capable of providing a loan to everyone who...

Henry Baldwin
by Henry Baldwin
10 Votes
Comments 5
Henry Baldwin
by
Henry Baldwin

[Work Update]: Fuel Fiji - Assumption Testing (Do we really need a bigger stove?) - July 2018

One of the original monthly goals for the Fuel II team in Fiji was to sell 10 stoves and gain significant feedback from existing customers on the stove’s performance. So far, there have been multiple village visits and conversations with many existing and prospective customers. From this feedback, there are a few common issues that keep coming up. Many villagers cook within their extended families of up to 8-10+ people, and believe the Buka stove is too small and unsuitable for cooking large...

Luke Finlayson
by Luke Finlayson
5 Votes
Comments 9
Luke Finlayson
by
Luke Finlayson

[Work Update]: FarmEd Timor - Call To Action Methodology - July 2018

Communication with farmers in rural Timor-Leste poses many challenges in trying to gain potential customer traction for a social media based Minimum Viable Product.  Communication through translators works in the empathising process, however when we need distinctive answers from farmers for a Call to Action, written communication is often more reliable. A Call to Action is an instruction to the audience that provokes an engagement with the product. A well designed CTA methodology is key in...

Justin Marshall
by Justin Marshall
4 Votes
Comments 6
Justin Marshall
by
Justin Marshall

[Work Update]: Fuel Fiji - Social Consulting Collaboration - July 2018

The Fuel II and Social Consulting I teams in Fiji are planning to collaborate in terms of the sale of stoves within villages. It has been noted that the price of the Buka stove, $60, is quite an expense to many villagers and often they are unable to make a full payment when purchasing the product.  Due to limited resources within Fuel II, the only payment options to date have either been a single full payment, or a deposit made with the remainder paid on the arrival of the Buka stove....

Luke Finlayson
by Luke Finlayson
12 Votes
Comments 4
Luke Finlayson
by
Luke Finlayson

PROPOSED PROJECT: (Malawi) Micro-finance digital platform for Australian lenders/Malawi borrowers

This is a rudimentary moonshot design for long run competition, which I have attempted to tailor to current solar-based micro-financing operations in Malawi. An issue associated with micro-finance is the inherently high interest rates. There is high default risk and monitoring costs are proportionally high. Whats more, we discovered today that there are already several institutions providing services in this market, which may make it difficult to scale effectively as a for profit,...

Kurt Michl
by Kurt Michl
16 Votes
Comments 18
Kurt Michl
by
Kurt Michl
Closed

[Work Update]: Fuel Timor - Monthly Goals - July 2018

The fuel team in Timor is super keen to start smashing goals throughout July, the goals are as follows; Assess feasibility of rocket stove: Seeing the success of the rocket stove in Fiji, has inspired the assessment of it here in Timor-Leste. Empathising with the community in both urban and rural areas is important in assessing its feasibility. It has been established that Timorese do use firewood as an alternative fuel source when cooking, but more research must be done and hopefully,...

Nikolaos Kappos
by Nikolaos Kappos
10 Votes
Voting closed
Comments 5
Nikolaos Kappos
by
Nikolaos Kappos

[Work Update]: Fuel Fiji - Fuel II Goals - July 2018

Goal 1: Manufacture 1 new prototype and conduct user tests with 10 customers Goal 2: Sell 10 Buka Stoves (3.0 model) Goal 3: Gain feedback and validate learning from existing customers Goal 4:  Build 2 new payment options for customers (in collaboration with SoCon)  Following the success of previous Fuel months, the project has been split into two teams. Fuel II will be focusing on a new prototype and sales, and the team has some massive goals to smash this month. One of the main...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
9 Votes
Comments 7
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher

(Dis)Connecting with customers between project months

One difficulty inevitably faced by PE Ventures at one point or another in their life-span is the time between project months. The lack of presence by projects from March-June and August-November can present a problem for established contacts to raise any issues or present new opportunities to PE. Trying to establish relationships with new customers is also inhibited by the breaks as there may have been a few promising meetings had or communications made yet that good work cannot continue...

Alexander Teicher
by Alexander Teicher
13 Votes
Comments 3
Alexander Teicher
by
Alexander Teicher
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Alexander Teicher

Adelaide, Australia

Joined this community on Nov 20, 2017

University or Company
UOA

Degree or Work area
Engineering

Country you Trekked/are Trekking in
Timor-Lesté

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