A Quick Guide to Nanoprojects: A Lean Method for Product Design

At BFA, we have been working on an R&D program called FIBR. We partner with local businesses in Ghana and Tanzania to explore the potential for burgeoning technologies, such as smartphones and machine learning, which are increasingly available in these markets, to create opportunities to expand access to financial services. A major component of this program is to quickly assess the fit of a potential partner/product/solution for a relatively lengthy engagement.

Nanoproject Motivation: “Doing” beats “Planning”

While one seemingly attractive approach to partner selection is to meticulously design an airtight system at the outset, we have found that the best means to understand a system is by replacing a large portion of this planning with actively doing.

“In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is.” –Jan van de Snepscheut

This approach is particularly useful in areas of high uncertainty where FIBR partners typically operate. It is with this spirit that we realized this concept of “learning through experiments”, designing a small set of preliminary, targeted engagements with concrete deliverables, which we refer to as a nanoprojects.