IA Collaborative Lives the Problem to Design the Solution

The Vision

Employing a design approach to get as close to the user experience as possible when developing solutions in a crisis situation, resulting in an award-winning Core Cooling Kit to combat the Ebola outbreak. Flooded by news reports of the ever-growing Ebola outbreak – and believing that any challenge is a design challenge – IA Collaborative was compelled to marshal company resources to design a solution to fight the pandemic.

The Process

IA Co-Founder and Co-CEO Kathleen Brandenburg first called an urgent “all hands” meeting to assess interest and assemble a team. Serendipitously, while IA Leadership was mobilizing the team, they discovered that the USAID had issued a Grand Challenge to agencies across the country for innovative ideas that could minimize the spread of Ebola and help save lives. The team made it their goal to answer the call. Thinking systemically about what was happening on the ground in affected communities, the team uncovered critical contextual information to guide the development of a Core Cooling Kit.

The Result

This elegant cooling solution employs available, local, and sustainable resources to nearly double the amount of time aid workers could spend in their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when saving lives in the field.