Crafting new credit products for young women

Since its inception 50 years ago, BRAC has been recognized as a global pioneer in microfinance from its origins in Bangladesh, and in the mid-2000s, it expanded its model to Sierra Leone and Liberia. BRAC Microfinance Sierra Leone and Liberia are leading microfinance institutions (MFIs) in their respective markets, reaching over 60,000 customers, most of whom are women.

In partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, BRAC selected Digital Disruptions to carry our design research with young women (18 to 35 years old) and propose recommendations to redesign elements and features of its existing credit products and propose new services that could cater to this segment.

Approach & Outcome

Digital Disruptions first began by conducting secondary research and speaking to key internal stakeholders at the MFI to better understand their perspectives on the needs, pain points, and context of the target segment.  In crafting its design research, the firm decided to not only interview youth, but also speak to older women to distinguish which needs were specific to age versus broadly applicable to all of BRAC’s female customers.

Digital Disruptions then ran a week-long, in-country design sprint, comprising of an idea generation session with a cross-functional BRAC team, designing low-fidelity prototypes of several concepts, and testing these with youth and non-youth women segments, both in urban and rural areas of the country.  We then synthesized the user reactions and prioritized the product concepts using the firm’s proprietary Opportunity Assessment Canvas (OAC) [see image] based on risks, technical and market feasibility, financial viability, and organizational capacity, culminating in a final report delivered in 8 weeks.