Building A Responsive Hardware Innovation Framework At Innofest

What are we attempting?

There are many stakeholders working to make Indian innovation a consistent reality. Many of these stakeholders would agree that hardware product innovation is an essential priority. Yet, few agree on the definition of innovation, let alone the problem statements to address and the ways to go about it. 

The Innovation Track at Innofest 2016 will be used as a forum to address some of these questions and, most importantly, lay the foundations for building a hardware product and innovation support framework.

Why is such a framework even relevant?

It shouldn’t feel heroic to access fundamental resources necessary to build meaningful products or innovation. Let’s save heroism for actually solving problems. In the face of well-defined social, economic, and environmental challenges, amongst others, let’s draw attention to these problem statements and strengthen those willing to take those on. For this to happen we need a consistent framework that exists for this purpose. And for the framework to be relevant and sustainable, we need to work with multiple stakeholders – the doers, the enablers, and the documenters. This is precisely why we are calling everyone with an interest in Indian hardware innovation to send us their perspectives and join us at Innofest.

Research Brief

The questionnaire is built on the following beliefs and design challenge questions. We invite stakeholders to question and challenge these and present their perspectives.

We believe that

1. It is essential to identify the different stakeholders and gather their perspectives on the needs and challenges in hardware innovation. 
2. These needs and challenges are contextual and locally specific.
3. It is important to engage willing and able stakeholders in building a framework for hardware innovation. 
4. This framework can stand as a call to action for potential entrepreneurs, a support ecosystem for entrepreneurs in the making and a growth platform for entrepreneurs with products and services. 
5. This framework needs to be widely and publicly accessible, have systems for monitoring and evaluation and be continually refined. 

Design Challenge

How might we understand and assess

1. Innovation in the context of hardware products and services?
2. The problem statements to focus on?
3. The ways that stakeholders are currently addressing these problems?
4. The needs and challenges of stakeholders addressing these problem statements?
5. The elements of a collaborative framework that addresses these needs and challenges?

Everyone with an interest in Indian hardware innovation send your perspectives and join us at Innofest.

About the Author

Dr. Tej Pochiraju is a volunteer at iSPIRT and the Director at Jaaga Startup where design is used to build communities and better ventures.