Influence of Context Variation on Quality of Solutions: Experiences with Gasifier Stoves

Many global sustainable development issues affect large numbers of people, e.g. clean cooking. Most current projects focus on a specific use context, therefore do not scale well to new contexts and consequently do not reach enough beneficiaries. We present an approach, Context Variation by Design (CVD), in which insights from different contexts are intentionally combined early on in the process to develop solution directions. This creates a richer solution space than when contextual variations are developed sequentially. The rich solution space is then the basis for these contextual variations which might include connections and synergy between them. We discuss several real-life project examples that demonstrate that this approach indeed creates a basis for better solutions. In particular, confronting insights from different contexts at an early stage reveals new solution directions. To fully capture the potential the approach needs to be applied throughout the design process.