Girls and women in Uganda lack Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) information, and proper tools and facilities to manage their periods. There are different methods that girls in rural areas use to manage their menstruation such as cloths or pads. This project focuses on menstrual pads as they are hygienic, absorbent, and comfortable. Therefore, pads enable girls to have a better experience during their period. Girls who live in rural areas of Uganda are the main users this project focuses on. Older women in rural areas are considered as the target consumers who purchase the pads.
Currently, the women who live in rural areas of Uganda only have access to the commercial expensive pad brands. Therefore there is a need of affordable menstrual pads to be accessible in the villages. MakaPads produces affordable menstrual pads. However some years ago they lost their biggest client who was doing the distribution of the product and they were left to rethink their distribution strategy. Presently, MakaPads wants to change their strategy from B2B to B2C and therefore, distribute the pads directly to the end consumer in the rural areas of Uganda.
Thus, the goal of the project is to design a launch strategy for MakaPads to increase the availability and accessibility of menstrual pads for women and girls in rural areas of Uganda. The project was scoped using the framework of the four A’s of marketing: Acceptability, Awareness, Availability and Affordability. Acceptability and Affordability were left out of the scope. Awareness and Availability were subdivided after desk research and context interviews were conducted. Awareness subdivisions were MHM communication and product communication, and Availability was subdivided into information distribution and product distribution.
Interviews were conducted in Uganda and a workshop was performed with the MakaPads team to decide on the direction of the project. The project findings brought key partnerships with opinion leaders in the villages and added crucial consumer groups for the company. By adding these two stakeholders, MakaPads can increase their reach in the villages using less resources. The strategy created is designed for MakaPads to establish in new markets and replicate in rural villages of Uganda. Finally, communication directions were created to increase MHM and product knowledge in the communities of rural Uganda.

Context within Philips:
This thesis is part of a new project track within Philips with the goal of developing a roadmap of tangible and practical sustainable solutions, integrated in the Philips portfolio and inspired by a long-term vision. The case study of this project track and therefore thesis is the MCC business (Mother and Child Care).

Redefining sustainability in 2030:
Looking at current practices of sustainability, this thesis questions them as being too slow and not effective enough. This dissatisfaction with current actions required taking a step back and rethinking what sustainability means in this project. Resulting in using Gaia, a future with the ideal to "focus human activity towards restoring the natural dynamic balance of ecosystems that nourishes all life on earth", as the inspiration on what sustainability should become in the 2030.
Concretely, this means from a consumer perspective that our mindset needs to evolve from exploiting nature to giving back to nature. From a business perspective, however, this means to deliver value to the entire ecosystem and not only to humans – in contrast to today's businesses’ monetary and human-serving focus.

Process:
The complex topic of sustainable parenthood was analyzed though system analysis, which resulted in the identification of the parent's dilemma of wanting to act eco-responsible but being immersed in triggers for overconsumption. To make the complexity of the dilemma comprehensible for the stakeholders it got translated into a story telling map. User research has been conducted to validate and analyze the identified dilemma in depth.

Results:
This thesis delivered three main results.

1. Insight cards. They are based on the user research, giving further details on the dilemma and providing insight on how to resolve it. The can be used by the MCC stakeholders to develop future BVPs.

2. Dilemma model. The insight cards can be mapped down within the story telling map. Resulting in a model explaining the dilemma parents face when it comes to becoming sustainable and mapping the insights needed on resolving this.

3. Vision. The quotes and insights of the qualitative study have been applied in the context of a participatory story building workshop to create personas and develop a sustainable future vision for MCC.

The way we consume when we travel has had a bigger influence on the environment than meets the eye. We see the cups being thrown away, but we do not see the overconsumption, the dodging of responsibility for sustainable production and the food losses. Our quest for convenience has led us to behave in the most environmentally unfriendly way possible.

To contribute to the sustainable development goals of the UN and strive for
a more balanced world, this project created a possible sustainable strategy for consuming on-the-go in 2036. The desired change is constructed using
the ViP-method and Social Practice Theory. In the first part of the report, the current practice is deconstructed and we try to fully understand its impact on the environment. The next chapter uses context factors to make a prediction about the practice of ‘consuming on-the-go’ in 2036. This context is visualised in a future framework. Based on this overview, in combination with the vision of the project, a desired future is presented in the form of a vision statement. By rearranging the social construct of consuming on-the-go out of convenience to one with a motivation of self-care, the practice arguably becomes a more sustainable, and thus desired, one.

An intervention to get from the current practice to a desired one in 2036 could be a product-service system named ‘Tend’. This concept consists of a new system that supports the self-care journey and a digital platform with a product to help actualise your intentions concerning your well-being. The value for the user is added when Tend suggests a consumption that suits your needs at that moment best.

To show how the concept could find its way into reality, a roadmad visualises proposed steps for the service based on the changing context. These parts of implementation are plotted over time and construct a desired final practice
in 2036. Afterwards, an impact analysis compares the old practice to the new one and discusses in what ways Tend leads to less negative impact concerning production and more positive impact concerning health and consumption. This validates the importance of such a transition and shows the value of this projects’ contribution to a more sustainable consumption on-the-go.

The current gap between what municipalities do and what citizens expect, is demanding a new approach for creating public services. This is portrayed by the amount of complaints that the Nationale Ombudsman received about municipal actions which have increased with 15% in 2021 in comparison to 2020.

An opportunity to make room for the citizens’ perspective is to apply the design expertise in the policy-making process. Since design has shifted towards Human-Centered Design in combination with co-creative practices, it has become highly suitable in addressing the challenges that municipalities face (Norman, 2013; Camacho, 2016). Consequently, Human-Centered Design has become valuable in the context of policy-making, because of its tools and methods which can carefully consider the human perspective throughout the policy-making proces.

Together with the municipality of The Hague, a project was set up to research how the design team contributes to human-centered policy-making in collaboration with policy and policy execution experts. The research revealed that some challenges arise within the collaboration between designers and experts. Among these challenges are the fact that the working procedures of designers and experts are diametrically opposed to each other, and that the true value that design offers is not entirely seen within the municipality. Therefore, the design vision for this project is that before designers can take on a larger role in policy-making and add human-centered value to policy-making at the municipality of the Hague, policy and policy execution experts need to truly understand and see the added value of applying design.

The insights from the research have led to the design of the Ontwerpwijzer, a conversation tool which aims to build a bridge between the two worlds of design and policy-making and to guide the collaboration in its early stages. The Ontwerpwijzer is used during the intake meeting, in which the details of the project and potential contributions of the designer are discussed. Consequently, this forms an interesting opportunity to show why, what and when design has something valuable to offer to the policy-making process.

The motive for this thesis project was to translate an intervention into a product that is applicable and replicable in other neighbourhoods to improve the perceived safety. This project was executed in collaboration with MV Design and Matching Futures. These design consultancies initiated an intervention in 2019 to stimulate the energy transition in the neighbourhood Reyeroord in the south of Rotterdam. This intervention used the frame of the night and was therefore called ‘De Nacht Club’ (The Night Club). During this intervention, the perceived safety in the neighbourhood came forward as an issue. In 2021, the design consultancies wanted to proceed with this concept with the new motive of improving the perceived safety in neighbourhoods in the Netherlands.
First, research was needed to identify why or how De Nacht Club could improve the perceived safety in neighbourhoods. Systems thinking is applied to describe how perceived safety in neighbourhoods originates. This research includes a theoretical study as to what perceived safety is, as well as field research with the neighbourhood Reyeroord as a case study. The combination of the desk and field research leads to the insights needed to create a systems map of perceived safety in neighbourhoods. Based on this system, possibility space is identified to intervene in the system, incorporating the existing knowledge and resources of the initial intervention. The research phase indicates that the perceived environment of people affects the perceived safety. By broadening people’s (social/physical) environment, people affect their expectations and perceptions of the environment. This can be done by broadening the public familiarity or strengthen the collective efficacy. The following field of tension comes forward. To increase one’s perceived environment, one must encounter or discover new environments. But discovering new environments is often unsafe and defiant in itself. This describes the frame of De Nacht Club: to offer a safe way to discover new – social and physical - environments. De Nacht Club uses the power of genuine encounters to do so. This way, De Nacht Club affects people’s perceived environment and therefore their perceived safety. In this report, a (re)design of the product (De Nacht Club) is presented with a coherent strategy to improve the perceived safety in neighbourhoods. The strategy consists of the substantiation of the design frame, a brand vision, mission and DNA and a three-piece method. Furthermore, the strategy includes a generic approach to applying the product to different neighbourhoods. This approach is presented in the shape of a set of design criteria for De Nacht Club. These criteria consist of six categories to ensure the value of an edition of De Nacht Club. Lastly, the set of criteria is refined based on expert validation. The product and coherent strategy designed in this project, translate the initial intervention into a coherent product to improve the perceived safety in neighbourhoods. The set of design criteria offers a generic approach to applying De Nacht Club to other neighbourhoods while ensuring the value of the intervention.

This report describes the process of the graduation project: ‘Surfboard as a Service: a novel kitesurfing experience’, which was carried out from February to September 2019. The assignment of the project is to design a custom Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) concept for Appletree Surfboards, which: reduces environmental impact, benefits the company and its products, and gives the end-users (wave kitesurfers) a great experience. In the beginning of the project, research is done about the current context. Company activities and product properties that already contribute to sustainability are investigated, Besides, the theory behind sustainable models is consulted. After this orientation, some targeted exploration is done. Takeaways from interesting company cases and results from interviews with eight wave kitesurfers, result in the distinction of three different end-user groups and inspiration for idea development.
Ideation is then started and the first structural PaaS model ideas are developed. One of these ideas is chosen for further development. This decision leads to a focus on the end-user group of ‘potential customers that want to try out Appletree boards before acquiring one’. This direction leads to a certain model construction and the development of a board trial service. Two trial structures are then elaborated into two different concepts, with a different aim on experience, interaction and intended behavior. Findings from a extensive user test with ten participants, result in a final design proposal. The best of two concepts is merged together, and the last adjustments are made. The final design consist of a trial service and a PaaS-lease service, that can be set up alongside the company’s current activities. The last part of this report describes the features of the final design and presents a few additional elaborations. Recommendations for further development and suggestions for implementation are provided as well. Finally, there will be discussed how the design may contribute to wave kiters, Appletree and sustainability.

The concept of Venturedam was developed to solve societal challenges in India by nurturing the strength of the innovations made in the Netherlands. For Dutch startups to expand to a new market like India that has a considerable difference in the context, it is first required to redefine the value proposition and the business model specific to the new context. Also, startups in the energy domain are defined as a beachhead market for Venturedam considering their faster growth. Venturedam as a strategic design consulting firm would help Dutch energy startups to understand and identify markets in India that fits with the value proposition. Once the market is identified, Venturedam would also support startups to redesign the product and the business model. To execute market expansion projects for startups, Venturedam is required to have a process or a framework to guide different activities. These activities would be required to perform successful market expansion for the startup. Venturedam itself would also require a business model to make a viable business case. The design goal was set up to define a framework and a business model for Venturedam. Market expansion is a strategic design activity, and it is required to find an opportunity with a considerable balance between desirability, viability, and feasibility. Strategic design literature is referred to create the framework for Venturedam. The framework is named as ‘Projectile framework.’ The framework derived from the literature is tested with a Dutch energy startup Solar Monkey from Yes! Delft incubator. Steps from the first diamond of the framework are applied to the case of Solar Monkey. Learnings are captured throughout the application of the framework. These learnings are utilized to redesign Projectile framework for future projects. Addition to the learnings gathered from the application of the framework, feedback from experts and Solar Monkey is collected. Analyzing learnings and feedbacks, new design directions were defined. These design directions helped to further develop Projectile framework. Design directions also helped to modify steps, tools, and methods of the framework. Learnings captured during the application of the process facilitated to build the business model of Venturedam.The concept of Venturedam started with a broad idea of facilitating innovation transfer between two countries. This graduation project lays the first stones for setting up my firm to create greater value for innovators and to address challenges of emerging economies.