Research
Distilling insights for a disability innovation platform
SG Enable
About client
SG Enable, the focal agency for disability and inclusion in Singapore, enables persons with disabilities to live, learn, work and play in an inclusive society. SG Enable creates equitable opportunities for persons with disabilities through thought leadership, sustainable social innovation and impactful partnership.
Services
Research
Project duration
2 months
Challenge
SG Enable piloted a social innovation digital platform that aims to activate the community to co-create meaningful solutions that address challenges faced by persons with disabilities.
The premise of the platform is simple: Problem Owners (persons with disabilities), caregivers, social service agencies (SSAs)) can contribute real-world challenges on the platform, and Problem Solvers from the wider community can develop solutions to address these challenges.
SG Enable needed to understand:
Archetypes or profiles of potential Problem Owners
What would make them want to engage in collaborative problem-solving
How the platform could position itself and communicate its value to attract this audience
Solution
We ran a ground-up qualitative research study, which included:
10 in-depth interviews with potential Problem Owners, spanning persons with disabilities, caregivers, SSAs
One expert interview with the founder of a peer platform in the social impact space
Desk research on volunteering trends in Singapore, and global and local case studies of similar social impact platforms
Results
Community first, digital platform later
One of the most important findings was about the limits of a purely digital approach. Nearly all respondents shared that trust is the foundation of any meaningful collaboration - and that trust is built face-to-face, not virtually.
This emphasises the importance of fostering relationships with the Problem Owners and Problem Solvers prior to introducing the platform. In short, community building should come first. Thereafter, a digital platform can then be used to support this community in the innovation process by providing a common ‘space’ to document and collaborate on their ideas digitally.
People's capacity to collaborate shifts with their life circumstances
The research highlighted the importance of engaging persons with disabilities and caregivers at the right point in time. Some are in the thick of managing a recent diagnosis or transition, focused primarily on finding stability; others, having found their footing, are actively looking to connect with and contribute to their community.
One’s life-stage and circumstances determine their available bandwidth and desire to engage others through the platform. Hence, it is important for the platform to identify and reach out to persons with disabilities and caregivers who are ready and willing to avail time and effort to work with the community to articulate their challenges and participate in solutioning.
"55 Minutes carefully considered our research question and delivered a comprehensive report that captured the nuance of our users' needs and presented several tangible suggestions for improvement. Their insights gave us new perspectives on the research question that we had not considered before. We were also impressed by the rubric of 23 distinct user needs that they created to evaluate our current platform in comparison to the recommended opportunity areas. Thank you, team!"
Brenda Tang, Innovation Manager, SG Enable
