Demand Catalyst
The Demand Catalyst focuses on understanding consumers and driving demand.
Jean-Louis Racine
Chief Program Officer
Understanding Users Needs
Clean cooking advocates have long assumed that if people only had more money and more information about clean cooking benefits they would adopt existing clean cooking solutions. This is not true.
Our customers are discerning consumers and will adopt clean cooking solutions designed by companies and programs who deeply understand them and solve their problems. We can massively increase demand and sustained use of clean cooking solutions if we more effectively address people’s needs.
| “Placing users at the center of our work isn’t just a moral imperative, it leads to more effective solutions that solve people’s problems – creating new clean cooking customers. This approach not only accelerates progress toward high-priority results but also fosters sustainability and scalability within the clean cooking industry.”
— Jean-Louis Racine, Chief Program Officer, Clean Cooking Alliance |
About the User Insights Lab (UIL)
The UIL combines the latest thinking in consumer insights, behavioral sciences, and design to support enterprises, non-profits, and governments that need to deliver more value for customers at a time when exponential growth in clean cooking adoption is needed.
Our projects seek to understand customer needs and behaviors, turn knowledge into ideas, and spark an industry culture shift.
Our work is informed by users local to the markets we serve and guided by global thought leaders and partners. We know that new opportunities are always arising, so we seek to continuously learn and improve.
In 2024, the UIL is focused on identifying and resolving pain points for clean cooking customers through field research and supporting clean cooking enterprises to dramatically improve customer experience through our new Customer Centricity Initiative.
Making an Impact
To unlock the sector’s growth, the UIL is working with industry stakeholders to tackle four critical market challenges and ultimately:
- Deliver more value for clean cooking customers
- Sustain use of clean cooking solutions
- Reduce the costs of converting new customers
Explore Our Initiatives
The UIL has initiated a series of exploratory pilots to test different elements of our approach, validate hypotheses, and learn what methods work best for clean cooking stakeholders. A few examples of our exploratory work include:
- Better Subsidy Programs in Kenya: The UIL developed design principles for clean cooking subsidy programs that incorporate behavioral insights to maximize clean cooking adoption among the most vulnerable customer segments.
- Venture-led Customer Experience (CX) Sprint: Testing a light touch approach, the UIL helped two clean cooking enterprises design and run prototypes to better understand customer needs, and experiment with solutions to improve customers’ experiences.
- New solutions for Haitian Street Vendors: The UIL is engaging street vendors in a participatory innovation process to design new solutions that might spur clean cooking uptake among this critical segment.
Get In Touch
The User Insights Lab team relies on a global network of research and design partners across the globe. Contact us for more information or partnership opportunities at userinsights@cleancooking.org.
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