Integrated Product Design in Guatemala

Integrated Product Design in Guatemala

Over Winter Break, the Integrated Product Design program (IPD), a joint initiative of the Schools of Design, Engineering, and Wharton, partnered with IDe Global, a nonprofit organization that promotes a business approach to increasing income and creating livelihood opportunities for poor rural households, on a project to understand the changing needs of small-scale coffee farmers in Guatemala.

Students met with farmers in the field to learn about their day-to-day work and understand the challenges they experienced. The students then identified key needs, generated a wide range of product ideas to address those needs, and created prototypes to take to farmers for feedback.

“As we learned, we refined and iterated our ideas,” says Sarah Rottenberg, executive director, IPD program. The 10-day experience culminated in the students presenting the project at Impact Hub Antigua, in the Guatemalan capital, to the city’s social entrepreneurship community.

See photos from their trip at the School of Design’s Flickr page.