- Cases
- Kenya, Nigeria, Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt
Innovation and business acceleration coaching of African companies with multinational team.
01 Situation
The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment launched a €114M, six-year effort to catalyse decent work for young women and men across 23 countries. To strengthen the youth focus and market relevance of funded initiatives, the programme selected Proportion as its technical partner to embed human-centered design (HCD) capabilities within applicant and investee organisations.
02 Assignment
The mandate included supporting 20 companies and consortia in Kenya during the application phase to make proposals more youth and customer centered, strengthening the value propositions and business cases of 10 funded companies in Nigeria, and extending HCD support to emerging cohorts in Lebanon, Sudan and Egypt.
03 Approach
Proportion delivered a remote two hour HCD training built around three accessible tools: user journey mapping, empathy mapping and value proposition design. Each company received individual coaching to clarify assumptions, conduct design research and apply insights to refine strategies, offerings and business models.
04 Result
Enterprises applied HCD to unlock clearer opportunities and more viable youth employment pathways. A Kenyan food producer refined product taste, texture and pricing based on user testing, while a Nigerian mobile payments provider redesigned both customer journeys and agent onboarding. CFYE reported clear improvements in project design and praised Proportion’s flexible, practical and proactive support.
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