HOW WE DO IT: a look at 4Bells

A Caravan project begins with listening to problems and finding solutions together with the community. To illustrate our process, let's focus on 4Bells.

Community convening surfaces pain points
and ideas.

Create prototypes

and solicit
 community feedback.

The community selects the best solution.

Develop a technology tool.

Community use drives adoption and surfaces improvements.

We held two separate Generators, one with those working in animal rescue and another on the topic of food recovery. Interestingly, both of these Generators surfaced a persistent issue with managing time-sensitive volunteer tasks. 

4BELLS GENERATE  

4BELLS DESIGN  

Our team went to work with paper prototypes based on what we heard. We invited Generator participants and others to respond to our prototypes and provide more information about features, functionality, and use.

We presented the 20 or so ideas surfaced during the Generator to the participants and asked them to select the one that resonated the most. They chose the genesis of 4Bells: an app that helps deploy volunteers to time-sensitive tasks.

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See a Select example, Childhood Hunger

4BELLS SELECT  

4BELLS BUILD  

 We’re building and testing and talking to those who might use 4Bells or help us understand a new use case. With the generous support of Microsoft Citizenship, the first version of 4Bells will be useful to organizations that deploy volunteers after a disaster. We’re learning a lot.

Along with the community who dreamed up 4Bells, we’ll make sure those who need it can find it and use it.

4BELLS USE