CASE STUDY
Cultivating Crafts & Traditions
JULY 2018 - JANUARY 2020
ORGANIZATION
SERVICES
Discovery Research
Concept Development
Prototype Design & Validation
Founder & Director
BACKGROUND
Being born and raised in India, I grew up admiring the handiwork of neighborhood artisans. After I moved to the Bay Area in 2010, my appreciation only deepened. When I would go to a local farmer's market and see the value given to the handmade pottery or craft artifacts, I would always think about all things people used to create with their hands back home - it was the norm. But it wasn't valued in the same way.
I started this venture with a mission to help this community of 200 million artisans to expand their reach, achieve financial stability and cultivate the crafts and traditions of ancestors.
CHALLENGE
How might we connect India’s traditional artisans to the global world?
OUTCOME
Launched a platform for craft experiences and retreats
APPROACH
I started with initial market research of the artisanal goods industry and built a hypothesis for a marketplace that could help connect these marginalized artisans to the global market. I decided to take an ethnography research trip to India to find the artisans I could host on the marketplace and understand their needs.
I spent about two months meeting 15+ artisans in their homes and workplaces, 5+ organizations working for the advancement of these artisans, and a handful of designers working on making artisanal products in collaboration. This immersive research helped me understand that zooming in on user needs was making me ignore other players involved and the system they belong to.
Although a marketplace seemed like an obvious solution for the identified user need, it wouldn’t have worked in the market that devalued the artisanal skills and was not prepared to pay the deserved prices to the artisans. As I started expanding my understanding beyond the users (artisans and their customers, in this case) and looked at the system they were part of as a whole, I started understanding the social stigma, public policies, and traditional supply chain players individually and inter connectedly.
When I would meet a friend or an acquaintance and talk about my project, I would find them getting most intrigued with artisan stories more than their crafts - how they started their craft journey, what traditions they are carrying forward, what challenges they have.
The more I talk about the artisans, the more appreciation they brought for their crafts. It led to the development of a new concept. I decided to prototype a creative retreat that offers an immersive experience of learning a craft in an artisan studio.
OUTCOMES
We tested the prototype of creative retreat with a group of beta participants with little to no exposure to handcrafted products. It was concluded that the appreciation for the craft increased as participants interacted with the artisans to learn about their lives and skills.
"I would never bargain for any handcrafted product I see in the market anymore. I understand how much effort an artisan puts in to refine their craft and create a product." - a craft retreat participant
As a result, I launched andCrafted Experiences to connect a global citizen with a traditional artisan in their local setting. This offering elevates an artisan's social status and increases the product value in addition to gaining access to the global audience