{"id":61952,"date":"2025-09-30T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finca.org\/how-to-create-products-women-will-actually-use-design-for-the-full-garden-2"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:38:23","slug":"how-to-create-products-women-will-actually-use-design-for-the-full-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finca.org\/en-gb\/how-to-create-products-women-will-actually-use-design-for-the-full-garden","title":{"rendered":"How To Create Products Women Will Actually Use? Design for the Full Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FINCA and the Gates Foundation held an interactive workshop to explore strategies for creating relevant products that enable women entrepreneurs to grow and thrive.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the recent 2X Global Summit, organized around the theme of Women Driving Resilience<\/a>, I heard the word \u201cproduct\u201d time and time again. As someone who works in product development, I can\u2019t help but notice it. But I\u2019m less interested in how often we talk about innovative products, and more in whether people actually use <\/em>the ones we build. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tension between access and usage isn\u2019t new \u2014 it has been a central question in this sector for years. Yet, the latest Global Findex report<\/a> makes clear that the issue is far from resolved: 79% of adults now have a financial account, but far fewer women actively use and derive value from higher-value products like savings, credit, and insurance. The divide is especially visible among women entrepreneurs. That\u2019s why we need to continue to focus on what it will take to finally overcome this gap and design products that women will actively want to use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, a product is only as powerful as the progress it enables. And for many women entrepreneurs, progress doesn\u2019t look like the familiar \u201cladder\u201d we often imagine. Their journeys aren\u2019t always linear, and their goals aren\u2019t always about scaling upward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I think about how progress happens for women-led enterprises, I prefer the metaphor of a garden, because success in this context is an ecosystem. It\u2019s about growth, resilience, and interdependence. And just like a garden needs the right conditions to thrive, women need products that are designed to fit their realities \u2014 tools that support not just access, but meaningful, sustained use.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing Her Clearly<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why does this matter? Because across emerging markets, women are ambitious economic actors<\/a>. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a majority of working-age women operate in food systems<\/a> that feed local communities and families. One in three high-growth ventures is women-led<\/a>, and these ventures are more likely to reinvest in health, education, and household stability<\/a>. In short, women are drivers of economic growth and innovation \u2014 and yet, the products available to them rarely reflect their full operating reality.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider Fatima Syi, a talented tailor in Dakar, Senegal, running a small but thriving business mostly in cash with few digital records. She wants to expand into new markets and is already exporting to Zambia, but recently her growth has stalled. Like many women entrepreneurs, Fatima has been in business for years without formal registration, digital tools, or a way to prove her creditworthiness. She is essentially invisible to lenders and partners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a systemic problem in many African markets. Foundational infrastructure gaps<\/a> like limited ID coverage, fragmented payment networks, and unreliable data sources mean that too often, products are designed for an ideal customer who doesn\u2019t exist, rather than for women like Fatima. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When products overlook these realities, women don\u2019t use them \u2014 not because they lack ambition or capacity, but because the tools aren\u2019t relevant. The real challenge is to build products that fit women\u2019s lives, capture the value they are already creating, and support them in growing it further.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designing for Her Reality<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To create products that work for women, we need to start from a \u201cbaseline-building\u201d mindset. If the data doesn\u2019t exist, then products should help generate it through trust, records, and visibility. If usage is the problem, design is the lever we pull. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would relevant product design look like for Fatima? An ideal solution would include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n