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Start with WHO?[^1]

I, Alexis, want a better coding tool for my qualitative analysis. …I also want to learn Swift.

Question: WHO? Answer: Me, Alexis Rondeau. Question: Who are you? Answer: I’m many things, but in this context, I’m a qualitative researcher.

• As a…

  • Qualitative researcher in the health-industry

• I want to…

  • Code transcripts

    • easier
    • faster

  • and Compare interviewee segments

    • clearer

• So that…

  • I can deliver

    • shared themes
    • differences between segments
    • hot quotes
    • engaging narrative
    • clearer findings
    • deeper insights
    • more engaging narratives
    • and faster reports
    • best-informed recommendations

• Because…

  • my clients want to

    • make better
    • more informed
    • decisions
    • look good in front of their stakeholders
    • impress their teams
    • impress their boss
    • prove their value
    • secure their employment
    • make money
    • pay for expenses
    • save money
    • invest money
    • to keep their family healthy and happy

Key Benefits

Unit/Metrics:

• “Time to Code”
• “Time to Surprise”
• “Time to Insight”

MVP: “An Insights Development Environment (IDE), for you, forever.”

• Based on Obsidian Landing Page

• “An Insights Development Environment (IDE)”

  • Moderating interviews is such a good time to really meet someone on eye-level
  • We love connecting with people
  • Qualitative analysis is where the magic happens
  • Where you discover and develop insights from your interviews
  • Once the interviews are over and the transcripts have arrived, you hit a brick-wall.
  • It’s hard though without good tools
  • Your IDE should help you spend more quality time with your transcripts
  • In DeepDive, reading, coding, segmenting and analysing your interview transcripts is frictionless.
  • Take a first pass of coding with alias-coding,
  • review and dive deeper,
  • highlight quotes with a single keyboard stroke,
  • develop your coding book,
  • pepper in your segments and
  • marvel at what patterns emerge

• “For you”

  • Coding interview transcripts is incredibly personal.
  • You want to connect with your interview partners after you’ve spoken with them
  • You want to also move fast and get into flow quickly
  • You also want to keep your transcripts secure
  • And you want to deliver your report ahead of time for fine-tuning with your team

  • DeepDive is…

    • Native Mac application

      • it’s much faster than any web-based application
      • It hooks into your computer directly

    • It’s built to be 100% Customizable

      • 26 Hotkeys that you can assign to your codes for speed-of-thought coding
      • 5 coding color schemes to make it easy to parse at a glance
      • Limitless coding books per project so you can fine-tune your insights
      • Limitless segmenting of your interviews so you can slice and dice during analysis
      • Built-in “Auto-Coding” that automatically tags
      • AI-Coding – Your DeepDive has a local AI engine built-in that learns as you code your transcripts and over time matures to the point of assisting you

• “Forever”

  • “In our age when cloud services can shut down, get bought, or change privacy policy any day, the last thing you want is proprietary formats and data lock-in.”
  • With DeepDive, your data is stored locally and will not ever be held hostage by a cloud-provider
  • Export your coded transcripts anytime to fully portable Excel or CSV
  • CSV export also gives you the unparalleled interoperability to use any kind of sync, encryption, or data processing that works with plain text files.
• Create transcripts
• Create codings

• Tag fragments

  • By mouse
  • By keyboard
• See fragment stats by code

• Auto-code

  • Add aliases to codes
  • Remove auto-codes
• Segment transcript
• Show strong sentiment hints

Like Delve Tool but better because…

• No shortcuts
• No keyboard navigation
• Webbased
• No merging of fragments
• No auto-coding

Spreadsheet

• Navigation
• Fonts

What?

Like DelveTool but…

• Local
• Secure
• Hotkey-first

How

• A blazing fast, hotkey-first, secure MacOS App
• SwiftUI Learning resources
• Custom CoreData Integration Spike
• Design Resources

Something like this…

iA Writer as Gold Standard

 

Development of the App

Three Panes!


Live Coding!


Hotkeys!


Homepage!


Frames!


With Sidebar!


With Translucency!


With Codings!

   

With Coding Stats!

 

With Awesome Form!


With Autocoding!

Naming Ideas!

 

Alias and Manual Tagging!

 

New Sidebar Items!

 

Spend more quality time with your transcripts


Taggings Highlighted!


Better Selection Highlighting!


…maybe with blurring?


With Fragment Classification Training!


With Prompted Tagging and Highlighting

 

With Multi-Highlighting!

 

With removing all Alias Codings!

With Segments!


Backlog

• 

Notes

• 
• 

People

• DeepDive – Internal Demo

Related

• https://github.com/EngaugeAI/engauge
• https://matomo.org/
• https://perfect.org/

User Journey

journey
	section Discover a missing answer
		Create a learning plan: 5: Alexis, Courtney, Client
	section Run interviews
		Create a interview guide: 3: Alexis, Courtney
		Source and schedule participants: 3: Alexis, Courtney
		Moderate interviews: 9: Alexis
	section Analyse interviews
		Read transcripts: 4: Alexis
		Code transcripts: 2: Alexis
		Re-code transcripts: 3: Alexis
	section Create report
		Create slide deck: 3: Alexis, Courtney
	section Deliver report
		Present slide deck: 5: Alexis, Courtney, Client
	section Make decision
		Present slide deck: 5: Alexis, Courtney, Client

[^1]: Start with WHO not How

Done

• Pogo Brainstorm Branding and Standing
• Pogo Event Tracking

Tracking

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Pogo – Pin prompt window on top - 1.3.8

New challenges

• Pogo Alpha Release Launch
• DONE – Add Pogo – 🟢🟡🔴 Failsafe API Status Monitor
• Fix limit requests based on Token-Count

• Fix limits of conversational memory

  • Pogo – Create summaries for memory and export

  • Create ChatGPT API System Prompts

    • Pogo System Prompts – “@translator”
  • Investigating ChatGPT’s Conversations API
  • POST backend-api-conversation

Improvements

• DONE – Periodically check for version updates
• Scroll down as plotting happens
• Pogo Select Full Response Text – Improvement

New ideas

• Pogo Automatically Inject User-Selected Text – New Feature
• Using JamGPT Story – Making release notes more delightful with “The Learning Curve”, a fictional TV show about Pogo the AI for release “Episodes”

Feedback from YC/OpenAI:

2/ & 3/ we don’t have any plans for an affiliate program or a Pro API key at this time (the API is very much in alpha)

Quantum Leaps

Use Conversations

Because: Co-editing created the best papers and most impressed students

• Option 1: Using a ChatDIY API version
• Option 2: Using ChatGPT API

Use System Prompts

• ChatGPT API System Prompts

4. Shortcodes / Auto-expands

   1. #list → Adds “Make this a list”
   2. #md → Adds “Create headings”
   3. #nex → Adds “No explanations”

Check-In Call mit Tobi

• Email an das YC Team

  • Können wir die ChatGPT Pro API Keys nutzen?
  • Referral Program?

• DONE Improve: “Chat”-UX

  • Letzte Antwort nicht bei Prompt-Empty löschen

• HELP THEM AVOID RUNNING INTO AN ERROR

  • FIRST TIME / On startup

    • Don’t even allow letting them enter

  • Later

    • Error messages

• Business

  • Login mit meiner OpenAI ID / API Key (Paid/Pro)

  • Pay for extra features

    • Snippets etc.
  • Mobile app upsell
• Learnings on AI

Prior Feature-Ideas and Improvements

Workflow Improvements

• DONE – ⭐️ Make prompt editor behave more like a text editor (Fix newlines)
• Internal: Get notified on feedback → Google Sheet → Via SMS?
• Stream result
• Have ‘canned’ responses locally when API is overloaded

Delight Improvements

• Confetti as a thank you for feedback
• Bounce window on success
• Theming for colors and font-sizes

• Integrate easy-to-use design system

  • Colors
  • Fonts
  • Sizes

Error Handling

• Shake window on error responses
• Make errors suck less with randomized fun animation
• Notify me when ready
• Refactor code
• See when I’m in search mode
• Change loading animation
• Revise Error styling

Sales Opportunities

• Expand on Promptcraft for Images → Sell a course
• Expand on Touch Typing → Sell a course
• Integrate Validation for "OpenAI Partner Referral Program"

More transparency

• Expand on privacy policy

  • We don’t track you, but you shouldn’t trust us by just tell you. Here’s how you can investigate yourself

    • Wireshark
    • Terminal – Networking Monitoring Tools macOS
    • View information about Mac processes in Activity Monitor
    • View network activity in Activity Monitor on Mac
    • How to Monitor Network Usage on Your Mac’s Dock
    • Monitor internet usage of individual applications in OSX

Bugs

• …

Related

• Shake and bounce window on macOS

[^1]:

TLDR; After getting frustrated, angry even, with how awkward and unreliable the “touch-screen-to-flipt-to-next-page” on the Kindle Classic is, I experimented with different ways to emulate a physical ‘next-page’ button akin to those found on more expensive devices like the Kindle Oasis. My ideal solution turned out to be a simple, twisted rubber band.

Demo


Meta-Learning

• The solution is much simpler and less complex (a fucking twisted rubber band!?) than I had expected – “Less But Better”
• What seems obvious and laughable now I was only able to discover through the process of iteration, experimentation and elimination

🔥 The problem I’m solving for

• The issue is that paging next with the regular Kindle is really, really AWKWARD and UNRELIABLE

• Turning/flipping to the next page BREAKS MY READING FLOW because…

  • I have to LIFT my thumb from its resting position 😒
  • I have to MOVE my thumb above the screen 😞
  • I have to PRESS my thumb HARD onto the screen 😔

  • Then ONLY HALF (50%) of presses don’t register 🔥🤬🔥

    • So half the time I have to press again (WTF?) 🔥🔥🔥🔥🤬🔥🔥🔥🔥
  • I have to LIFT my thumb again 😔
  • I have to MOVE my thumb back to its resting position 😞

What I want

• I just want effortless and reliable page turns with my current Kindle
• Looking at the much higher-priced model, like the Oasis, there are physical buttons for navigation to the next and previous page but that costs north of 250€. 250€ for effortless page turns? 🤨

My ideal solution

• Ideally my current Kindle had ONE button for NEXT PAGE 🙂
• Ideally that button was located where my thumb naturally RESTS 😍
• Ideally that button took practically NO EFFORT to press 🤩
• Ideally that button was RELIABLE to trigger the page turn more than 80% of the time 😍

My current minimum viable solution

• A simple rubber band (4mm width)
• Placed perfectly flush to the outer border of screen
• With an intentional TWIST

Features

• Thumb can rest

• Motion to trigger page turn is effortless

  • Only 2mm horizontal motion
  • No vertical motion required

• The twist in the band is more reliable

  • 90% of presses are registered
• The twist in the band makes it ‘clicky’, more tangible

Experiments – How I got here (The long story)

Resources

• My Kindle as the “test-bed”
• A collection of materials that seemed reasonable to use

Iteration 1 – Using a clamp, paperclip and capacitative rubber nib

Riskiest Assumption

• Having a button device thingy makes the reading experience BETTER by increasing flow by decreasing friction while turning pages

Learnings

• No material except the rubber tip of the “tablet pen” triggered page-flip efficiently
• Overall using the nib as shown above, this worked really welle
• This worked far better than it looks
• The tension on the paperclip wire even made a clicking sound when pressed (Nice)
• Being able to REST my thumb is crucial to entering a state of reading flow
• Minimizing the EFFORT to turn the page is also crucial to entering a state of reading flow

Result

• I read a whole evening with it and enjoyed it
• Definitely BETTER THAN WITHOUT
• Less effort/friction during page-flips
• Increased reading flow

Questions

• Q: What kind of rubber are on those pen tips?
• A: “Conductive elastomer”[^1]

Decision

• Persevere/Keep with the overall “pageturner” idea
• Pivot/Change on attachment and mechanics

Idea 2 – Using a rubber band for attaching the capacitative nib

• Couldn’t find a good way to attach the cut-up nib to the rubber band
• Overall, this approach further reduced the effort to press

Learnings, Result, Questions, and Decision

• Rubber band much easier to attach
• Doesn’t SCRATCH the surface
• Even less effort to turn page
• What if the capacitative nib isn’t even needed?
• Perservere/Keep rubber band
• Pivot/Change trigger nib

Iteration 3 – Using the rubber band straight-up without extra nib

Riskiest Assumption

• Using the rubber band directly has enough effective capacity to trigger page-flips

Method

 

Learnings

• When stretched along the device, there is the perfect gap between rubber and screen
• It’s slightly harder to rest thumb because it’s right above the screen (To avoid accidental flips)

Result

• Regular rubber CAN effectively trigger page-flip (at 70% reliability)

Decision

• Persevere/Keep: Single rubber band
• Pivot/Change: Improve trigger efficiency towards 80-100%

Iteration 4 – Adding a TWIST for efficiency

Riskiest Assumption

• Adding a TWIST to the rubber band increases the RELIABILITY

Method

• Add the TWIST and sample 20+ page turns in a realistic setting


Result

• 85% Efficiency – 17/20 presses triggered a page-turn

Decision

• Persevere/Keep: Twist
• Pivot/Change: Increase efficiency/reliability further

Learnings

• This allows to rest the thumb on the side while needing minimal effort to “toggle” the TWIST
• Toggling the TWIST creates a pleasing haptic ‘clicking’ sensation similar to a button
• The thumb-motion is not a top-down press anymore but a left-right swipe (Takes some time to get used to)

Iteration 5 – Experimenting with different TWISTS (1,2,3,4,5)

Riskiest Assumption

• There is a way to twist the rubber band that increases RELIABILITY to 90% and improves on handling

Method

• Try different levels of twist and see if that creates a better “UI” for my thumb

Learnings

Three Distinct Variables Affect Reliability

• Playing with the different twists helped me realize that there are really 3 important variables that, taken together, effect how effortless and reliable the page is turned.
• When these three variables are in harmony so to speak, I’ve achieved 90+% reliablity of page turn registered while reading today
• They’re all very personal and depend on how you like to hold your Kindle, how big your hands are and how small the individual “twist-segments” are on the band.
• Hence, there is no one-size-fits-all version of twists that work for everyone.

Reliability (%) = "Thumb Resting Sweet Spot" + "Thumb Size" + "Twist Segment Hot Spot  Size"

Variable 1: “Thumb Resting Sweet Spot” (50%)

This is where you place your thumb most of the time and relax it inbetween page turns. In terms of importance, to me, everything else in terms of usability derives from this. In my case, it’s in the upper-half of the lowest third of the sidebar because of how I hold the Kindle.


Variable 2: “Thumb Size” (25%)

This of course heavily depends on your individual thumb. Its size is in direct relation to how many twists your band can have. Once there are too many twists (max 5 for me), the segments become too small.

Variable 3: “Twist Segment Hot Spot Size” (25%)

This is how much vertical space each twist segment provides to register the touch/swipe motion. With each twist, the segments get smaller. For me 5 twists were the maximum. I learned that only the the flat middle-part works reliably when pressed.

Result

• I have achieved 90+% RELIABLE PAGE TURNS once I harmonized my personal…

  • “Thumb Resting Sweet Spot” -> Upper half of the bottom third
  • “Thumb Size” -> Small
  • “Twist Segment Hot Spot Size” -> 4 Twists, 3 Segments at ~4cm each

Decision

• Persevere/Keep: 4 Twists
• Pivot/Change: Nothing, keep things as-is. I think this venture-hack has reached more than 90% reliability.

[^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conductive_elastomer, https://www.amazon.de/-/en/MobiLinyi-pieces-replacement-premium-stylus-6-mm/dp/B0797Y7M24/

Notebooks

• Red Notebook 2020-2021 (Photos)

Notepads

• Micro-Notebook S21 – Mallorca (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 1 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 2 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 3 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 4 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 5 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 6 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 7 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 8 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 9 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 10 (Photos)
• TBD: Micro-Notebook W21 – Berlin 11 (Photos)
• TBD: Micro-Notebook W21 – Berlin 12 (Photos)
• TBD: Black Notebook Portugal

Sticky-Notes

• Frühstücksgespräch mit F.K. (Photos)

Related

• "Micro-Note-Taking Set" (S21 Mini-Project)

• A follow up on Happier Through Bright Light (Experiment)
• My original Beurer SAD lamp broke while moving
• I’m 100% convinced that light therapy works wonders for me
• Winter in Berlin is here ❄️
• I recently bought a new lamp (Beurer TL 30) with what seemed a better overall form-factor
• Hoping that the new design would make it easier to sit still, have the lamp 10cm close by my face for 20 minutes

The lamp

The new design disappointed

• After only 3 uses it was clear to me that this new device is NOT based on any real user research:
• The new form-factor has NOT, at all, addressed the core design-issues that come up if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX
• The green kick-stand is utterly useless if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX
• The extra buldge on the backside to slide in the kick-stand is utterly annoying if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX
• Holding the light with your hands close to your face for 20 minutes is also STILL utterly TEDIOUS if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX
• The socket for the power-plug is also on the wrong side (the bottom) if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX
• The cable is at least 1m too short if you actually want to use it for 20 minutes at 10-20cm distance for the advertised 10,000 LUX

• In short, the new Beurer design is mostly a face-lift
• The kick-stand more of an insult to actual users than an improvement

• It’s a disappointment because:

  • I can attest to the underlying method of action
  • Light therapy WORKS reliably when done early in the morning
  • So the need for these devices is there
  • And the technology is finally small enough to pack 10,000 LUX in an A5-sized package
  • Which makes the resulting device perform even worse:

  • All the company (and the competitors in the market) can come up with is…

    • an plastic LED rectangle
    • with a useless kick-stand
    • no way to hold it comfortably close to your face to
    • and the power socket in the wrong place
  • And let’s not get into how you still need to be connected to an electrical outlet, which, in itself seems like the grandest failure, especially since the cable that comes with the device is at least 1m too short to actually be useful

• It makes me wonder…

  • WHO THE FUCK “designs” these things and GETS PAID for it?
  • It’s clear that they have they never used it regulary themselves as recommended in the manual (20 minutes at 10cm distance for 10,000 Lux)

  • WHO THE FUCK came up with the shitty kick-stand that only works if you have it next to you while working

    • which in turn means you have to have the lamp on for HOURS to get the benefit
    • which in turn is unacceptable and such design flaw and false fucking advertising in itself
  • Please fir.. ahem, reassign the product owner, the product manager and designer responsible for this to “a nice quiet farm upstate” where they can no longer build things that don’t work because they clearly never took the time to talk to actual users or try it themselves for more than A HOT FUCKING MINUTE

The quest continued

• So, as it’s become clear to me that the producers of what essentially amounts to a plastic box with an 450-460nm wavelength LED array and a power cable DO NOT do THEIR HOMEWORK
• So I have to, again, figure it out myself
• What’s the best setup and REASON to have this 10,000 LUX lamp 10cm close to your face that is bearable for about 20 minutes?
• I really don’t want to have to SIT STILL for 20 minutes doing NOTHING in the morning to gain the benefits

My solution

• I came up with combining my Kindle and the light with duct-tape
• S that I now can…
• Spend the 20 minutes READING, aka acutally doing something USEFUL with some of my most valuable morning time
• While, simultaneously having the SAD lamp very close to my face for gaining the actual THERAPEUTIC BENEFIT that I paid money for
• And, for the necessary COMFORT of holding the lamp so close I’ve experimented with POP-SOCKETS and came to their optimal positioning

The ideal solution

• The duct-tape version is 85% of my ideal solution

• To make it 100% I would make the following changes:

  • 1. Make the light the same size as the Kindle
  • 2. Make the light battery-powered
  • 3. Have both, light and kindle slide into a simple cover
  • 4. IMPORTANT: Lastly, keep the POP-SOCKETS on both sides at the exact locations I had them

Details

To Beurer

• For the inevitable person at Beurer who will see this and think…

  • “Hey, this is a great idea. We should build a light-therapy lamp that you use while you’re reading on your eBook reader.
  • “This actually makes the lamp usable and useful. Like a cover or something that connects the two devices neatly.”
  • “And he’s so right - We need something like the Pop-Sockets so you can actually hold it.”
  • “Oh, and we’ll just say ‘we listened to our users’ and spin it as some ‘co-creation’ design story. That’ll make marketing super happy.”
  • “And anyways, it’s sooo obvious of a solution when you look at it… so instead of reaching out to the author for their fair 10% of profit-share per unit sold, it should ME who gets paid an extra bonus for it for finding it. I deserve that.”
• Listen up motherfucker
• I’m tired of your bullshit
• You’ve had the chance to do your homework and do ACTUAL user research
• And I’m not talking about that one time doing one of those tired, old, lip-service “customer-centric innovation” workshops that went no-fucking-where
• You arriving here means you didn’t do your work
• I did your work
• I did the leg-work you should have done
• …And I know, building plastic frames with LEDs is work
• …And getting them certified for the German market as well…
• Bla bla bla…
• I don’t care

• The short of it is:

  • If you want to sell this
  • Then start by calculating in my 10% of profit-share per unit sold
  • And then contacting me with the right paper-work
• A word of advice: Don’t fuck this up

Prior Research and Experiments

• Happier Through Bright Light (Experiment)
• Humancharger Unboxing First Impressions And Use
• My HumanCharger Experiment Week 1

Background

• Taping – as prescribed by my orthopedic doctor – works very well, much better than I had expected
• I’ve recovered my achilles tendon within two weeks of wearing tape after struggling with sharp pain for almost a month
• The consistent presence from the tape redirected my attention to my heel several times a day
• I believe that consistently repeated, daily attention to a part of my body helped it physically heal faster

I’ve also learned that…

• When giving myself space and time to connect with myself, either through therapy or daily me-time, I noticed that certain psychological pains also have specific places in my body
• For example, sadness (unsurprisingly) manifests as a sharp pain around my physical heart

What if…

• What if you could use kinesio-tape to help support healing psychological pain as well?

  • By stimulating the physical area where it manifests
  • By consistently directing my attention to that part of my body

Prototype for sadness

• For supporting sadness, disappointment and grief.
• Emotions that have been very difficult for me to allow and process.

• Hypothesis: I believe that if I tape above my physical (and emotional) heart, then I will direct my attention to my heart and its emotions more often…

  • … which I believe will result in giving emotions, including the difficult ones for me - such as sadness - more attention and Safe Space to heal and prosper

Tracking

• Day 1: The tape is soft and nice to wear. I’ve found myself being reminded to mentally “look there” 5 times in 12 hours.

Basically, have a reusable version of the classic “Hello, my name is” sticker as a button with my name on it and wear it while I’m out and about to show that I’m open to conversation by offering my real name.

‘Hello’ Button MVP

Learnings

• Looks really good with the name writting in Sharpie
• Felt good, exciting to wear it out
• Felt vulnerable, authentic and powerful to put my name out into the world

Der normale Sticker

MVP: Stickermule Buttons

• Größe: 7cm x 4.4cm^1
• Preis: 10 für $37
• 10 Bestellt: 📎 Hello.pdf

Question

• Mit welchem Stift kann ich drauf schreiben?
• Wie wird die Reaktion von den Leuten im Alltag sein?

Weitere Ideen

• Könnte auch für Teleconfs gut sein, gerade, wenn man sich noch nicht kennt. Aber da steht ja eigentlich immer der Name digital drunter…

Reaktionen

• “Hallo Alex!” von einer Teenagerin
• Aufsehen im SOFIs

Idee “Hello my name is” Cap

• 39/30 cap stickerei mit sticker incl. handschriftlichem Namen
• ~50€

Related

• Reframing Off-the-Shelf Objects (S21 Mini-Project)
• "Micro-Note-Taking Set" (S21 Mini-Project)
• Needs Card Deck

My mother died after a long and courageous battle with cancer.

It felt like watching a deadly car-crash in slow-motion. Stretched out over ten agonising, depressing, and feeling-out-of-control years.

I last saw my mother around the 31st of December 2016 when I finished visiting my parents in Spain. She had been very weak and in pain and needed to lay down more then usual. The years of chemo and pain-medication had taken its toll on her body and her spirit. Her mind was still clear and she spoke about money, her brother and me.

I remember the last time I saw her, after we had said good-bye, passing by her window as she lay back into bed. I did not know this was the last time. I figured, after 10 years of ups and downs, this would be another one.

We spoke on the phone a few days later and she sounded very tired and out of it. I still didn’t make much of it, I wasn’t worried more than usual. We spoke one more time when I told her about a cold I had gotten. I remember she wished me well.

Two weeks into January, my father called me and told me they had to move her to the hospital. She had been too weak to stand up. And that he couldn’t take care of her anymore because he, too, was now too weak. He sounded heavy so I started to worry, too. I asked him if I could talk with her but he said she was too weak at the moment. I should try again in a few days.

I asked him if I should fly down to Spain but he refused: “There’s nothing you can do right now.” Then another week passed, he said she had a few good days but slid in and out of consciousness. That’s the first time we decided I was on “stand-by” to fly down.

In the late afternoon of the 5th of February, I got “the phone call”. The call I had dreaded for ten years since My mothers cancer diagnosis 2008. That ONE call in which my dad asked me to buy a ticket and come as soon as I can to see my mother, who was still alive, one last time.

I bought the ticket to fly out of Tegel early next morning to arrive at the hospital before 11am. I remember taking a Taxi to the airport at 6am. Then getting on the airplane feeling still and numb and yet completely functional. Two hours later, at around 9am, I landed in Palma de Mallorca. I switched on my phone and received my fathers WhatsApp message. My mother had passed away over night. And that I needed to come to say good-bye as soon as possible due to hospital regulations.

I took another Taxi and arrived at about 10 or 10:30. I first saw my father who explained to me what happened. She had not been conscious for most of the past days. Had been on pain-management. Her breathing had slowed down last night. He stayed with her for the whole night. Singing her her favourite song “San Francisco” by Scott McKenzie over and over as she passed away.

I had twenty minutes to say good-bye before the hospital had to move her to the morgue.

I entered the room. To the right her hospital bed appeared. I moved closer and saw her body. Eyes closed, her thin hands folded, still.

While it’s been great to have a single venture as my focus, I’m starting to feel too slow about it. Focus is good, but it needs to be balanced with the ability to find something worth 100% of focus. Here I think I’ve had opportunity costs by focusing on one thing too early. 

I saw this recently on Instagram and it reminded me of how I had approached my ventures last year. Especially the “double your rate of failure” bit stuck with me. With one venture, I have a rate of 1. I could, and have in the past, parallelized 2 and 3 ventures. 

After all… I learned last year, after publishing 10 books, that – if I do everything else right – only 1 out of 10 will actually work and be profitable.

So, here’s a break-down of what I’m thinking:

Starting with the smallest unit, the experiment with its three steps, then sequencing that in one venture, then parallelizing multiple (non-cross-pollinating) ventures to double and triple my rate of failure.

However, this is pretty much an idea where everything always takes the same amount of time. In reality it looks more like this:

So, I do have my experiment board that allowed me to keep track of my experiments before. And I’m not crazy about the Evernote style so far… Should I just re-use my tracking system? Why did I stop using it?

See How To Make Better and Faster Investment-Decisions With Lean Experiments for details ->

Many questions today. But I’ll find the answer!

Related

• The 10X Rule (Book)

As many of you know by now, I strongly believe in the effectiveness of using the scientific method to validate business ideas.

Earlier this year, I began running a bunch of experiments for my ideas and ventures. But, quickly, my experiments became too much to handle on a white-board with stickies. I switched to a Google Sheet but that didn’t have the usability and speed that I loved from using stickies.

So I decided to build a simple experiment tracking system for myself.

Keeping Track of Ventures, Experiments and Costs

I would say it’s pretty basic and covers exactly what I need to keep track of:

• My Ventures which are a sequential list of experiments and their Pivot-or-Persevere decision. Ventures can also be aborted if there is no encouraging signal.

• Experiments, which comprise of:

  • Theory
  • Riskiest Assumption
  • Method
  • Prediction
  • Outcome
  • Decision
  • Cost
  • Learnings

• Cost tracking

  • Per Experiment
  • Per Venture
  • Overall

I added software once I maxed out on paper

Note that I built the tracking software only once I had run out of space on my physical custom-made Lean Experiment Board

Types Of Experiments:

I templated the main three experiment types that I usually run:

Market Experiment

• Market Experiment – Usually an overview how big the market is, how much traffic there is, how the market has grown so far.

Customer/Problem Experiment

• Customer/Problem Experiment – If the market is attractive, I ask myself, what problems do these people really have? Depending on my theory and riskiest assumption I might do interviews or keyword research or – something I’ve fallen in love with – analyze Amazon customer reviews.

Problem/Solution Experiment

• Problem/Solution Experiment – Knowing the problem, can I come up with a solution that is attractive to the customer segment?

Sales-Funnel Experiments

Once I have nailed those three, I start running custom experiments for Acquisition, Activation, Retention and Revenue (but not earlier.)

If you look at my dashboard below, I’ve run 43 Experiments for 14 Ventures. As you’ll see, based on my learnings I aborted more than 2/3rds of my Ventures and continued on only a few promising ones.

I think that’s been a huge value for me. To know and to be sure when to persevere and when not.

So far, I’m quiet happy with it. It’s rudimentary but works.

And since the Venture Board was, in itself, an experiment for myself (My theory was that I’ll consistently use it to track my progress and costs) –

I’m persevering.

Let me know if you would like early-bird access to the board. Simply comment below.

Thanks for reading!

• Lean Experiment Board
• Lean Experiment Board 2.0.pdf

Whole Earth Cap 1

Whole Earth Cap 2

• Currently WIP, ETA 1st week of August
• Dark-gray cap
• Same graphic file
• Blue (Darker) for “WHOLE”
• Green (Darker) for “EARTH”

WIP

Finished

Pros

• I really like the two colors

Cons

• The stitching is much messier than the first one
• The two colors get a little lost in the dark gray

Questions

• What would this design look on a light-gray cap?

Collection

Details

Cap color: “Stone” gray Cap style: 39Thirty Logo color: Petrol-green

Inkscape Logo

SVG

EPS Files

whole-earth-font-embedded.eps whole-earth-text-as-vector.eps

Related

• Stewart Brand
• My Original 1969 Whole Earth Catalogue
• What the Dormouse Said

While on vacation at my Dad’s, I bought a tiny note-pad and pen and started carrying it around with me everywhere. I use it to Read to Feed and How to hunt for ideas like an artist.

This tiny notebook has since become a gamechanger for me to quicky capture notes and drawings that I would have otherwise “lost”. I still find that my phone is one of the worst ways to capture ideas quickly and with focus.

Because it’s so small, I’ve taken my notebook on practically every walk I’ve gone on. While I’m walking, when an idea comes up or I read or see something cool, I whip it out, take the pen and write.

The time from “oh, let me note this” to pen-on-paper is less than 3 seconds with this setup. To me, this speed and the flexibility that paper offers (write, draw, illustrate, etc.) is ideal.

Note-taking results

• Micro-Notebook S21 – Mallorca (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 1 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 2 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 3 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 4 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 5 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 6 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 7 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 8 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 9 (Photos)
• Micro-Notebook F21 – Berlin 10 (Photos)

Iteration 1

Description

• Random mini notepad for 0.50€
• Random small ballpoint pen for 0.80€

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Mallorca (Photos)

What worked

• Amazing to have an immediate way to jot something down
• Game-changer for me while on walks and in conversations
• This version was 80% perfect

What didn’t work

• It stayed awkward to attach the pen to the pad
• Also awkward to keep it attached to the pad
• Felt too big in my back-pocket

Wishes

• I would prefer the notepad to be even smaller
• I would like to have lines instead of squares
• I would like to use better paper
• The front and back-cover should be sturdier

Experiment Result

• Pivot to a different notepad and pen

Iteration 2

Description

• Mini note-pad (A7) from Muji^1 for 2.50€
• Mini telescopic pen with keychain ring^2 for 5.90€

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes from the first test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 1 (Photos)
• Photos of all notes from the second test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 2 (Photos)

What’s working

• Still, having a notepad and pen readily available is a gamechanger for me!
• The size of the pad and pen now work much better
• Feels much better in my backpocket
• The pen, when extended, actually works really well
• Writing is easy
• Worry-free: The pen is securely attached so I won’t lose it
• The lines in the book help me while writing

What’s not working

• So far so good, no strong complaints
• The attachment ring makes paging a bit weird

Wishes

• Ideally (but I couldn’t find any pen that could do it) I would love to slide and fasten the pen between the top wires or SOMEHOW have the whole thing “MORE INTEGRATED”
• I wish the covers were even stronger so that the notepad keeps its shape while I carry it around (Maybe build one with thin metal sheets myself?)

Experiment Result

• Pivot to a different notepad but keep the pen

Iteration 3

Materials

• Muji Alumnium Card Case (Big)^3
• Blank Cards by KAMI Berlin^4
• 2.4 Inch Stainless Steel Portable Ballpoint Pen^5
• Photos of cards TBD

Notebook Photos

• Photos of all notes from the first test can be found here: Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 3 (Photos)

Demo

What I like about it

• This is GREAT!
• Card case feels good in my pocket
• Super tightly integrated
• The pen fits perfectly (Did NOT see that one coming)
• No need to unscrew the pen
• No ring or chain
• Easy to carry
• Cards are nice stock
• Cards can be shared with others easily
• Cards can be written on using the case for support
• Cards can also be written on a table
• Cards can be arranged and shuffled as needed

What’s I don’t like about it

• Pen is clacking a little bit while walking

Open questions

• Will the sequence of cards matter?
• Will I lose the pen quickly?
• Can I dampen the pen’s clacking?

Review after 1 week

What’s working

• The clacking was easily managed with a bit of washi-tape around the pen
• I still really like the form-factor with everything tightly packed
• Taking notes wasn’t worse than with the ones before
• The pen still worked very well and fit so snuggly
• Easy and worry-free to put in my pocket
• Easy and worry-free to carry in my "Reframed Hip-Bag"
• I like the cards, it’s thick paper and feels more valuable

What’s not working

• Not sure why but the pen sometimes didn’t write at all on the cards. After I inserted a new pencil tip, it could be grease from my fingers or the stock itself
• Holding the card while standing with one hand isn’t ideal but not super bad either
• The cards are definitely smaller than the notepad so I had to get used to that and still am

What I’m not sure of

• I just took the photos but the order of the cards somehow got changed, so the photos are not in sequence. I’m not sure if this will matter?
• Just how weird does it look to the outside? (Not that that really matters but I wonder)
• Didn’t really miss the lines for writing but could print out a few to test

Experiment Result

• Keep cards, case and pen as-is
• Continue exploration

Iteration 4

Demo

All Notebook Photos

• Micro-Notebook S21 – Berlin 5 (Photos)

About this iteration

Funnily enough, this one started out as a “backup” notepad because I had forgotten my then-current one at home. Because I was going to be out and about the whole day, I went to Muji and bought this notebook on purpose (and the Muji Fountain Pen by “accident”).

I liked the format but – obviously – the fountainpen wasn’t going to be my “out-and-about” combination (still very nice to write with though). So, when I got home, I looked around and picked up the slim “Birdie” ballpoint pen I had bought at Luiban a few weeks earlier. It’s a very nice-writing and nice-looking pen and as I held both in my hand, I saw that the pen might, maybe, could (could it?!) fit in the spine of the notebook.

And fit it did.

As you can see above, it didn’t only fit. The pen also has the right fit length-wise! (I don’t mind the top cap sticking out a bit.)

So, yeah, that wound up being a great combo that I hadn’t even thought of.

Materials

• Pilot Kugelschreiber “Birdie”^8 bought at Luiban – 10€
• “Notizbuch mit Doppelringbindung A7, Beige”^6 from Muji – 1.50€[^7]

What I like about it

• The pen fits nicely on the side, exactly how I had hoped it could
• The side-binding is easy to flip through pages
• The pen writes smoothly and I can easily buy replacement tips

What I don’t like about it

• I feel like the pen was too expensive at 10€

Review after 3 weeks

What’s working

• Overall, great experience
• Nicely integrated

• Without thinking much about it…, I’m already with my second notepad with this setup

  • Note: Interesting, I made the decision sub-consciously. This may be the “no-brainer” I’ve been looking for
• Without thinking much about it… I’ve bought 3 additional notebooks (one in black which I’m currently using)
• Without thinking much about it… I’ve also bought 5 replacement tips at 2€/each

What’s not working

• Nothing comes to mind

Open questions

• No open questions at this time

Experiment Result

• Keep setup as-is
• Have [[#Iteration 4]] as alternative for more interactive note-taking sessions (by myself and with others)

Related

• "Hello my name is" Buttons (S21 Mini-Project)
• Reframing Off-the-Shelf Objects (S21 Mini-Project)

Links

To build on what’s there already and make it better.

Idea is to buy regular clothes, like from Uniqlo, but customize them uniquely and with a high degree of sophistication (think embedded gold rather than silk-screened) so they become something better and new. Add surprising details.

Improvements

• What would be better?

  • A different color
  • Small details
  • More colors

• What’s missing?

  • Having a pocket here

Customized My Everyday Items

Reframe a shoulder-bag as a hip-bag

• I’ve been looking for a non-douchy hip-bag but couldn’t find anything in Berlin that didn’t make me feel weird wearing
• I went to Muji and found their shoulder bag for men
• First I was put off because I didn’t want a shoulder bag but the item itself intrigued me


• I realized I could maybe use the strap to go around my waist and have a DIY hip-bag instead

• Tested it and it worked very nicely!

Using iron-on patches

Using custom stitching

See Whole Earth 39Thirty Cap (S21 Mini-Project) for details

Combining several products to create a new one

See "Micro-Note-Taking Set" (S21 Mini-Project) for details

Sketches

Add tiny details to blank t-shirts

Add new color to off-the-mill Chinaware

The same idea could also work with off-the-mill, cheap and boring porcellain which would be re-glazed (is that even possible) with better, more interesting colors and textures.


“Make it yours” DIY Station

• Go to thrift store
• Could also be done at places like Uniqlo
• Buy clothing

• Have a DIY station there, after the cashier with

  • Glitter
  • Markers
  • Sewing-machines
  • Stitching-machine
  • Fabric
  • Scissors
  • Iron-on patches
  • Paint
  • etc.
• Where you can “make it truly yours” by customization to your liking

Notes

Related

• Buyerarchy of Needs
• "Hello my name is" Buttons (S21 Mini-Project)
• Whole Earth 39Thirty Cap (S21 Mini-Project)

Other photos

• JamGPT Beta Version Launch
• “🐣 Name the baby” Notion Page

🎉 JamGPT

• JamGPT.app

  • Jam Session

Brainstorming

• …GPT → (Wenn OpenAI damit okay ist.)

  • Calm
  • Run
  • Feather
• GPT…

Feedback F.K.

• “…GPT”

  • EasyGPT
  • SmoothGPT
  • QuickGPT

Contain G, P, T

• Parget
• Graphite
• Optogram
• Postgrad
• Protagonist

Related

• Grant
• Gatsby Porter

Namen Brainstorming

• Lumyn

  • LUMYN– Gefällt mir sehr gut, weil es um Licht geht (”Lumen, Lux, Luxus…”). Licht im Sinne von “Sichtbarkeit”, “Discovery”. Die Richtung mmN. passt gut, da bei AI ist alles etwas DIFFUSER und UNTERSCHWELLIGER. Es glüht und schimmert und glitzert eher. Wie z.b. 🐛💡Glühwürmchen oder 🌌diese Algen, die nachts leuchten oder 🪼 diese Leucht-Quallen (”Bio-Luminescence”) Weil die Antworten eben nicht so scharf umrissene Antworten gibt. Für klare Antworten passt natürlich “🔦 Spotlight” und “☀ Raycast” 😂

Direction-Finding

• Sparkle
• Ease
• Mate
• Flow
• Magic
• Swift
• Pulse
• Gleam
• Spark
• Smooth
• Glide
• Pace
• Verve
• Pace
• Flash
• Twist
• Surge
• Beam
• Pep
• Sprint
• Kin
• Bolt
• Zest

Attitude, Branding and Standing

• Fuck Clippy and Sidney and even Pogo

• Let’s make it PERSONAL because it’s coming from US

  • Alexis

    • Observe

  • Tobi

    • RUN, PERFORM, EXECUTE

Inspos

• Buttercup 🌼

  • Easy to say and remember
  • Der Song ist schön
  • Organic, süß, klein

• Shuck 🦪

  • → Oyster, it takes a few tries to open it, pearl
  • Verb, not noun
  • Oyster / Oysterbar
  • Shucker

• Butter 🧈

  • Buttery
  • Butterbar
  • Smooth, Easy
• Punk 🌋

• FUCK 💥

  • Inspired by Pistol (TV Series) – Einfach mal was neues und rebellisches
  • Denn ansonsten tun alle so, als ob alles gut ist

  • PUNK

    • Suicide (Band)
    • New York Dolls (Band)
    • Dead Kennedys (Band)
    • Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magick – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Resources

• Smoothie Pogo Midjourney Inspos

Appendix

Idea “Smoothie”

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion.

1. Purée
2. Frappe
3. Refresher
4. Shaker
5. Slurpee

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee” if you’d like!

1. Slushy
2. Swiggy
3. Slushie
4. Jiggy
5. Fruity

Idea “Pogo”

Brainstorm 5 playful, whimsical single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Pogo”. Do not include “Pogo” in the suggestion .

1. Frolic
2. Bop
3. Boing
4. Jiggy
5. Zingy

Fictional Riffs

Brainstorm 10 playful, whimsical, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee”, “Pogo”, “Jiggy”, “Smoothie”

1. Slushie
2. Jiggle
3. Slippy
4. Fruity
5. Poppy
6. Swirly
7. Mixer
8. Floopy
9. Slushy
10. Shaker

Brainstorm 10 playful, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Slurpee”, “Pogo”, “Jiggy”, “Smoothie”, “Floopy”. Do not include real words or names.

1. Slurpoo
2. Poggy
3. Jiglee
4. Flurple
5. Slurfie
6. Poglo
7. Jiggo
8. Floople
9. Slurple
10. Poglee

Brainstorm 10 playful, fictional single-word names for an app that’s currently called “Smoothie”. Do not include “Smoothie” in the suggestion. Riff on “Pogo”, “Smoothie”, “Floopy”. Do not include real words or names.

1. Pogoee
2. Floople
3. Swooshie
4. Ploopy
5. Sproogle
6. Splooshy
7. Sloopy
8. Goople
9. Boopie
10. Flooshy

3# Brainstorm a list of 5 fictional, made-up, cute, single-word names for a small companion. Riff off of “Flopsy”, “Pogo”, “Floppy”, “Bitzi” (Formatted as a markdown document)

• Flick
• Noodle
• Poppy
• Smushy
• Tubby

I agree it seems weird if it’s the first contact.

To me it makes a bit of sense because I had built a GPT3-based chat two weeks ago, based on their completion documentation^1

The “format” for this prompt already has everything System prompt, user and assistant.

The following is a conversation with an AI assistant. The assistant is helpful, creative, clever, and very friendly.

Human: Hello, who are you?
AI: I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today?
Human: Please translate "Hello" to German
AI: 

To retain context, I kept the system prompt on top and added the prior prompt/completions to the history stack in-between.

End-user-experience-wise, this worked really, really well. Practically as good as the ChatGPT UI.

As a developer though, it was not fun for obvious string-fiddling-splicing-and-dicing reasons. But again, this worked well and I would have kept it as-is for as long as possible.

So it wasn’t a giant leap when I saw the official format.

<|im_start|>system
You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. Answer as concisely as possible.
Knowledge cutoff: 2021-09-01
Current date: 2023-03-01<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Hello, who are you?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>assistant
I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today?<|im_end|>
<|im_start|>user
Please translate "Hello" to German<|im_end|>

I’ve used that, too, and handling of prior conversations became a bit more manageable.

^1: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/completion/conversation

Your YOUness is what makes you a one-in-a-billion event in all of time and space.

Ever.

Your YOUness is endlessly valuable to the world because you exist only once.

It’s all the books you’ve read, people you’ve met, places you have visited, places you’ve lived in, songs you heard, tools you’ve used, events that you took part in, the pain you’ve suffered, the joys you have discovered.

All of that has made you who you are and what you care about.

It has shaped how you look at the world, what you deeply value, what surprising connections you make, what incredible ideas you’ll have.

Your YOUness is is your unique point of view into the world.

It is what you can truly, honestly, effortlessly share with the world.

When I started to think about this, I was unsure what that was for me. I figured, I’d like to explore my amazing MEness.

So, with a few small exercises, I’ve started to collect what makes me uniquely, awesomely, distinctly me.

[^1]

Related

• Dan Scanlon’s "Your mess becomes your message" Pixar Story

[^1]: Picture source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe