Concept: December 3, 2014
Statement/Overview:
Focus: ListIQ
[Bill will detail out the brief concept/elevator pitch behind LIST IQ here]
Kelly’s Initial Feedback
Scalability/Is there a technical framework behind it, or is it a specific target implementation?
Market Identities/Niches:
“Private”
personal; would this include integrating multiple non corporate lists; i.e. “family” lists.
“Public”
business offerings
How big of a growth in the area is expected?
collaboration is a HUGE growing industry. Portability is part of collaboration – APP markets are starting to figure out how to integrate client-server models of the old PC world using webhook API’s, APPs and cloud services.
What are the key points that would drive users to adopt the product/service?
Integrations with online services and business services.
Groups types services, especially collaboration for “public” and “private” lists into things like slack.com.
Target Demographics/Sector:
What user groups, roles, or sectors would be most likely to take advantage of it?
What are the barriers to entry?
How would you “sell” the concept service/product to the audience?
——
These are all good questions. The answers to some can’t be determined until we work out what the product is. At lunch I discussed a couple of ideas I had. You had expressed some interest but it was unclear where we might overlap. I believe it’s absolutely critical at this stage that we both have equal enthusiasm for the project and product. If it’s just my idea and you’re going along for the ride–or vice versa–then the chances for success are reduced.
Immediate Tasks:
Identify several potential ideas and corresponding markets where we might be able to create a solution to a problem.
Research market sizes, current and potential competitors, and gaps in solution coverage.
Guess how an enhanced solution might be compelling to the potential customer base. (Pretty much all of this is guessing at the earliest stages.)
Potential Target Markets:
Healthcare
This is an area in which we both have experience (you more than I as my role at HMC is entirely outside the the actual “care” functions)
We have potential conflicts of assigned work vs. outside work. Projects in healthcare need to not directly overlap with HMC/UW Medicine assigned duties.
Sub-markets within healthcare include
Independent clinics
Dental offices
In-home or traveling providers
Education
This is an area I’m very familiar with.
It would be easier to avoid conflicts with HMC/UW Medicine assigned duties.
Sub-markets include
Community and technical colleges
High school and middle schools focused on STEM fields (lots of national attention in this area means great opportunities and few existing solutions)
Home schools
Private, for-profit schools, charter schools, tutoring companies (e.g. Kumon)
Other?
Freelancers
Need solutions but much of this is already built (invoicing, timesheet, project management, etc already exist)
Business development, marketing, lead generation, might be areas to explore
I have many contacts in the field of freelance graphic design and writing/editing
Remote workers/telecommuters
These needs overlap with freelances but there are very few solutions targeted specifically at remote permanent employees and none (that I’ve found) for employees to manage remote employees.
General purpose applications exist that support this (Skype/Lync, GoToMeeting, WebEx)
In my mind, this is less an “application” and more a “community”
BTW, I’ve owned the domain commuteless.org for years and want to eventually develop this community.
Financials:
Market size does not need to be huge to start. A potential customer base of thousands is an excellent starting point, if they are the right thousand and the solution is compelling.
I have an intuitive sense that I would like to build a “freemium” product. My ListIQ concept had a completely free level with solid single-user features + advertising, a paid personal tier with no third-party advertising (ListIQ self promotion was still visible at this tier), a corporate tier where an organization could purchase bulk accounts for employees and gain greater control over content, and a branded tier where all ListIQ branding was removed and corporate branding was put in its place, and a fully licensed tier whereby the enterprise could host on-premise.
I would like to bootstrap rather than seek funding at this point. But I could change my mind based on the final concept and market.
I want to build the organization to grow into an independent company, but I’m not opposed to selling to a larger, established company. Actually, I would prefer to sell the company and cash out, but I never want to build a company with that as the stated exit strategy. If a sale isn’t forthcoming, the company has to have the talent, product, and market to succeed on its own merits.
I can commit a minimum of 8 hours per week and a maximum of probably 20, though I’m not ready to dedicate 20 hours/week quite yet. If the final concept warrants it, then yes, I’ll put that in. At this point, I’m interested in making progress as whatever rate will produce a product that meets our goals. Since we have not yet formalized those mutual goals, the time commitment is still negotiable.
Roles:
At lunch last week, you indicated that you were interested in getting out of the coding role and into an architect role. Are you willing to be the coder in the initial stages or should we be looking for a coder?
I am able to do the market research, refine ideas into products that will sell, and approach potential customers. I can do some coding but it’s far from a strength. I’m much better at workflows, process improvement, systems analysis, etc.
Data of List objects
Class as
Wanted (consumer; search, “matched” provided lists – if not found, create new)
Provided (provider – lists that can be shared; personal and business)
Stored (both – essentially a mini “inventory”)
example: REI list for camping in cascades, “import” as a user, then check off each one. Can i keep the list and store what i bought and still have from last time? Does it matter – i guess user can go an look physically in their stores to see whats left of each.
https://trello.com/ – lists
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/backpacking-checklist.html
Concept One: xIQ Platform
A custom-written engine that accepts data from users, stores it in a standardized format, optionally converts it to another format, and displays it to the same or a different user.
The xIQ platform is most easily understood by taking sample applications and exploring the intersections between them.
Consider Application A as the ListIQ application, a sub-platform for managing list-oriented data. The data is semi-structured, non-relational, minimally validated, primarily text. The key feature is that lists of data can be shared read-only or read-write to individuals or groups, and shared lists can be updated by all users with modify rights.
Example A-1: Simple List of User Data, a.k.a. Shopping List
· User signs into application and sees a list of lists, one of which is a grocery list.
· User selects grocery list and sees the names of grocery items with a few simple bits of related data
o Qty/Amt/Size
o Store
o Check box (purchased/not purchased)
· Free accounts just get those canned items. Premium accounts can add additional, user-defined fields.
· User’s spouse signs into application and sees the shared grocery list, views the items that are checked/not checked, etc.
· User’s spouse adds an item to the shared list. The new item is highlighted on the user’s list.
· In the mobile app, a notification is generated so that the user knows to view the updated list.
Example A-2: Simple Sponsored List
· User is planning a hike in the Cascades.
· REI sponsors a list of hiking/camping items for hiking in the Pacific Northwest.
· User opens the sponsored list and sees a list of generic items recommended by REI (canteen, energy bars, hiking boots, walking stick, rope, foil blanket, etc.). The list also includes specific REI models, including pricing, coupons, alternatives, etc.
· The user can add additional items to the sponsored list, which are sorted above the sponsored items. Premium accounts can remove individual sponsored items from their copy of the sponsored list.
· The sponsor receives feedback on the number of people using the sponsored list, aggregate demographic data about the users, list usage information (most commonly checked/unchecked items by demographic, amount of time in list, number of changes to list per interval, etc.).
Example A-3: New Employee Checklist
· An enterprise account user selects from a set of customized lists, including blank templates and populated lists.
· A new employee checklist is chosen. The list has items that can’t be removed. Next to each list entry is a date field and a status box for done/pending/not applicable.
· An HR user can view an aggregate report of all instances of the new employee checklist, including statistics of percent complete, number of employees awaiting ID badges, subset of people who have not completed specific training, etc.
The second application, “B,” might be a process visualization application. In this application, a user logs into the application and uses it to view and update a human-centric workflow. (I say human-centric, though the application could be used to track any process. But there are lots of applications to track automated processes. This application would shine where it’s hard to visualize processes that involve a lot of people and a lot of variability.)
Example B-1: Orthopedics Clinic Patient Tracking
· The nurse at the clinic check-in desk logs into the application (or the application is logged in on a kiosk account). The screen shows a visual, schematic, simplified representation of the waiting room and exam rooms.
· Optionally, an HL7 feed from the scheduling application loads a list of patients into a queue. Patients in the queue are represented by icons on the screen.
· A patient walks into the clinic and checks in. The nurse drags the patient’s icon from the “expecting” queue into the area of the screen representing the waiting room. A timer begins counting. As the patient waits, the icon changes color from green to yellow to red based on the clinic’s business rules. Icons can be programmed to blink, make noise, or display other relevant information.
· The patient is called to the exam room. The medical assistant, the check-in nurse, or the provider (depending on the workflow of the clinic) drags the patient’s icon into the appropriate exam room area on the screen.
· The patient is sent from the exam room to the cast room to have a cast removed. The medical assistant drags the patient’s icon to a “slot” on the screen that represents the input queue of the cast room, and selects an action from a context menu (“send to radiology for xray” or “return to clinic” or “check out”).
· In the cast removal area, the patient’s icon appears in the “expecting” queue to alert the staff that the patient is heading to their area. When the patient arrives, the cast technician drags the icon to an area of their screen to indicate where the patient is in that process.
· Each clinic, department, unit, or other appropriate grouping as a customized screen representing their local workflow with inputs and output connecting to other areas.
· Optionally, the system updates the medical record via HL7.
The commonality between the shared grocery list and the clinic patient tracking application lives in the core engine that coordinates the flow of data between clients. The magic happens when the engine dynamically translates input data into a universal format for storage and translates is to the requested format for output. In this way, clinics drag icons to represent a patient checking in. That event is transmitted from the browser (or native client) to the application server, run through a translation filter, saved in the database, retrieved back out, run through a different translation, and sent out to the same or another client.
In XML terms, for an particular application, the client would retrieve the XML data, an XSL stylesheet, and an XSLT transform document. A given set of XML data might have multiple transformations on the input and the output. That would allow the data to be entered as a form, a drag and drop event, an HL7 data stream, etc. Same on the output. I’m not married to XML. Those are just the technologies I’m familiar with. I get JSON. I don’t know what the equivalent JavaScript transformation tools are. I don’t think it matters. The engine needs to transform stuff in the database into something else programmatically. How specifically that happens is less important to me.
What I envision for the xIQ platform is the core pieces that receive data, transform it into whatever is needed, save it into whatever data store is appropriate, and then reverse the process on the output.
With the xIQ platform doing just this simple process, and the right input and output translations, tons of custom applications can be built. Add in a business rules engine and a bunch more application possibilities open up. You could build a simple, streamlined project management application with this, a CRM app, any number of educational tools (I’m thinking administrative tools for education, not necessarily teaching and learning), consumer apps, on and on.
It needs to work like this: a task list goes in, a kanban board comes out. An icon drag gesture goes in, an HL7 message comes out. A grocery list item goes in, a notification on a phone comes out.
That’s it. That’s my idea. Create a great engine and we can build a hundred different vehicles to power with it.