One Day Out 2017: "Passion, projects and pixels" by Rikke Koblauch

Alright, we are back. Did everybody eat a sandwich and feeling good and maybe have a beer and like we're all good? Yes? No? Yes? Alright! Well, let's get back into it then. Well, yeah, I'm not going to say anything. Just the only thing I'm going to say is actually use the hashtag please. We love seeing your tweets. It's hashtag Odo17. Cool. I'd love to welcome up to the stage Riga from, she's a product designer at Steps and it's, I can't wait to hear about this. I was asking her questions backstage about it and she wouldn't tell me. So, I'm very curious. Please welcome her to the stage. Hello. Hello. I was just standing in the back earlier and I was thinking I'm so lucky to be up here. Like, so many great people on stage and amongst you and the organizers. I mean, yeah, I must have the best job in the world. Yeah. To be able to stand here. I don't really have a job, but I mean, you get the point. So, yeah, thank you to all the organizers and community builders for organizing this. Your job is so important. So, thank you for having me. I'm also, like, besides designing products, I'm also a world champion in procrastinating. So, when doing this talk, it was like no exception. I was Googling around for a nice picture for my blog. I was Googling around for a nice picture for my intro slide and, yeah, I ended up with this. So, that's the reason. Yeah, I'm Ringe and I'm a product designer. I've been designing products for big corporate businesses, for banks, fashion retailers, the health sector, for startups. And I've been designing a lot of my own stuff throughout the years. Websites, apps, physical products, games, whatnot. And I think I always been a maker. I just really enjoy making things. I want to show you one of the, actually, the first website I ever made. I was about 12 years old and I was like many other 12 years old girls. I was obsessed with horses, right? So, a day I would hang out with horses and pet them and write and whatnot. And at night I would run this website. And I was selling virtual ponies for virtual money. It looked something like this. And you can sort of imagine the Sims, but it was totally done in HTML, like a static website. Users would like buy ponies through my guestbook. Do you remember when websites had a guestbook? Good times. And, yeah, I had about like five to ten very active users coming back every day writing in my guestbook. And, yeah. Yeah, so I guess this was maybe peak of my career. Yeah. Since then I got into making apps. I really like the idea if you can make something small that everyone can have in their pockets and you can go show your grandparents and whatnot. And also really enjoy boiled eggs. I was like religiously eating boiled eggs at this point when I made this. But I had a problem of knowing like how would an egg look like on the inside while I boiled it. So I decided to make the perfect egg timer. So together with a friend I boiled 60 eggs. It took two days. I was in the kitchen for two days boiling eggs. And each one we sliced open after 10, 20, 30 seconds and up to like eight minutes. And we took photos of them. And then we could like visualize how the egg looks on the inside while it was boiling. So it's a perfect egg timer. I almost didn't eat eggs like six months after this just because it was such a disgusting experience having eggs all over. But it's still in the app store. And I learned tons from this project just going from some silly idea to actually going out and producing and getting people involved and shipping it to the app store. It was a huge learning process. And also I won a little app of the day award. So I made this little egg hat and a picture with it. Okay. And luckily for me you can actually make a living out of doing stuff for the internet and for you guys as well. So that's what I decided to do. And as a designer I've been doing a lot of things like egg projects and horse websites but also banks, fashion retailers, as I mentioned before. And I never really like considered myself as like I'm a service designer or a UI designer or UX, whatever titles there are. I just, I really like nerding out over icons and pixels. But I also like to figure out the bigger questions. What does the user really want? How many tabs does it take to log in? Why are we even building this? Et cetera. So most of all I just like making things for nice people. And luckily for me there's a lot of those in this industry. Okay. But actually I'm not really going to talk about either development or design today. We can meet afterwards and we can discuss login forms and colors from now until Christmas. But today I'm going to tell you a more personal story on how I turned something I was super passionate and interested in into a full-time project. Because in the past few months I've been on an adventure on my own. And today I want to share the learnings from that. So this is a picture from 2015 in London. I went to a hackathon. It was hosted by ProductHunt and I teamed up with these people. There were about 100 designers, developers, business people. For a weekend. Who teamed up to solve something for that weekend. And we decided to tackle a problem we could all relate to. Social anxiety. And I firmly believe that anxiety and social anxiety is like no doubt the biggest reason for not achieving the things we want in life. It's the reason we don't get the jobs we want or the partners we want. Or we can't pitch the ideas we dream about. In the meeting rooms. Or in stages even. And just imagine all the potential that companies, schools, organizations and ourselves and the world is missing out on because of this issue. So we started doing some research on it. And I was just like super passionate about it. Like we really need to solve this. It's such a big problem. And we stumbled upon this. Exposure therapy. And it probably makes sense. Like the best way of overcoming something you're afraid of, if it's a spider or standing on stage, it's by doing it. And this method is a very well known therapy method. And it's known or called exposure therapy. And it's actually proven to be the most efficient one when it comes to social fears. That's super great. But I mean it's unknown to most people. We just happened to sort of figure out while we did research on it. And it can be extremely hard to do on your own. And getting like professional treatment is not really an option to most. So this is what we wanted to change. So the weekend we spent doing research on it, we tested some concepts. We actually went out in the street and gave strangers small challenges to try to understand what their fears might be and how we could help them. So we wanted to make this exposure therapy accessible to everyone and not just to the people who can afford professional treatment. And how could a technical solution might solve this. After this weekend, things were getting a bit slow. You know, it's hard to keep people motivated. And maybe it was more my dream than some of the other streams. So I wasn't really sure how to take it forward. And I was very like, oh, I can't do anything because I'm not a developer. So I can't make this technical prototype I want to build. But I was still so interested in the area. So I was like, why should that even hold me back? So I started running these experiments on my own and doing experiments with my own anxiety. At this time, I lived in London. And I always avoided going public places on my own just because like what would they might think of me. I'm sitting here in a restaurant alone like I must be crazy. But I really wanted to just be alone. So I started doing it. I went to restaurants alone. I went to dance classes alone. I danced Lindy Hop. I began blogging about my experiences and documenting it and published it. And what happened was that it got a lot of attention. I also created a Facebook group for I think it was about ten people in this little Facebook group chat. And where I gave the people in the group, I gave them small challenges. And one of the challenges was that I was not a professional. I was supposed to high-five a stranger. So we all had to do that. I wish there was sound. But anyways, here I am. High-fiving a stranger in the street. Yeah, and all this I was filming and documenting. And even when I danced Lindy Hop alone and how terrible it was. And I wrote these blog posts about it and published it. And the amazing thing that happened was that people started contacting me from all over the world. Like they could relate and they felt inspired. And some even shared their own anxieties. A girl even asked me if I wanted to write a blog post about talking on the phone. Because she couldn't. She had so many issues picking up the phone if she didn't know. It was like an unknown number. So that was really motivating. And I think it in many ways. It's a perception of what it necessarily means to be a designer or a maker. I can actually do stuff in another way than just pushing pixels. Then a bit fast forward. In October 2016, I went to a conference in Italy where I talked about some of these experiments. Just like here now. And I also talked a bit about design and process and all these things. And at this conference, I met a person who later on turned out to be very important for this project. And his name is Fabian. And he'd been writing similar posts on the topic of blog posts that I actually had read. And we met up at the conference. And he told me that he had read my blog post. And we just started talking about this and what solutions were already out there. And how could it be interesting to do something. So we decided to work together. We started emailing after the conference. He was based in Germany at the time. And I mean we both had an interest in mental health and tech. And let's just see if we could do something together. Build something for it. And so we did. And the first version of the product or solution we built, we did 100% remote. Just the two of us. We both had full-time jobs at this time. And after just a month of working together, we could already ship a beta version to almost 200 beta testers. And the reason we had so many testers was because we had them from all the following from our blog posts and experiments already. So we already had a bit of community there and people we could get involved from day one. This is actually one of the first designs I sent to Fabian. Shows a bit of how this is my process. And I think it also explains pretty well how we work, right? It is that thing about making something small and see what happens. Get it out in the world. So we actually worked so well together that we decided to leave our jobs and both moved to Copenhagen to do this full-time. Just see what happens. So in February we launched what we call Steps to the App Store. And Steps is an app to help people battle social anxiety using principles from exposure therapy. It's fairly simple. At least the version we launched at first. You choose some area you'd like to improve in like self -appreciation or friendship or work life or going out on your own. Whatever you want to. And then you pick a challenge you want to try. And you save it to your steps and you complete it when you want to feel like. And... And after this we launched on Product Hunt. Which is a massive success. We went straight to number top. And it was really overwhelming to see something that we built within a few months that got so much attention. And just a week after Product Hunt launched, Apple decided to feature us first in Europe and in the UK and later on in the US. Which of course gave a lot of traction and downloads and attention. And it was very overwhelming and amazing to see. Like we made such a little tool in such a short time and it had such a big impact. But the most amazing thing about launching this was all the emails we received from it. Like this one I really like. I've just downloaded the app to my phone and created a challenge list. The app made me so happy because it made me understand that I'm not the only one with this problem. I will keep it in my phone for a very long time. I'll probably expect more challenges. It's an amazing thing you are doing. Thank you for your work. And there were like endless like these in my inbox. And I think launching this version or this product like it was just really a proof of concept that there's a need for tools like this. And there's a need for us to talk about these things. Actually just a few days ago. A few days ago I went to this like investor pitch. And it was interesting. One of the questions from one of the investors was that what if your service is so good that you can heal your users, just fix them. And they'll never come back and use your product anymore. And I was like well that would be amazing first of all. So I don't really see it as a problem. But it's not the reality. Like anxiety and like mental health in general it's not supposed to disappear or something you fix. And I think this is the general what's wrong about the perception with mental health. Like mental health is for some reason perceived as something like dark and depressive and something you have to get rid of. When really it's not. I mean we all have it. It's just like physical. Right? Sometimes things are good and really fit and we go to the gym all the time. And sometimes things aren't so super good. But that's also fine. As long as we understand that there are tools to cope with it and we are aware of it. So it's not something we should fix. And it's not something that will ever disappear. Okay. So I mean it's almost two years since I started experimenting. Experimenting with this. And six, not even six months ago that we started building the product. So of course we have a lot of things we want to do and explore further. And first thing is just to really truly understand our users. I don't know if you remember but earlier Dem said first of all we do no harm. And this is really easier said than done. Because people are so different. And especially when, like you might think that you are in one way. And everyone else is the same. But really, really it's not. So we are spending a lot of time trying to understand our users need. And how we can serve them the best solutions without harming anyone. Right? Okay. There's a bit about what I'm currently working on. But now to the important things. What did I learn from all this? I wish there were a better word for it. Okay. Because rollercoaster. I mean rollercoasters are supposed to be designed to have great fun. And I'm not sure like projects always are. The truth is that most of the time making your own stuff and like doing these passion projects, it's really draining. It's really tough. It's really stressful. And it's really confusing. And it's really like you're really alone like most of the time. Right? But there are of course moments that makes it all worth it. And for some reason you wake up and do it the next day again. And I think I used to have good and bad weeks at work. Now I have good and bad minutes at work. Sometimes you're super excited and sometimes it's all terrible. It's just something we have to be aware of and understand. I think personally for me this has been the biggest learning with this project. And this is extremely hard for us makers. Like I see something. I want to turn it into something. I want to make it. I want to push the pixels. I want to write the code. I want to make stuff. Right? But really falling in love with a problem instead of some solution you have in your head is much harder and much more challenging. But as soon as I started being curious about the issue, the problem, I started doing research about it, people came to me. I didn't have to hunt anyone down to, oh, please help me with this. Or can you write some code or whatever. But people come to me now because I'm passionate about an issue and other people will tag along. So that's an interesting one. I used to think that tech was hard. And really it's, I mean, tech is pretty easy. People are extremely hard. They're confusing. They're all different. They're annoying. And finding the right people and keeping them motivated is extremely hard. And most importantly, like, keeping yourself motivated and happy and it's also a full-time job. This was actually the first career advice I ever got. I didn't think I truly understood it back then, but now I do. Because this is the most important thing when it comes to work or projects or whatever you want to do. Because you need people to help you. And your network is everything. And then you can sit and say, oh, I don't have a network, so I can't do anything. But today, luckily, like, the network is right here. It's in your phone. And it's so easy to get in touch with people and utilize your network. So please make sure to reach out to people. Ask for help. Understand their thought process. And people in general are more than happy to help you as long as you understand what to ask and how to ask. And I personally believe that no one is self-made. We reflect the people we surround us with and who we are really much like it comes down to the conversations we have and other people opening doors for it. I mean, the people I just met on my way is the reason I'm standing here today. And it's the reason I can turn something I'm passionate about into a project. Is there anything else? It's a bit meta since this is what my project is also about. But please, like, do try to talk to the person next to you. Attend that hackathon. High-five that stranger. Go to that Lindy Hop class. I mean, the worst thing that can happen is that you might learn something. And I promise you it will bring you somewhere unexpected. That was me. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Really cool that we've heard about, like, two apps today that really could change people's lives. And, like, it's something I can totally relate to. I'm really curious, like, maybe I missed it in there, but was there, like, a magic moment where you knew you just had to work on this or, like, it had to be your life's passion? Like, you were just, like, wanting to work on an app? I don't know. Yeah. I think that's, again, a bit the same as the roller coaster. Some days you're so passionate about it and you're like, I'm going to change the world. And other days you're just like, it doesn't matter. And I think the whole thing about take a leap and just do it, jump out in it, like, it's not true. It's really not reality. Everything takes time and you need to build up confidence and you need to build up community that can help you. So it all comes over time and it's a bumpy, bumpy road. I can imagine. It must be terrifying the moment you're like, I have to work on this. It must be just such a revelation. The other thing I was so curious about is how do you get all the content for the app? There's a lot of different challenges and there's a lot of things in there. How do you foster that growth and community? Most of it comes from our users asking. I mean, we just started with our approach to it, of course. But now a lot of users are asking for content or packages that we then try to work out with them. We also get some advice from psychologists and professors at universities and people who are just happy to help out. Wow. Awesome. One of my favorite things about the app is you don't have to sign up immediately. It's just such a different paradigm and I love that. So thank you very much. Awesome. Another round of applause, please. Yeah, you can take that. Yeah. Great. Thank you.