Digital Capital Week

There were many inspiring speeches on November 9, 2011 at DCWEEK’s Keynotes, which were presented in the gorgeous Warner Theater in Washington D.C. The two that moved me the most were Genevieve Bell‘s introductory keynote speech and Frank Warren‘s final keynote speech. All the speeches sandwiched in between them had really interesting points, including: “focus on creating something that matters, not another idea that just adds to the noise” (Brian Solis) and “a mediocre team with a good idea can easily fail as compared to a solid team that is still trying to figure out an idea  that works” (Mike Jones). I’d like to focus on Bell’s and Frank’s speeches because they drove home a point about human-centered entrepreneurship that is sometimes overlooked in tech settings, where the technology itself often takes center stage.

Dr. Bell’s talk was unconventional in that it tied quite nicely the relevance of anthropology (her field of expertise) to tech entrepreneurship. Bell’s background in social anthropology was so useful to tech companies that it prompted Intel to hire her as an Interaction and Experience Researcher: her job is to identify the consumers’ needs, plain and simple. Throughout her dynamic presentation, she cleverly used a rarely-mentioned ‘mobile technology’ – the automobile – as an example of how humans have over a few generations adapted their lives not only to accept this technology as an inevitable reality, but moreover to use it each for a unique purpose. She showed photos from her recent trips to South East Asia and Australia, of peoples’ belongings that were stored in their cars at all times. What she found was indeed interesting: people kept objects that can protect them from physical harm as well as objects that can protect them from ‘social harm’ – items that provided “social safety” as she called it. An example of one such object was a stack of greeting cards that many Malaysians kept in the car at all times, to use as last-minute gifts in case they find out that they had mistakenly under-gifted at a special event.

Similarly, Dr. Bell found that people associated certain emotions with their cars; and therefore, certain behaviors as well. The frustration caused by a long commute supersedes that of a stressful day in the office for most people. A lot of people see their cars as a “third space” – a place where they can have some ‘alone time’, or where they can be hyper-social and hyper-connected via their mobile phones if they wish. Throughout her talk, the parallels she was drawing between cars and other mobile technologies became clearer, and the take-away message from her talk was that there’s a very specific task for every entrepreneur and technologist to place on his/her to-do list: for whatever product or service one would like to develop, the most important step is to start by asking the consumers how they feel about a certain situation and what would make their experience of that situation more pleasant, useful or convenient. This process of asking direct questions as well as conducting on-site research will prove to be vital to the quick adoption of the technology and its ultimate success.

Frank Warren, founder of the intriguing site PostSecret spoke last. Despite some technical difficulties throughout his PowerPoint presentation, he displayed impressive stage presence and a genuine attitude, and was able to rework the unfortunate situation into a jovial, light-hearted give-and-take with the audience. He even tapped some of the large colorful balloons on stage into the audience, and answered some direct questions from the audience to “share his own secret”: it turns out his wife picked out his clothes for the talk that night! Not afraid to show that he’s just as human as you and me – silly mistakes and all – Frank was candid throughout his talk about his struggle with depression and the conditions that prompted him to create PostSecret. A hobby of collecting random peoples’ “secrets” written down on postcards soon became a trend, whereby people nationwide – and even world-wide – were mailing Frank postcards or other items containing their deepest (and sometimes, darkest) secrets scribbled on them. Frank had tapped into the human need to be heard, feel accepted and ultimately, to share with others our thoughts, needs and desires. Thus, PostSecret was born, a site that displays the often artistic postcards that Frank received in the mail.

The most popular secret? The desire to reveal one’s deepest and darkest secret to a trusted companion coupled with the fear of ever finding such a companion and having to share these inner realities. Frank was approached by the suicide hotline, Hopeline, which was struggling to stay afloat. He leveraged the PostSecret community to raise money for the hotline, and eventually the two built on each others’ work to reach more people in need. Recently, he founded ‘I’m Alive‘, the world’s first peer-to-peer, online network with 100% of its volunteers trained and certified in crisis intervention.

While the direct relevance of Frank’s talk to DCWEEK may not be immediately obvious, I found the core message not only applicable, but vital to starting and conducting a business. Technological innovation will inevitably involve people on all sides: businesspeople, developers, marketing specialists, designers, users, etc. If innovators are not concerned with preserving and enhancing their colleagues’ and their users’ humanity, then why would they innovate in the first place? If one remains “egocentric” (to use Brian Solis’ term) at the expense of others, then his business has ultimately failed. Frank’s message instilled in me a desire to reach out to others, and before assuming anything about their needs, desires or fears, to lend a willing ear to listen to them speak.

Both these speeches brought to mind a more human-centered approach to technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship, that is usually not explicitly discussed at these types of events. It was a great reminder to think of the customer as a person – with needs and desires – not just as a statistic to be used in marketing analyses and business plans. It also solidified the notion that detailed market research should be the first step in the process of building an app or any technology, especially if you aspire to use it to make a long-lasting positive impact in the community.