Hola Quokettes! (just another nickname I’m trying on) 😅
So you all know I’m doing this “building in public” thing. I was already doing it before I knew that it was actually a thing in the startup world. Yes apparently some people build in public, like me, but others build in “stealth”. I don’t know much about the stealth mode but it sounds very CIA-esq.
If you know me, you know I value maximum level transparency. The concept behind building in public aligns perfectly with that value. I’ve even decided to do our user research “in public”.
Public User Research
We’re doing our user research via this survey and giving people the option to let us ask them the survey questions in a live video interview broadcasted on the internet.😳 The reasoning behind this is so that anyone else who is interested in trying to support people with increasing their mental health can access our research as well.
If you want to read through our responses, or know someone who does send me a note on my Instagram. Anyone can watch the video interviews on YouTube.
Building In Public Comes With Surprises
The first one that I conducted, the interviewee got so vulnerable, that they asked me to remove the video after it went up. 😳 Of course I respected their request. I had no idea all of the different topics that we ended up discussing would come up and it scared me a little about doing these video interviews live.
I thought, wow is this even legal? I’m obviously not a therapist, and this person really talked about some serious topics. I felt a bit over my head, THANK GOSH for my all-star team, they all tuned in and were sending me encouraging messages during it, and by the end everyone, including the interviewee were in a good place. They thanked me for the chance to talk about these topics.
Just wrapped
Moving on to what happened today! An interview that went almost exactly how I pictured these going when I had the bright idea to do them in public! Hallelujah!
Everyone meet Andrew Devlin! Andrew is the Founder of PitchHub where they are making life with video easier. It streamlines your video production workflow making it easier to create professional videos from one platform. You can try for Free!
Andrew is also a father of three boys and a devoted husband. He moved to the United States at 18 years old from Ireland with nothing but a backpack, has been held by Mother Teresa, is an active volunteer in his community, and works - a lot. He spoke honestly about the highs and lows of his own mental health journey and I’m forever grateful.
Notice anything especially important during his interview? Leave me a comment or reply to this email!
Until my next note, be well.
M