Some weeks ago, someone asked me what were my favorite product experiences. I paused. As much as I enjoy trying new products nothing struck me as particularly delightful, at least not in a way that made me acknowledge it.
Over the following days, I thought about it. There were many apps like fitbit or audible that I have been using on a daily basis, but the reasons why I kept going back to them was not because they were particularly delightful, but rather because I had a wearable attached to my wrist and wanted to track how I was doing…
I am not sure how we are going to look back at this period once we gain distance. So far, it seems that we can only look at it from a dark angle. In excruciating detail, in loop, leave-no-misery-behind fashion the news broadcasters explore all the drama that the pandemic has brought us. The drama is real, there is no denying it, but I also started paying attention to how technology came to the rescue.
There is a silver lining. The drug discovery process that previously would take multiple years this year was cut short to less than a year…
I have finished reading your book in three days. I couldn’t drop it. It is just so much what you went through in order to launch your venture, Starling Bank.
Your team walked away from you when you were on the verge of being granted a bank license. You had to knock on closed doors so they would temporarily open only to close on your face with a thud shortly after. Your house has been robbed, your office too, although it wasn’t money that they were searching for.
For a period of time, you wore all the hats in your…
If I had to summarize the uniting thread among the most interesting talks I saw at Web Summit this year, it would be that they were all about caring: for our planet, health, home, and government — what I am calling ‘care tech’.
Jane Goodall was presenting together with the Chief Tree Planting Officer of Ecosia, a search engine that commits to planting trees on behalf of its users, in order to restore the natural habitat of chimpanzees. Patrick Brown was presenting its brand of Impossible Foods, i.e. plant-based meat. According to him the single most important scientific problem of…
Web Summit 2020 is almost here, it starts next Wednesday 2nd of December and it goes until the 4th of December, and this time it happens exclusively online.
I have attended Web Summit three times on-site by now. I was there on the opening night when it happened for the first time in Portugal in 2016 and then in 2017 and 2018. The only time I missed it was last year. It is supposed to be hosted by Portugal until 2028.
You had to be there to feel the atmosphere of the event. The constant shuffle of people between pavilions…
Vera went towards the cupboard and picked a mug, Ana was right behind her and searching for bread for a toast. When Vera pressed the tap for the boiling water she observed a cloud of faded smoke born out of the contact of water with the teabag, that dissipated with each step she gave in direction to the canteen table.
‘Teachers are really tired. All of a sudden they had to become expert technologists, combining many apps to deliver what they have delivered by themselves in the classroom for many years,’ said Ana while approaching the table Vera was sitting…
‘Hello, can you hear me well?’
‘Yes, I can.’
‘Great. We are already one month into the second term, but found it would make sense for us to get to know each other,’ a woman said while moving the web camera mounted on a 22" Full HD Samsung screen. First showing her forehead too big, then her chin, until a movement made her appear just normal.
‘You are doing these for the entire class, aren’t you?’, someone made fit into a rectangle in her screen asked.
‘Yes, with classes having a strong component of being remote, we at the school…
Vera walked towards the cubicle wall and, raising the marker, said ‘perhaps we have to look beyond messaging to improve messaging’. Ana was sitting crouching on a bean bag on the floor and looking at her. If question marks had a face, it would be like her face was right now. Awaiting clarification.
Alberto was standing leaning against one of the walls of the cubicle. Just a minute ago he had suggested the team should just give coaching to the teachers so that they don’t get stuck sending the messages. …
The team arrived at the London Designer school around 9 am. The glass from the atrium was foggy — claiming it was warmer inside. As agreed they would be testing this first version of the tool with teachers.
They were guided to a room that was empty except for two tables at the center with four chairs and laptops. As Alberto pulled one of the chairs, Verena whispered ‘these are not for us, we will be staying on the other side.’ He looked around but couldn’t see anything else but walls.
Margaret started walking towards the corner of the room…
Alberto ran through the door, ignoring a wire on the floor, that made him bounce, swirl and eventually fall to the floor. His face was red and the eyes sparkling. With lips wide apart he said ‘Good morning!’
Vera and Ana were already at the cubicle, they had arrived just five minutes earlier, bumping into each other in the kitchen.
They turned around, and seeing Alberto flat on the floor started to walk in his direction. But in a split second he was standing up, and that made them halt and stay inside.
‘I spoke to him’, his arms hanging…
