Onwards and Upwards :D

The Terrific Trio 😀

So we have presented ourselves in front of a government and private sector audience on our Demo Day 8 July.

We dug deep into the problem of employers struggling to provide the required information to support their employees’ Work Visa applications. We proposed to re-design the Employer Supplementary Form using simple language and provide in-context help, such as through videos, templates, FAQs and real-time customer support.

We discussed this approach with Immigration NZ and proposed a 4 month pilot to further prototype the solution concept. They said while they liked the idea of re-designing forms with customers at the centre, it was not the right time for Immigration NZ to progress this work. This is due to the focus on the Immigration NZ change programme, Vision 2015.

We have documented our learnings to share with Immigration NZ. We have recommended Immigration NZ take forward our learnings and look into taking an end to end forms process project in the next Accelerator. We have also recommended government to adopt the lean start-up methodology more widely for problem-solving.

The Good

• Our pitch went well on the Accelerator Demo Day. We had a great introduction from Bruce Robertson from Hospitality NZ. It was surreal to show what we have done in front of 150 people!
• People have shown great interests in our solution concept 🙂
• Celebrating our last day on the Accelerator by going out for Yum Cha with our colleagues from the Accelerator and BizDojo.

The Bad

• It’s always sad to leave, especially after such an intense experience with such highs and lows.

The Ugly

• No ugly for this week, yay!

There is no immediate future for EasyComply

Today we packed up from the BizDojo. We cleaned our whiteboards, cleared our desks and sorted through papers. It gave us space to reflect on this phase and prepare for what lies ahead.  Each of us would like to use some of what we’ve learnt in whatever we do next, and carry on some of the energy and momentum from the Accelerator. We will miss the buzz and the excitement from the BizDojo. We will miss our colleagues from the other teams, and we plan to keep in touch.

Thank yous

We leave the Accelerator with a feeling of gratitude – gratitude for the experience of what was the Accelerator, and for all the people who have helped and taught us along the way. We would like to do a big shout out to:

• The people that we have spoken to from business and government, especially businesses from the tourism and hospitality sectors and Immigration NZ.
• Immigration NZ for providing us with two meaty problems to solve, and giving us the freedom to explore them
• R9 for establishing the first Government Accelerator with Creative HQ
• Creative HQ for their methodologies, drive, enthusiasm and support along with Boost New Media and Strategy Design
• Our colleagues on the other Accelerator projects for their fun and humour and perseverance in doing the right thing.

Quote of the week

Suki – “Feel the discomfort and lean into it.”

Julian – “Great work team.”

Victoria – “Lost for words.”

Pitch Perfect…may be not quite yet, but will be!

Pitch Perfect for Demo Day

It’s only 6 days left until demo day, 8 July. Our focus this week has been on getting our slides together and practising our pitch. The pitch coaching from Laura has been truly awesome! She has this down to a fine art and we’re lucky to benefit from it.

We’ve enjoyed watching the other teams presenting, and seeing how much they’ve progressed over the week. It’s great to have them as our colleagues.

We are hugely grateful to Oliver and Chris of Strategy Design and Advertising for taking our amateur slides and turning them into a polished, professional format. We’ve appreciated how they’ve understood what we’ve told them, done their magic, and produced something we feel proud of.

We’re thrilled that Bruce Robertson, CEO of Hospitality NZ will introduce us at Demo Day.

We changed our name again and not just for fun haha

We’ve had another name change – we’re now EasyComply, making compliance easy for business. We moved away from Approov.me to emphasise the applicability of our methodology to other compliance areas.

Final words of the week

We’re aware that we’re near the end now. The finish line is in sight! It has been a busy three months requiring full commitment at a pace that at times has felt frenetic. We’re tired, and feeling a mixture of relief and sadness that it will all soon be over. But until then … we’ll keep our heads down, and focus on perfecting the pitch.

Quote of the week

Victoria: “The countdown is on.”

Julian: “Happy thoughts from “Overheated in Manchester””

Suki: “Practise, practise, practise.”

Can the timing ever be right?

Outside of our favourite lunch place – Prefab

With a blink of an eye, two weeks have flown past. Julian, our experienced entrepreneur, has also flown to Spain this week for a family trip but he will be back on 14 July. Over the last two weeks, the team has been working hard to resolve any privacy and security concerns that Immigration NZ has about our solution and lining up funding discussions.

Check out our video link on Wipster, taking you through our prototype, if you have not seen it – http://app.wipster.io/Review/CcoiAQBE24yk03rDbJePe_tjnjQOkkADjGWP_GbmbTB9Q_sGGQ. (This link will expire on 1 July). Approov.me is the new name for our product!

Problem: Many businesses do not provide the right information to support their employees’ Work Visa applications.  This is because of unclear expectations of what is required. As a result, Immigration Officers request more information. This causes double-handling for both Immigration NZ and employers. Delays in the visa decision pushes back the employee start date.

Solution Concept: Approov.me is an online form that supports businesses to provide the right information the first time to Immigration NZ. It explains the requirements in simple language and provides help, such as videos, templates, FAQs and real-time customer support.

The output from Approov.me will be a document that Immigration Officers can process efficiently without requests for further information, resulting in a quicker visa decision and ultimately, workers starting work sooner.

We will also gather analytics on the parts of the form employers need help, and the reasons for any requests for information from Immigration NZ. This information will drive enhancements to the tool and Immigration NZ processes.

Expected Outcomes: We will eliminate requests for more information from Immigration NZ to Work Visa applicants so that workers can get their visas sooner and businesses face less hassle and costs when employing a migrant worker. Better analytics and customer intelligence will guide us to improve the user experience of our tool and Immigration NZ processes.

:: The Good

• We have updated our prototype and tested it remotely with employers through the video platform Wipster.
• We have presented in front of the Tourism Sector Labour & Skills meeting and people were excited about what we are doing.
• We have met with key people in Immigration New Zealand to give them our high level pitch and discuss sponsorship.
• The team has never been stronger and more resilient.

:: The Bad

• Immigration New Zealand liked our idea but has indicated that this is not the right timing.
• We were sad to say see you later or see you on the internet to Julian as he is in Spain for the next two weeks.

:: The Ugly

• The ugly is real ugly that cannot be disclosed here.

// Quote of the week

Victoria: “The focus now is getting a great pitch for Demo Day.”

Julian: “Woah that is bad but I gotta go to Spain.”

Suki: “I like being a straight-shooter.”

The problem is real, our solution is sound but…

This week, we have proved that our solution is in the money. Both businesses and government want it and can see big efficiency gains with it. But the question is…and this is where I went off to search for more money idioms to describe this situation but with no success haha. Thank you to all those who have given us their time and support!

This week, we also said “cya later” in the traditional kiwi way to our Swiss friend and teammate, Sophie Buergin. Sophie came into our team at the critical point when we pivoted. She has helped us to prototype quickly, think and work differently. We have loved her drive and enthusiasm. We will miss her, and wish her lots of big waves while she surfs in Bali on her way home to Switzerland. Thank you Sophie 🙂

Problem Context: In Queenstown, 8/10 work visa applicants and their employers have to provide further information to support their initial visa applications because they do not understand or do not have the necessary evidence to satisfy Immigration NZ requirements. This causes time delays, costs and frustrations for both workers and their employers.

Problem Statement: How can we help applicants provide the necessary evidence to satisfy Immigration NZ requirements for a Work Visa application the first time, every time?

Solution Concept: We will provide a digital tool which Work Visa applicants and their employers can use to increase the success rate of the applications when they first apply to Immigration NZ.

Expected Outcomes: We will eliminate requests for more information from Immigration NZ to Work Visa applicants so that workers can get their visas sooner and businesses face less hassle and costs when employing a migrant worker.

// Hypotheses

{all set for success} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know how likely their Work Visa application is to succeed. If we can show them an indicator of success for their application before they submit it to Immigration NZ, then they will know what to expect.

{stamp of pre-approval} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know what evidence is needed to complete the Work Visa application before they apply. If we can pre-screen the application before it’s submitted and provide tips to improve it, then it’s more likely to succeed the first time.

{show, don’t tell} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know what a successful Work Visa application looks like. If we provide definitive examples from successful applications to them, then they are more likely to succeed with their application too.

{complexity killed the cat} We believe that applicants and their employers find the Work Visa application process too complex. If we can abstract the complexity while retaining the full meaning and intent, then the overall process will be much simpler, easy to understand and successful for all parties.

// Ask

If you can think of other forms required by government that businesses struggle to complete, please let us know! suki.xiao@gmail.com.

:: The Good

• We got in front of real people to test our prototype. We tested our prototype with five employers, and two Immigration officers from the Wellington branch of Immigration New Zealand and had positive feedback.
• We have interviewed immigration officers and employers to understand their pain.
• We have tested our approach with the Queenstown office of Immigration New Zealand who see that it can help employers to provide the right information first time, and make processing of visas for their office quicker and easier.

:: The Bad

• We are looking for a sponsor of our project within Immigration New Zealand.
• We were very sad to say goodbye to Sophie. Hope to see you soon Sunshine Sophie!

:: The Ugly

• The problem has strong social and economic aspects to  it, but we can only address a small but significant part of the problem (i.e. we only serve as a band aid).

// Quote of the week

Victoria: “We got a prototype in front of real users who have been frustrated by the complexity of the Work Visa process and they saw our solution as a lifesaver.”

Julian: “A bias to action now will allow us to better connect businesses and government faster.”

Suki: “Emotions are flying high this week. Frustration, disappointment, stress, elation, relief… you name it.”

Sophie: “You wonderful people. Thank you so much for asking inspiring questions, for letting me emerge into your challenge spaces and for simply being amazing!”

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger sums up our week!

“Work it harder, Make it better, Do it faster, Makes us stronger. More than ever hour after, our work is never over.”

Problem Context: In Queenstown, 8/10 work visa applicants and their employers have to provide further information to support their initial visa applications because they do not understand or do not have the necessary evidence to satisfy Immigration NZ requirements. This causes time delays, costs and frustrations for both workers and their employers.

Problem Statement: How can we help applicants provide the necessary evidence to satisfy Immigration NZ requirements for a Work Visa application the first time, every time?

Solution Concept: We will provide a digital tool which Work Visa applicants and their employers can use to increase the success rate of the applications when they first apply to Immigration NZ.

Expected Outcomes: We will eliminate requests for more information from Immigration NZ to Work Visa applicants so that workers can get their visas sooner and businesses face less hassle and costs when employing a migrant worker.

// Hypotheses

{all set for success} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know how likely their Work Visa application is to succeed. If we can show them an indicator of success for their application before they submit it to Immigration NZ, then they will know what to expect.

{stamp of pre-approval} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know what evidence is needed to complete the Work Visa application before they apply. If we can pre-screen the application before it’s submitted and provide tips to improve it, then it’s more likely to succeed the first time.

{show, don’t tell} We believe that applicants and their employers don’t know what a successful Work Visa application looks like. If we provide definitive examples from successful applications to them, then they are more likely to succeed with their application too.

{complexity killed the cat} We believe that applicants and their employers find the Work Visa application process too complex. If we can abstract the complexity while retaining the full meaning and intent, then the overall process will be much simpler, easy to understand and successful for all parties.

// Ask

If there are any businesses who employ migrant workers on the Essential Skills Visa and want to test our prototype, please contact us! suki.xiao@gmail.com.

We are not passing on any information to anyone. This is research to help us help you get workers faster.

:: The Good

• Team Titan has identified an opportunity within the problem context of “compliance” and is continuously validating assumptions.
• We are stronger and act faster within the design process through our previous learnings.
• We are validating earlier and more often, with real users lined up to test our current solution concepts next week.
• The keen business acumen and insight from all our advisors, supporters and mentors is much appreciated.
• The team culture is vibrant and more transparent.

:: The Bad

• We feel the pain from businesses. This is one way to learn and a fast way to learn but it is not our preferred method.
• We recognise that human interactions can be hard for some people, but we think good engagement is worth making an effort for.
• Not all our hard work was welcomed; imagined barriers arose this week through misunderstand.

:: The Ugly

• Taking photos of the team after a mentally exhausting activity was not a pretty sight and therefore not shared here.

Quote of the week

Suki: “Uh, too busy this week to think about a quote of the week. Catch me next week instead.”

Victoria: “Things unfold in ways I could not imagine. Every day is a surprise!”

Julian: “Resilience in spirit and action is a testament to the discipline and dedication of Team Titan.”

Sophie: “I will lead the revolution to delivery institutional change within the NZ Government, mark my name in the history of NZ.”

Can this get more roller-coaster like? Hmm, will see haha :D

“Team Titan had quite a week” is almost an understatement. We failed fast, picked ourselves up and pivoted. We also welcomed a new member to the team, the fabulous Sophie Buergin! Enough said, below is our update.

NEW Problem Statement :: Employers and employees struggle to submit the right information the first time to support an application for the essential skills visa

Hypothesis: If we provide both parties with an explanation of what is required, then requests for further information will be reduced // show, don’t tell.

Hypothesis: If both parties work together on the application, then the right information is ensured // cooperation.

Hypothesis: If we provide both parties with “good examples”, then the requests for further information will be reduced // exemplar.

Hypothesis: If both parties have the right information on hand, then they can submit it all together // one package.

Hypothesis: If we provide both parties with a template of what is required, then requests for further information will be reduced // a template for change.

Hypothesis: If we can take both parties through a facilitated process, the success rate for first time applications will increase.

Assumption: Businesses with good HR processes can already provide the required information for the essential skills visa application without any problems.

Assumption: Both parties can get the information together if given enough time.

Assumption: Migrant workers applying for the essential skills visa are already resident in NZ.

:: The Good

• Team TItan is pivoting to help the tourism and hospitality industries with a gnarly problem that is impacting their ability to do effective business.
• As a team, we are looking at how we can better communicate within the team.
• Our current insight and understanding is being leveraged to take advantage of the benefits while reducing the drawbacks of lean startup and real life.
• Much respect to one of our greatest supporters and mentors, Geoff Nixon who has helped us with our journey and pivot.
• The team culture is the heart of startup life.
• Listen to customers to validate early and often.

:: The Bad

• Pivots within lean startup are painful and exciting at the same time.
• On reflection, we experienced some aspects of startup life that we can live without.
• It’s a very thin line, between good and bad communication with stakeholders.

:: The Ugly

• Contention and conflict needs to be managed before it gets out of hand; resilience is worth the effort.

Quote of the week

Suki :: Pitching in front of ministers is the best opportunity for us to tell them that we have failed fast, failed cheap, learnt deep.

Victoria :: Failing fast gives us an opportunity to take all the things that we have learnt and apply them to solve a new problem.

Julian :: We demonstrated fail fast and got to understand what being comfortable being uncomfortable feels like; lifelong learning within the context of innovation.

Sophie :: Really?

Have a good weekend everyone 🙂

Where is the RESET button again?

We are grateful that the Result 9 Accelerator has enabled our team to FAIL FAST, FAIL CHEAP & LEARN DEEP in a safe environment.

We rapidly developed, tested and invalidated a proposed solution to the problem of finding suitable seasonal workers for businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries. Big shout outs to everyone that we have talked to. We really appreciate it and this enabled us to move fast, which is truly where government is trying to be customer centric and move swiftly through a rapid evaluation process.

We focused on the problem that businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries struggle to find enough suitable seasonal workers.

Businesses’ perspective on the problem

• The nature of a seasonal business is that there is high demand for labour over a short period of time, which makes the employment of workers more critical and strenuous.
• Many businesses are not able to be provide better job packages to attract more suitable workers due to low industry margins.
• Some businesses are already working with industry and Work and Income on worker training programmes to increase the pool of suitable workers.

Workers’ perspective on the problem

• Workers’ reliability can be influenced by geographical remoteness of work (e.g. transport, accommodation).
• There are not always the right incentives for the workers to be motivated for the work (e.g. wage rate is low, short term employment, hard physical working conditions).
• Due to the short term nature of the work, workers find it difficult to get up to speed to reap the benefits of contract rates.

Our solution was an online platform where businesses can find suitable seasonal workers and vice versa.

Why businesses would not use our proposed solution?

• Businesses are not inclined to be more involved in the matching process of NZ workers than the current:
  • Businesses prefer suitable workers to approach them instead because this shows workers’ motivation.
  • Businesses see the recruitment of workers from Work and Income being the role of their Work and Income workbroker.
  • Businesses have satisfactory workarounds in place to get the job done. This is through gaining access to workers from the Pacific Islands through the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme and contractors of labour in New Zealand. Some businesses have also increased the use of machinery to get the work done.

Conclusion

The labour market in the horticulture and viticulture industries is influenced by social and economic factors, which our digital solution could not address. However, the problem still exists and is an opportunity for others, who want to explore alternative solutions in this space.

We will take the learnings over the last 7 weeks forward and apply them to another problem, rapidly develop and test solutions in front of businesses. We have set ourselves the challenge in the next 5 weeks to have a solution that we are proud to present and a solution that we know businesses will be screaming to use it to improve interactions with government!

Thank you once again to all the people who have been on this journey with us 🙂

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Suki Xiao (suki.xiao@gmail.com).

HALF TIME – things are getting real!

A chunky update from the team this week. We did so much this week including testing our product in front of employers, exciting and scary stuff!

Problem Statement: How can we help businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries find enough suitable seasonal workers when they need them?

Suitable workers as defined by employers are workers who are motivated, reliable and capable of doing the job. Often workers who have come from Work and Income New Zealand are not suitable.

The key factors contributing to the problem space are: current suitability matching systems do a poor job; there are not enough suitable people available in the labour market for some regions; there are suitable workers in the labour market but they are not being placed into employment; there is a lack of visibility of employee’s skills, experience, availability and it is hard for existing systems to communicate with each other.

Our solution is a digital platform which focuses on matching suitable workers from Work and Income New Zealand to responsible employers faster by highlighting the workers who are motivated, reliable and capable. Our solution is consistent with the government’s objective of employing New Zealanders first.

Hypothesis 1): If we can highlight the workers who are motivated, reliable and capable, then businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries will be able to employ these workers more efficiently

Hypothesis 2): If we verify the suitability of seasonal workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries, then business can engage more effectively with the total pool of suitable seasonal workers.

Hypothesis 3): If we can increase the pool of suitable seasonal workers, then businesses will find enough suitable seasonal workers when they need them and they will be more productive and profitable.

Hypothesis 4): If we can increase the pool of suitable seasonal workers and make it easy for businesses to employ them, then businesses will not look for non-compliant workarounds.

Hypothesis 5): If we map the hotspots of regional seasonal work and workers at key times, then businesses in those regions can better plan to have a reliable source of suitable seasonal workers when they need them.

Week 5 – Week ending Friday 22 May 2015

The Good

• Tested the wireframes we have developed with actual employers and gained honest feedback. Thank you for your time!

• Tested our solution concept with our first WINZ client who said “That sounds awesome! I’d definitely use it”.

• Talked to more people in government to understand their pain points and priorities, and where relevant, share wireframes, including with:

     MBIE Tourism policy team

     MBIE Labour Inspectorate.

     IRD Customer Services.

• Have a good understanding of the labour market test that employers need to go through when they employ a migrant worker.

• Had brilliant mentoring sessions with Geoff Nixon and Glenn Andert, who challenged us to go more specific on our problem statement and directed us to think about how our solution is solving the problem for all the players in the seasonal worker market.

• A shout out to Paul Nalder, who is willing to help with our data analysis and building our value proposition.

• We’ve learnt that Hospitality NZ has developed a similar tool to our planned solution for employers in the Hospitality industry to easily hire migrant workers.

The Bad

• We are waiting to hear back from our main MSD contact.

• We need to test our solution concept with Work and Income workbrokers and more clients FAST.

The Ugly

• The employers we have talked to so far said they may not use our product because it doesn’t add much value to what they have got already. This means we need to find our sweet spot, solving problems for people who have a problem. This is THE UGLY TURNING INTO THE BEST NEWS 😀

Questions top of mind

• What do employers in the horticulture and viticulture industries think about our solution? Will they use it?

• What do seasonal workers think about our solution? Will they use it?

• What do Work and Income New Zealand think about our solution? Will they support it?

• How do we develop a proxy for motivation, reliability and punctuality?

Quotes of the week

Julian – “Getting something real in front of customers for feedback was a huge success… and failure. Validated learning at its very best.”

Victoria – “It’s great having these opportunities to learn by getting feedback on our prototype from business and employees – we’re still looking for that sweet spot.”

Suki – “It is quite scary to know that our product might fail but at the same time, this is brilliant news! Fail fast, learn fast is the motto :).”

YAY weekend, rest is needed.

Week 5 has gone with the wind in Welly!

Week 5 has flown past, almost as speedy as the Wellington wind! Below is our update.

Problem Statement: How can we help businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries find enough suitable seasonal workers when they need them?

The key contributing factors are: current skill matching systems do a poor job; there are not enough people available in the labour market for some regions; there is a lack of visibility of employee’s skills, experience, availability and it is hard for existing systems to communicate with each other.

Our current solution concept is to provide a digital platform for horticulture and viticulture businesses to find employees when they need them. The solution matches employees with relevant skills, experience and availability, provides transparency in the recruitment process, enables feedback on the suitability of employers and employees to support decision‐making as well as auditing and reporting functionality. In the future, we will also deliver a finishing programme to supply trained and accredited seasonal workers to employers as a complementary service.

Hypothesis 1): If we verify the suitability of seasonal workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries, then business can engage more effectively with the total pool of suitable seasonal workers.

Hypothesis 2): If we can increase the pool of suitable seasonal workers, then businesses will find enough suitable seasonal workers when they need them and they will be more productive and profitable.

Hypothesis 3): If we can increase the pool of suitable seasonal workers and make it easy for businesses to employ them, then businesses will not look for non-compliant workarounds.

Hypothesis 4): If we map the hotspots of regional seasonal work and workers at key times, then businesses in those regions can better plan to have a reliable source of suitable seasonal workers when they need them.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly – Week ending Friday 15 May 2015

The Good

• Documented the wireframes we developed last week.
• Talked to more people in government to understand their pain points and priorities, and where relevant, share wireframes, including with:
  • MSD
  • Immigration NZ operations and policy teams
  • MBIE Employment Standards policy team.
• Had a good meeting with MSD who didn’t say no when we asked if they would share client data with us.
• Had a good meeting with Phil O’Reilly, Chief Executive of BusinessNZ who provided great insights around the importance of pre-screening and having pastoral care for workers, and government’s investment in skills and capability of workers.
• Met with a representative from MBIE’s tourism team and identified future possible application of our solution for the tourism sector.
• Had brilliant mentoring sessions with Geoff Nixon and Glenn Andert, who suggested a finishing programme to supply suitable seasonal workers to employers.
• Had team building exercise organised by CreativeHQ which was fun, and gave us time to do something completely different!

The Bad

• We were overwhelmed at the beginning of the week as we struggled with the amount of work involved.
  • We’ve asked for external support to analyse data.
  • We got Noel in from Boost New Media to review our scrum meetings and prioritisation. We’ve made some changes in the way we work (“grooming” they are called), including moving away from capturing all tasks on Trello. We now use Trello for our backlog and software development. We’re using a physical Kanban board, more actively prioritising tasks, and reducing the number of in progress tasks.
• We still need to tighten up our hypotheses and find data to support value proposition.

The Ugly

• We’ve found that there is duplication of work done between and within government agencies. We wish there are less silos and more people knowing that many complementary projects can happen concurrently.

Questions top of mind

• Our audiences are: government, businesses in the horticulture and viticulture industries, suitable seasonal workers. Are we missing any key entities or communities?
• What do seasonal workers think about our solution concepts? Will they use them?
• Could we link into existing training and other programmes to provide quality rating for employees or employers?

Quotes of the week

Julian – “Limit work‐in‐progress :: How do we live the words?”

Victoria – “Things are feeling more real now that we have wireframes.”

Suki – “Realising what it is like again to be in constant discomfort, launching myself off before I am ready but loving the challenge and growth.”

Cheerios til next time!

The pressure-cooker First Month is under our belt!

Time has really flown by and before we know it, we are straight into the second month of prototyping, which means testing our solution concepts with customers, starting with drawing up wireframes. Wireframes? Wireframes are sketches of our user web interface. For example, when you log into facebook, you see your home page, which is one frame, then you might click through to another frame like someone’s blog post and so on. Below is our usual format.

Problem Statement: Employees in the horticulture and viticulture sectors find it hard to find and employ enough suitable New Zealand and Working Holiday Scheme workers when they need them.

Hypothesis 1): If we make it easy for New Zealand businesses to find and employ enough suitable seasonal workers then they will be more productive and profitable.

Hypothesis 2): If we make it easy, then business will not look for non-compliant workarounds.

Solution concept: an online platform where employers can find and employ potential seasonal workers, with built-in compliance functions.

The Good

• Businesses are starting to tell us the same pain point story.

• Had brilliant mentoring sessions with Geoff Nixon and Ian Faye. Geoff pointed us to odesk.com as an idea. Ian told us the essentials for a successful marketplace.

• Had our first practices at pitching. Pitched in front of the Result 9 team and leaders from government.

• Learnt how to impact map with Boost.

The Bad

• The pitch took longer than desired to craft and went through several iterations.

• we need to tighten up our hypothesis 1) and find data to support value proposition.

The Ugly

• The team was put to test under pressure, trying to reconcile the different working styles. We realised that communication is the key.

Quotes of the week

Julian – “Shared common understanding is hard, but worth it.”

Victoria – “Feeling like we’re getting more clarity about what we’re going to deliver.”

Suki – “Communication is the key.”

Questions top of mind

• Have we talked to everyone we need to in government?

• What do seasonal workers think about our solution?

• Can we use non-digital solutions to supplement our online solution?

Cheerios, Team Titan