Case Study: A Data Hub for Affordable Housing — SOFT LAUNCH
Some years ago, I spent a sunny Thanksgiving learning to body board at Hermosa Beach (the holidays are different in SoCal). I was an accomplished scuba diver and experienced open water swimmer. I had my own wetsuit and carried my own tanks. I’d been smashed by rogue waves before. But I could just not get the hang of riding on top of the water.
I kept getting flipped, hit in the face by my board, and getting a nose full of ocean. And I kept getting back on the board. I finally got exasperated and just pushed the board against the surface of the water as hard as I could, daring the sea to flip me over One. More. Time.
And I sailed to shore.
It was a fantastic feeling to be riding with the wave, using its strength to pull me forward, rather than trying to float on the surface like a damselfly and getting dunked in the process. The speed was a surprise, but a welcome one. I was hooked.
There’s a parallel here with starting a new venture. I’ve been doing the “right” things, checking off boxes, but I still felt as though I was fighting the process. Wasn’t this supposed to smooth out at some point? Why were things so hard? What was the block?
Then we had our soft launch, re-connecting with those who had participated in our problem interviews and getting actionable feedback (on Post-Its ❤). This Monday, we met with a private business to discuss reciprocal data sharing, an arrangement that would exponentially improve our data integrity while slashing our annual budget requirements. Tomorrow, I’m leading two sessions with end users to test our navigation. I can feel the momentum of the project beginning to carry us forward.
Josh, Rohan, and Britney — the real brains behind this operation — may have felt this for some time. But this week I finally pushed against the ocean and I could swear it said, “FINALLY.”
We pitch on Monday. The story is ready to tell. I have my props and my blocking. The deck is getting there. We have one more accelerator session and one more pitch practice and then we move on to the next phase.
We’ll have a ton of feedback to incorporate, but now that I feel the power of the sea starting to pick us up, I know that any changes now are only going to carry us farther and faster that we could go alone.
And so: we iterate.
Jennifer Houlihan is managing director for Austin CityUP, a smart city consortium in Austin, Texas.
