Chasing Unicorns with Openize @shehacks2015
On 21st of Aug, 2015, a group of fun girls, forming team “Chasing Unicorns”, took a noble quest
from our heart and created an app “Openize - empower conscious decision making” to tackle a
challenge of solving unconscious bias in the workplace. With all the hard work, emotions and
dedication poured into the last 48 hours, team “chasing unicorns” won the runner up of #shehacks 2015 - Australian all-female hackathon, with a reward of 3d doodle pen (cannot hide my excitement)
Let’s wind back a bit…
The dream team was formed by destiny, met the very 1st time on 21/8/15 after the #shehacks
opening, gathering at team #7 pole. We claimed girls hive in the basement at york butter factory
and started brainstorming ideas after a yummy Japanese dinner.
After the discussion of 4 problems we could potentially address, we assessed them based on the 3 circles of desirability, viability and feasibility. The idea to solve unconscious bias in the workplace was born and I have this fabulous quote (“people hire clones”) where we marked our hack journey…
The team bond and shaped the foundation for the next 2 days by setting up goals on Friday night.
Team “chasing unicorns” started by chasing experts who are in the fields, and lined up phone
interviews before it ticked over 12am.
Over the call-on experts interviews, bitesize interviews and social viral test, team “chasing
unicorns” had pivoted twice in the last 48 hours. Luckily with all the healthy and great food
(morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner) and yoga session, we were bounced back from some
flat states.
At the very point of nearly losing the faith and feeling small to “save the world”, the team is rescued by the inspirational light talk- doing 1 thing good, from Will, the dedicated and focused
entrepreneur.The team took a step back and decided to focus on building out the solvable part of this deep topic while covering our vision in the talk. Let's call it a perfect execution of MVP.
With all the hard work the team had pulled together, and the generous help from various mentors across design, marketing and coding, we put together our work and delivered it beautifully. We are extremely proud of ourselves, with no shame (hehe), that we won the 2nd prize among all the amazing teams who each really thought of a real problem to solve, with all done customer interviews to validate the needs in some extent and all built something out.
It was an epic weekend that we harvest unforgettable experience and formed new friendship.
Lastly, I’d like to share with you the long-lived quotes that defined us (in alphabetic order)
Chloe (Hustler) - “people hire clones” (yes, let’s tackle the real challenge in the world!)
Kim (Hustler) - “I didn’t realise hackathon can make me fat” (the food was too good)
Quinnie (Hipster) - “more bitesize interviews!”
Sam (Hacker) - “that’s just a to-do list, can we make it harder?” (what a good hacker attitude!)
Sign out….