{"id":116,"date":"2014-08-18T11:06:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jodilis.wordpress.com\/?p=83"},"modified":"2014-08-18T11:06:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:06:27","slug":"not-how-or-what-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/18\/not-how-or-what-but-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Not how? or what? but why? @ Coders4Africa event"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
My First Sketchnote<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had a conversation this week with a colleague from Africa who talked about creating videos to demonstrate specific skills and showing them on tablets.\u00a0 He described it as innovative.\u00a0 I had to break the news to him that videos on tablets is not innovative.\u00a0 What is innovative is why the technology is used, how it is used and what is value added.<\/p>\n

I recently attended an event<\/a> of Coders4Africa<\/a> on August 9, 2014.\u00a0 Sessions were on tools, content, entrepreneurs, jobs.\u00a0 What I Ioved most was through all the sessions – and remember, the majority were technical people – was that they always referred back to why? they were using the technology.\u00a0 Even the few sessions on what were latest tools and technologies , the how? part,\u00a0 came back to the why? and\/or what?<\/p>\n

Simon Sinek spoke about \u201cHow great leaders inspire action.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 They inspire action due to what he calls the \u201cgolden circle.\u201d\u00a0 Every organization knows “what?” they do.\u00a0 Some organizations know \u201chow?\u201d they do it.\u00a0 Very few organizations know “why?”\u00a0 they do it.\u00a0 Making money is a result.\u00a0 It is not why you do it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a purpose, cause or belief.\u00a0 It is why the organization exists.<\/p>\n

Why do some organizations exist?\u00a0 In the talk by David Ross<\/em> on UX, he shared with us Freckle\u2019s manifesto<\/a>:\u00a0 \u201cGood software is cheerful software: it behaves cheerfully, and it leaves you cheerful, too. ”\u00a0 Freckle knows why? \u00a0 There must be smiley faces everywhere there.<\/p>\n

Let’s apply the golden circle to technology.\u00a0 People may know how? to use the technology.\u00a0 People even know what? tools to use.\u00a0 But do people know why? they are using the technology.\u00a0 For what purpose?\u00a0 What value does it add?\u00a0 What problem are you solving?<\/p>\n

The following are my random thoughts, concepts and ideas that I took away from the event in regards to what? how? and why?<\/p>\n

Ali Kone<\/em>:\u00a0 What is\u00a0 the intersection of business, design and technology?\u00a0 What is the intersection of what is viable, desirable and feasible?<\/p>\n

Kwane Andah<\/em>: Think of digital analytics as what? people are doing vs. why? is it happening?<\/p>\n

Amadou Daffe<\/em>: There are problems that we are trying to solve in Africa but what is actually adding value?\u00a0 Coders4Africa has the .org side to support and train coders and grow a coders’ community. Once they found the developers, the .com side now builds software that provide practical solutions.<\/p>\n

With money from Google, they worked with girls in Senegal.\u00a0 Sure , they taught them Python, Android, HTML, but first, the girls had to identify a problem and then they learned to build a solution for it.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

Aaron Sanders<\/em>: Technology is just a way to solve business problems.\u00a0 Focus on solving the problem.\u00a0 An innovation economy is about solving problems.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, if noone uses what you created, it did not solve a problem. You will want to change or if\u00a0 ideas that don\u2019t work here, maybe they could be disruptive in other places.<\/p>\n

As a corollary, I would add it could be a problem that people did not know that they had.\u00a0 Now where have we seen this?<\/p>\n

Technology and Content Relevant to Africa panel<\/em>: What motivates people is how you define the content.\u00a0 If you want change, people have to react to what you are doing. Why would people want to use it?<\/p>\n

Senam Beheton<\/em>:\u00a0 What is it that we bring to market to help people and change lives locally?<\/p>\n

Startup Deep Dive panel<\/em>:\u00a0 To begin, have enough resources to add value to a few customers.<\/p>\n

Sir Fazle Abed, BRAC\u2019s 78-year-old founder and chairperson, explained in a NY Times article, The Power, and Process, of a Simple Solution<\/a>, that management and monitoring systems have to be in place before scaling up:\u00a0 \u201cSome NGOs don\u2019t have processes and systems.\u201d Organizations have to be \u201ceffective and efficient and then you expand.\u201d<\/p>\n

It applies to businesses, too.\u00a0 People want to attack a huge space, but they don\u2019t have enough resources.\u00a0 You only need enough resources to add value to a few customers to start.<\/p>\n

Chika Umeadi<\/em>: Competition brings innovation.\u00a0 Vet your idea against others.
\nAsk other people if they fall in love with your idea.<\/p>\n

For me, it goes back to the golden circle.\u00a0\u00a0 Technology is simply a tool to solve a problem.\u00a0 Why would people would want to use the technology?\u00a0 Why should that product, idea, content exist?\u00a0 What is its purpose?\u00a0 What is its value?\u00a0 That is where to begin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a conversation this week with a colleague from Africa who talked about creating videos to demonstrate specific skills and showing them on tablets.\u00a0 He described it as innovative.\u00a0 I had to break the news to him that videos on tablets is not innovative.\u00a0 What is innovative is why the technology is used, how …<\/p>\n

Not how? or what? but why? @ Coders4Africa event<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-ict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jodilis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}