High-Impact Growth

High-Impact Growth

By DimagiTechnology
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High-Impact Growth episodes

  • Embrace complexity for impact: Articulating Dimagi’s culture and values with Lucina Tse, Gillian Javetski, Avni Singhal and Simon Kelly (Part 4)

    “I think the work that we're doing is inherently really complex. A lot of our partners are doing complex work and they're working in really complex environments. This a very necessary value because without this, we wouldn't actually be on that road to greater impact. “ - Avni Singhal


    “We intentionally run towards taking on the highest impact projects. Knowing that of our portfolio of national scale programs, there’s a high likelihood half of them are canceled or put on pause or, or are never picked up again for reasons completely outside of our control. But the next time it comes up, like we run just as fast to that because we are running not to embrace complexity for complexity's sake, but complexity for the greatest impact.” - Gillian Javetski

    Co-hosts, Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro sit down with four Dimagi team members - Lucina Tse, Chief Operating Officer; Gillian Javetski, Chief of Staff; Avni Singhal, Senior Customer Success Manager; and Simon Kelly, Director of Server Engineering - to discuss the fourth and final in Dimagi’s newly articulated values: Embrace complexity for impact. At Dimagi, we care deeply not only about what we do and the impact we have, but also about HOW we do it. Articulating our values has become incredibly important as we continue growing. Listen to this episode to hear candid reflections on what it looks like to embrace complexity for impact and why this is so important for achieving high-impact growth.

    Full description of the newly articulated value:

    Embrace complexity for impact


    Doing this work is by no means straightforward. We often come across forks in the road in our work: the simpler road, or the windier road to drive High-Impact Growth. We choose the road for greater impact - while always keeping our destination in mind.

    • We believe in the potential for positive change. While the work we do is hard, we believe in the potential to do ambitious things that create real, meaningful change.
    • We are comfortable in the gray. The path to greatest impact may not always be clear. We close the loop when we can and also find patience and comfort in navigating the unknown.
    • When we fall, we get back up. We will hit blockades along our winding road to impact. We persevere in the face of inevitable setbacks.
    • We evaluate when to stop. While we’re not afraid to embrace complexity, we consistently evaluate if we are doing the highest-impact work and actively choose work to stop doing. We try to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

      • Related Resources:

      Dimagi’s Careers Page: https://www.dimagi.com/careers/

      15 min
    • Must-Listen Guidance for Technologists in Global Health from Malawi’s Head of Digital Health, Simeon Yosefe: Dispatches from the 2022 Global Digital Health Forum

      “For us as a country, we want to implement and deploy comprehensive systems. A system that actually encompasses everything. Not only focusing on one company. HIV may be a starting point, but we want these resources not only to be limited to HIV, but they should cover everything. And by doing that, we ensure that we are taking care of everything. If a mother is pregnant, is HIV positive, or also has TB - all these will actually be taken care of because we have brought all this work together and those who are providing the care will actually provide this care within the same framework and the same environment. That will definitely improve the situation.” - Simeon Yosefe, Head of Digital Health, Ministry of Health of Malawi

      Jonathan Jackson talks to Simeon Yosefe, Head of Digital Health for the Ministry of Health of Malawi, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of digitally transforming Malawi’s health system. You’ll hear about the importance of aligning digital health systems closely to the vision and digital health strategy of the government, how Malawi is creating policy guidance to ensure that its digital health systems work for Malawi, and why we need to take a comprehensive approach to digital systems. Malawi has been a leader in digital health laying out a bold digital health strategy and this episode is a must listen for any digital health practitioners working or wanting to work with Ministries of Health.

      21 min
    • Evolve by learning and sharing openly: Articulating Dimagi’s culture and values with Lucina Tse, Gillian Javetski, Avni Singhal and Simon Kelly (part 3)

      “I think the out-collaborate piece really stands out for me on this value. And a lot of our partners come to my mind. Dimagi’s had a lot of experience working across healthcare, across agriculture, across education. Yet we always approach a new partner as a unique new project that we're starting from scratch.We have a strong product, we have a strong method, but we're always looking to learn through our partners.” - Avni Singhal

      “Another thing that it brings to mind is learning from our failures. And I think that's another thing that can be quite uncomfortable. But, in the interest of open learning it's so critical that we look at our failures, and try and figure out what went wrong and how we can do better next time…this is something that we do quite well on our teams.” - Simon Kelly

      Co-hosts, Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro chat to four team members at Dimagi - Lucina Tse, Chief Operating Officer; Gillian Javetski, Chief of Staff; Avni Singhal, Senior Customer Success Manager; and Simon Kelly, Director of Server Engineering - to discuss the third in Dimagi’s newly articulated values: Evolve by learning and sharing openly. At Dimagi, we care deeply not only about what we do and the impact we have, but also about HOW we do it. Articulating our values has become incredibly important as we continue growing. Listen to this episode to hear candid reflections on what it looks like to evolve by learning and sharing openly and why this is so important to supporting our high-impact growth.

      Full description of the newly articulated value:

      Evolve by learning and sharing openly

      No single person or organization can achieve our vision alone. We must work as partners (not vendors) to proactively understand our respective challenges, the impact we want to make, and to collaboratively chart the best way forward. We learn from what we’re doing and are unafraid in sharing those lessons, even when we wish the results were different.

      • We start with “why?” The answers to the challenges we are working on may not exist, and we won’t get where we are going by applying existing thinking. We’re eager to explore new approaches, always starting by defining what we want to learn - which can sometimes be the hardest part.
      • We out-collaborate rather than outcompete. While we’re proud of our individual contributions, we are most proud of the collective achievements that our team and our partners are able to realize.
      • We use data to drive decisions. We can't learn or improve from what we can't measure. We know that feedback loops are  integral to our continual improvement.
      • We speak up. We ask questions to unpack assumptions. We share feedback directly and with kindness, out of a sincere desire to help each other understand and improve. We receive feedback with humility and gratitude.

        • Related Resources:

        Podcast episode on Out-collaborating vs Out-competing:
        https://sites.dimagi.com/high-impact-growth-podcast/out-collaborating-vs-out-competing
        Dimagi’s Careers Page: https://www.dimagi.com/careers/

        15 min
      • Lead with empathy and respect: Articulating Dimagi’s culture and values with Lucina Tse, Gillian Javetski, Avni Singhal and Simon Kelly (part 2)

        “80% of the time, it's easy to be respectful and empathetic. But that last 20% of the time, that's where the rubber really meets the road. It's being respectful and empathetic all of the time that really brings the team together and allows us to have these outsized, impactful outcomes… And that's really hard in an industry that is so stressful and complex as ours.”  - Jonathan Jackson, Dimagi CEO

        Co-hosts Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro are joined by fellow Dimagi team members - Lucina Tse, Chief Operating Officer, Gillian Javetski, Chief of Staff, Avni Singhal, Senior Customer Success Manager, and Simon Kelly, Director of Server Engineering - to discuss the second in Dimagi’s newly articulated values: Lead with Empathy and Respect. At Dimagi, we care deeply not only about what we do and the impact we have, but also about HOW we do it. Articulating our values has become incredibly important as we are growing quickly all over the world. Listen to the episode to hear candid reflections on what it looks like to lead with empathy and respect.

        Full description of the newly articulated value:

        Lead with empathy and respect
        We treat each other with kindness, empathy and respect, creating space for all voices and stories to be heard. We are building an equitable, inclusive and safe environment where we can bring our authentic selves to work.

        • We work to improve equity. We understand that not everyone has equal access and opportunities. We strive to magnify underrepresented voices that we could otherwise miss, whether they be within Dimagi, users of our offerings, or other stakeholders.
        • We challenge our biases. We acknowledge the existence of conscious and unconscious biases in our everyday interactions. We seek to actively understand, illuminate, and challenge them.
        • We champion balance. We recognize that work is not life, and we respect our colleagues' lives outside of work. And we know our work is a marathon, not a sprint. To sustain ourselves, we need to take care of ourselves and look out for each other.
        • We recognize each other's unique strengths. We know that everyone brings their own unique strengths to their work. We seek to discover these strengths, bringing out each other’s full potential.
          • 16 min
        • Nick Martin of TechChange on Training, Content, and the Evolution and Maturation of Digital Health: Dispatches from the 2022 Global Digital Health Forum

          Jonathan Jackson talks to Nick Martin, CEO of TechChange at the Global Digital Health Forum to discuss the evolution and maturation of the digital health industry over the last 10 years, including the role of training, great content, project sustainability and shared buy-in in creating the outcomes we all know are possible.

          Some topics covered in this conversation include:

          • How digital health has matured from conversations about “How do we successfully deploy a digital health pilot” to “how do we support digital health” which has now become a given.
          • Connecting the dots for digital health - how do ministries of health take potentially fragmented digital systems and create better health outcomes with them
          • The role of training - overcoming resistance, making technical topics interesting and engaging, and making the case to create top quality content
          • Approaches to training including cohort-based social learning and emphasizing relationships alongside skills building
          • The challenge of creating high quality community health worker training
          • Telemedicine - managing tradeoffs between cost and impact over the long term
          • Defining day 2000 success metrics on day 1 of a project and the importance of long term planning
          • How the pandemic has forced ministries of health to get better at planning

            • Related resources:

            TechChange: https://www.techchange.org/

            Global Digital Health Forum: https://www.globaldigitalhealthnetwork.org/forum/

            USAID: https://www.usaid.gov/

            PATH: https://www.path.org/

            Architects of Digital Health Board Game: https://architectsofdh.community.tc/catalog

            Jhpiego: https://www.jhpiego.org/

            23 min
          • Be bold but humble: Articulating Dimagi’s culture and values with Lucina Tse, Gillian Javetski, Avni Singhal and Simon Kelly (part 1)

            “At Dimagi we’re not afraid of making mistakes. We’re not afraid of failing. We actually like to fail and learn through each other.” - Avni Singhal

            “We try to partner to a much larger extent than I think would be reasonable for a software company under normal market conditions. But we’re not under normal market conditions, and what we’re trying to do and accomplish…requires a huge amount of boldness…At the same time, we don’t know if we’re right, and we have failed a lot over the last 20 years, ad we expect to fail a whole lot going forward as well. And that’s where that humility is so critical.” - Jonathan Jackson

            Co-hosts, Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro are joined by four Dimagi team members - Lucina Tse, Chief Operating Officer, Gillian Javetski, Chief of Staff, Avni Singhal, Senior Customer Success Manager, and Simon Kelly, Director of Server Engineering - to discuss the first in Dimagi’s newly articulated values: Be Bold but Humble. At Dimagi, we care deeply not only about what we do and the impact we have, but also about HOW we do it. Articulating our values has become incredibly important as we are growing quickly all over the world. Hear candid reflections on what it looks like to be bold but humble at Dimagi and why it matters.

            Full description of the newly articulated value: 

            Be Bold But Humble

            Achieving High-Impact Growth requires that we act boldly, knowing time and resources are limited and the need is great. We take bold risks even though we may be wrong. We act boldly but don’t allow our ego to cloud our judgment. We take our work seriously, never ourselves.

            • We own our outcomes. We take ownership of our commitments to each other and our stakeholders. We hold ourselves accountable for both good and bad results.
            • We are not paralyzed by perfection. We prioritize creating over theorizing and shape ideas through collaborative iteration. Everything starts with an early draft, not a final pass. When in doubt, write it out!
            • We make space to make choices. We can only be creative if we have the space to make decisions. We empower each other with autonomy to choose the way to achieve the best outcomes. We create space to try things that may fail, so long as we are clear on what we hope to learn.
            • We don’t walk by problems. We leave things better than we found them. We look for ways to improve systems, and when we find them, we roll up our own sleeves or inform and support the rightful owner in making it better. If needed, we create structures where there are none.
              • 17 min
            • Bringing Global Health Best Practices to US Public Health Response: Entering the US Market to Meet the Needs of COVID-19 with Carter Powers, Sarah Sagan and Lily Olson

              “We went from no solution to a fully deployed at scale solution in less than six weeks. And all of that is really a testament to the power of a technology platform.” Sarah Sagan, Senior Director of Delivery

              “I felt really patriotic. I felt really proud of my government. I felt really lucky to have the curtain lifted on my healthcare system and the way that state and local government contribute to healthcare in the United States…we had a front row seat to what was a really devastating and also a really important moment in US history and that was inspirational and will remain something that I'm proud of for the rest of my life.” - Lily Olson, Senior Director of Partnerships

              At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dimagi decided to support pandemic response efforts by building and releasing a free global COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing solution. We had been working for nearly two decades focused on Low and Middle Income Countries, but when the CDC approached us to support US public health response to COVID 19, we rose to the occasion. This episode tells the story of our entry to the US market and how we leveraged learnings from our global health experience to meet the needs in the US.  Hosts Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro are joined by Carter Powers, Managing Director of Dimagi’s US Health division, Sarah Sagan, Dimagi’s Senior Director of Delivery, and Lily Olson Dimagi’s Director of Partnerships to share the full story of an intense period of hard work, growth, and learnings. We reflect on the work we have done on the CommCare platform that allowed us to respond to an urgent need incredibly fast, how we approached entering the US market so that we could continue our global work, and the passion and courage of our team stepping up to support the critical work of US public health departments. We also share how this work led to the creation of Dimagi’s US Health division and where we’re headed.

              This is part 5 of our 5 part series highlighting pivotal moments in Dimagi's history in honor of Dimagi's 20th anniversary.

              Related Resources:

              Bringing global best practices to US public health response: Key learnings from 20 years of building open source health solutions internationally. Webinar hosted by Linux Foundation for Public Health https://www.lfph.io/webinars/bringing-global-best-practices-to-us/

              CommCare’s use cases for COVID-19: https://dimagi.com/covid-19/

              CommCare for COVID-19 in the US: https://dimagi.com/covid-19/us-response

              Learn more about Dimagi’s US Health team: https://sites.dimagi.com/usa

              53 min
            • The Journey to Scale: Lessons learned from supporting the largest digitally-enabled Frontline Worker program in the world with Kriti Mehrotra, Shayoni Mazumdar and Stella Luk

              “It's not just getting started or getting to scale it's…how are you going to keep improving at scale?” - Jonathan Jackson, CEO and Co-Founder, Dimagi

              Today we tell the story of the largest digital health project Dimagi has ever worked on supporting the Government of India’s Integrated Child Development Services, which is the largest public health and nutrition program in the world. Launched in 2018, the Common Application Software (ICDS CAS) helped tackle malnutrition by digitally equipping Frontline Workers with a mobile solution to strengthen service delivery and enable effective monitoring, timely interventions, and enhanced decision support.

              Hosted by Jonathan Jackson in conversation with  Kriti Mehrotra, Dimagi’s Impact Advisor, Shayoni Mazumdar, Dimagi’s Director of Strategy and Operations, and former Dimagi VP of Global Services, Stella Luk, you’ll hear unique perspectives and learnings from the scale-up of the project, including navigating procurement for physical materials, scaling teams and processes, practicing user-centered design, and how Dimagi grew and evolved to meet this challenge. This is part 4 in a 5 part series highlighting pivotal moments in Dimagi's history in honor of our 20th anniversary.


              Related Resources:

              Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

              GiveDirectly - https://www.givedirectly.org

              CommCare Evidence Base: https://www.dimagi.com/toolkits/commcare-evidence-base/

              Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): http://icds-wcd.nic.in/icds.aspx

              Grameen Foundation - https://grameenfoundation.org/

              Evaluation of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Continuum of Care Services (CCS) Intervention in Bihar. Mathematica: https://www.mathematica.org/our-publications-and-findings/publications/evaluation-of-the-information-and-communication-technology-ict-continuum-of-care-services-ccs

              Effects of an mHealth intervention for community health workers on maternal and child nutrition and health service delivery in India: protocol for a quasi-experimental mixed-methods evaluation: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/3/e025774

              India has one-third of world's stunted children: Global nutrition report. The Economic Times: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-has-one-third-of-worlds-stunted-children-global-nutrition-report/articleshow/66865016.cms


              58 min
            • Takeaways from the 77th United Nations General Assembly: Breaking Down Silos, Supporting the Global Fund’s 7th Replenishment, and Unpacking Global Development’s Talent Gap with Dr. Kelly Collins

              What is the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and why does it matter? Jonathan Jackson and Dr. Kelly Collins attended the 77th UN General Assembly and join the podcast to share their key takeaways from the week, including the Global Fund’s 7th Replenishment. You’ll also hear reflections on the talent gap in global health and development.


              Related Resources:

              PEPFAR’s new strategy: https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/PEPFAR-Strategic-Direction_FINAL.pdf

              Dimagi’s 5 Year Strategy: https://dimagi.com/blog/dimagis-5-year-strategy/

              Global Fund Replenishment: https://www.devex.com/news/global-fund-replenishment-pledges-expectations-and-what-s-at-stake-103372

              The Talent Gap in Global Development: https://www.devex.com/news/does-global-development-have-an-sdg-talent-gap-103799


              Episode Highlights:

              2:45 Why UNGA week matters and why Dimagi attended

              5:01: Overall impressions from the week

              6:50 The need and challenge of breaking down silos in global health to leverage tools across areas of need, maximize value for money and improve health outcomes

              8:15 What tech innovators can do to help break down silos

              8:40 The reversal in progress on HIV, TB, and malaria due to COVID-19 and what that means for the development community

              12:20: How do we get more value from existing funding

              15:56: The need for integrated care

              17:20 the need for political commitment to ending disease

              18:35 The challenge of earmarking in aid funding and a bit of empathy for donors

              21:29 the Global Fund: What is it and why does it matter?

              25:16: What was it like at the 7th replenishment? Highlights and reflections

              29:15: Dimagi’s $5M commitment to the Global Fund

              31:06: What will Dimagi do differently as a result of attending UNGA?

              33:31: The talent gap in global health and development

              41 min
            • Failure is Not Free: Maximizing Learning Velocity with Funding from USAID Development Innovation Ventures with Kriti Mehrotra, Jeremy Wacksman and Sri Ranganathan

              "Unlike other technology sectors, the cost of failure is extremely high, but it's not born by the organization. It's born by the user....And so while we learn and it's helpful for us to view [digital health pilots] as a funnel, that's an incomplete view of the world because there is a real cost to equipping users and then dropping support for the application and dropping support from the organization. So I think we do need to have that mindset, but also realize...you can't just fail for free." - Jonathan Jackson 

              Today's episode is part 3 in a series looking back on pivotal time periods in Dimagi's story in honor of our 20th anniversary. Today we look back at the time between 2010 and 2014 when Dimagi received two rounds of funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program to test CommCare through dozens of pilots in India. This was a time of maximum learning velocity, as we got feedback from users across many organizations and applied it to get better and better every week. Jonathan Jackson and Amie Vaccaro are joined by Kriti Mehrotra, Impact Advisor Office of the CEO; Jeremy Wacksman, Global Director of Division Operations; and Sri Ranganathan, Director of Customer Success to unpack the learnings from this time period. 

              Related Resources:  

              https://confluence.dimagi.com/display/commcarepublic/Third-Party+Evaluations+of+CommCare 

              DIV ROI report showing 24:1 Return on Investment of CommCare (see row 484): https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/voices.uchicago.edu/dist/0/2830/files/2021/09/SROR-21.03.12_clean-3.pdf 

              https://www.dimagi.com/blog/usaid-div2/

              55 min

            About High-Impact Growth

            From the publisher's feed

            A podcast for social entrepreneurs, global development funders, nonprofit leaders and anyone grappling with the challenge of how to build solutions that are both immensely impactful and also achieve high-growth. Join Dimagi CEO and co-founder, Jonathan Jackson, along with co-host Amie Vaccaro as we unpack learnings from 20 years building digital solutions for global health and development, explore barriers to and opportunities for high-impact growth, and speak with industry leaders from around the world.