The EPAM Continuum Podcast Network

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston’s well-known and respected Chief Information Officer, and the co-founder of Blue State Digital, is about to leave his post. As he ends his tenure as Beantown’s CIO, we present this sparkling dialogue, recorded last spring in our studio with Toby Bottorf, our VP of Service and Experience Design. It’s an earnest, intelligent conversation, often punctuated with laughter. Together Franklin-Hodge and Bottorf range all over the intellectual landscape: smart cities, transportation, data, Net Neutrality, Barak Obama, Teddy Roosevelt, privacy, ethics, and "Parks and Recreation." Consider this episode a farewell salute to a terrific digital civil servant, who says:

• “I’m always a little allergic to the term ‘smart cities,’ which kinda comes in and out of vogue but often ends up being shorthand for what, I think, is a sort of thoughtless and industry-driven application of technology to things that don’t have technology applied to them.”

• “You sort of end up sometimes running the risk that you’re up building the sort of Juicero of cities. ‘Let’s take a thing a put a computer on it because we can!’”

• “If you put 40 cameras at an intersection—yes, it’s for safety, but how do we make sure we’re doing that in a way that’s responsible and that respects the privacy needs and wishes of the people who travel through there?

• “We asked people to tell us their question about transportation in Boston. Some people said: ‘Why can’t I have a stoplight at the end of my street?’ and other people said: ‘Why can’t I take a duck boat to work?’ We have this vast spectrum of interest and ideas.”

• “If predictions are right—that autonomous vehicles become a real thing in the next five to ten years—the fundamental ways in which we get around, the ways we use land, the way we think about things like parking, the way we design intersections, the way we design buildings, that are kind of the interface layer between vehicles and people that live in those buildings: all that’s gonna have to change. And anybody that tells you that have that all figured out is lying.”

• “If you don’t stop and have that conversation and ask those questions [about privacy and ethics], you tend to default to just: collect everything. Save everything. Put everything in a central repository somewhere. And I think that is the basis for a lot of this kind of unintended surveillance and, frankly, a lot of security and privacy risk that we haven’t quite wrapped our heads around.”

• “So this idea that, just because you work for a city that it’s OK to build a terrible UI and then be: ‘Oh, we can just send people to training and they’ll be able to figure it out!’ What is the cost of that? If that person starts their day dreading the six clicks they’re gonna have to do every single time they do a task, they’re not gonna be in the right mood. They won’t really have the time to deliver to people.”

• “There’s no right answer when it comes to privacy. It’s a balance. It’s a conversation. It’s always evolving as technology evolves.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Is there room in corporate banking for innovation? For positive psychology? For a llama? If you ask Kelly Fredrickson, an SVP of Ceative at Bank of America, the answer is a major yes! In the latest iteration of *The Resonance Test,* Fredrickson and our Lee Moreau dig into the creative side of corporate banking. Give us 34 minutes or so, and you’ll get some great remarks from Fredrickson, including these:

• “I actually hate when people say they’re not creative, because I think any problem-solution thought process is actually someone being creative.”

• “The mobile app, which is a really great way to access all that the bank has to offer, is very different than telling somebody: *Here’s how you can build a budget.* Or *Let’s talk about retirement. Let’s talk about planning for your future.* The llama fit the mobile app differently.”

• “In a team, if everybody is bringing their authentic self, it raises the opportunity for innovation.”

• On data and permission: “If it feels creepy, then you’ve failed.”

• “We are a giant corporation. But we’re a giant corporation made up of people.”

• “I see people call me, and then hang up. And then call back. They don't think they got me, and then they realize that it’s the llama so they call back to listen to the whole thing.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

“Aging begins the moment we are born.”

This is the profound opening statement one finds on the webpage of Alice Bonner, Secretary of the Massachusetts office of Elder Affairs: http://www.mass.gov/elders/welcomewelcome.html.

When you consider aging an event of a lifetime—for you and every other member of humanity—you develop a thoughtful and creative attitude toward it. You treat it, in a way, like a continuous innovation project. Fact is, our bodies and minds do iterate themselves, incessantly. Being healthy, happy, and well requires, of course, a lifetime of attention, the proper mindset, and sometimes the help and support of other people—various sorts of interventions.

On this, the 17th installment of *The Resonance Test,* we dig deep into the innovations around aging and digital health. Joining Secretary Bonner for an invigorating discussion is Laurance Stuntz, the Director of the Massachusetts eHealth Institute at MassTech https://masstech.org/about/team/staff/laurance, and Continuum’s SVP, Mike Dunkley. Tune in, and hear Secretary Bonner and Stuntz remark:

• “Aging is not about old people; it’s about families and communities.” —Secretary Bonner

• “Humans are good at empathy, about caring, about so on; technology is really bad at that generally.”—Laurance Stuntz

• “If we don’t get people to start thinking about aging and longevity as a lifespan event, starting at the time that we’re born, then we miss the opportunity for people to, for example, start saving for retirement. Realize how much it *takes* to save for retirement.” — Secretary Bonner

• “Figure out where the cost is, and then follow that to a viable business model.” —Laurance Stuntz

• “People want to get older and stay and continue to live in the community that’s *home for them.*” —Secretary Bonner

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

John Brooks—the managing director of Healthcare Capital, LLC and former president and CEO of the Joslin Diabetes Center—is a something of a legend in the diabetes sector. As much an inventor as an investor, he brings a spirited intelligence and diverse experience to fighting this chronic disease. We’re pleased to welcome him to *The Resonance Test.* In this energetic conversation, Brooks and Continuum SVP Mike Dunkley range all over the diabetes ecosystem, covering the move from a technological focus to more holistic solutions, how AI and machine learning might provide new opportunities, what future business models might look like, and in general, how we need to develop new approaches to diabetes. Tune in to hear Brooks say:

• “I just have a strong passion to see what I can do to try and help the now 461 million people around the world that have diabetes.... We all look at the numbers. It’s only escalating. We need to think differently.”

• “All of the players need to be in the solution business.”

• “Part of the problem is there hasn’t been a lot of economics to reward helping people not develop a chronic condition.”

• On doctors: “They’ve got 15 minutes to try to come up with something intelligible and if they’re spending 10 minutes to try to get the bottom of it, that’s not a good use of their time.”

• “If the AI enables better understanding of what’s going on with people with diabetes, the key is: How do the healthcare providers, nurse educators, clinicians, partner care doctors, endocrinologists, how do they adopt? Because, at the end of the day, their economics are important.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

How can a gargantuan company force itself to act as scrappy and fast as a startup? In this episode of *The Resonance Test,* we learn how one of our own clients has managed this—very difficult—feat. Listen as Joy Slabaugh-Hamilton, Head of Service Development within Vanguard Financial Advisor Services™, talks with Toby Bottorf, Continuum’s VP of Service and Experience Design. In the course of their dialogue, you’ll hear Slabaugh-Hamilton say such things as:

• “One of the challenges we have in a big corporation is: deep pockets. You’re not *forced* to find the skinny, lean, cheap, alternative because there *are* funds available.”

• “Sometimes you just need an outside person to *say* it. To point out the emperor is… robe-less.”

• “Sometimes in business, it can be hard to accept and understand that there’s rich insights that come out of talking deeply with a few people—a population that is not statistically significant.”

• “If you can just get one person willing to be willing try something… that demonstration can get help other people change their way of thinking, be a little bit more open-minded and consider other possibilities.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Sridhar Iyengar has been around the innovation block. Several times. With his business partner Sonny Vu, he created the diabetes-care company AgaMatrix, then Misfit wearables, and now he’s the CEO and Founder of Elemental Machines. In a wide-ranging conversation with Continuum SVP Kevin Young, Iygengar’s intelligence shines through, illuminating the worlds of medical devices, consumer health, and tech entrepreneurialism. Among the many wise words of this podcast, you’ll hear these:

· “We did predictive analytics before the phrase was sexy.”

· “What we thought with Misfit is—let’s do something in health and wellness, where we can iterate really quickly without having the regulatory burden. And once we understand the UI and the user experience, we can then put a quality system together and then move that into medical.”

· “We had to design the product in such a way that the Apple decision-maker would fall in love with. So, of course, we mimicked the Apple design language. We actually got a very nice compliment by one of the folks there saying, ‘Wow, this looks like something we would’ve designed.’”

· “Quite simply, our market research involved one intern sitting in front of a laptop for two weeks, and reading every negative review on Amazon for the competing products. We told her: just tell us what the top three complaints are.”

· “There’s no de-bugger for physical processes—and that’s kinda what we’re doing at Elemental Machines.”

· “As somebody runs that assembly line over and over and over again, our system learns where the critical variables are, and then alerts them and basically guides our customers to say: ‘OK, step number 14—the variability there is what’s causing quality problems in your product.’”

· “One of the best ways to spot an opportunity is to solve a problem that you’ve had yourself.”

· “Solving an existing problem is generally not as exciting as working on a new technology. But if you solve an existing problem, it gets a foot in the door, you can build a business, and then you can start investing in the new sexy exiting things that are swirling around.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

It’s not every day that a 1,000-bed floating naval hospital parks across the street from your studio. (From our studio, anyway.) And it’s definitely not every day that said ship’s Commanding Officer invites you aboard for a tour—and then sits down to record a podcast. But all of this recently happened to us, and the result is a superb new episode of "The Resonance Test," featuring the USNS COMFORT’s Commanding Officer Captain Lanny Boswell in conversation with Continuum’s Mike Dunkley. Some highlights from Boswell:

• “In some of these countries where healthcare is few and far between, when we move in, we can impact and change the health of a small country for years, with a three-week stay.”

• “We are in what we call Ready Five status. We have to be prepared from when we’re given a go signal, to be able to throw the lines within five days. That’s our requirement. And we usually do it in three days.”

• The Comfort’s unilateral design creates a “leapfrogging of communication” which is “not done by going up two or three flights of stairs or into another level or into another building. They’re literally down the hall.”

• “The challenges are so intense and so immense, it really is the belief in the mission to begin with that carries the day.”

• “We represent the best of who we are, as a nation, and our alliances. The multiple countries we take on board. We represent the benevolence of a great thought—that we’re all in this together.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

If you love innovation, you must—must!—listen to *Innovation Hub,* the smart and entertaining radio program that emanates from the WGBH studios in Boston. At *The Resonance Test,* we admire *Innovation Hub* and the show’s host and executive editor, Kara Miller. However, this admiration is eclipsed by that of Continuum SVP Jon Campbell, who admits, on this episode of the podcast, to being a fanboy of the show and Miller. Listen up, as he turns the tables on Miller and asks her some great questions—and she says things like:

• H.J. Heinz was “just trying to sell people not just on ketchup or pickles but on the idea that you could buy pre-prepared food, and it was safe to do that and it wouldn’t kill you or anything.”

• “We try to find people who can take a deeper dive than the stuff that is coming at us a hundred miles an hour at us every day.”

• “Makeup for television is terrible to take off. Terrible.”

• “If you wanna think deeply about something, about how you want to change the world or how you wanna create something new, you have to step away for a little while from those emails.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Jessica Helfand resists taking center stage. If anything, she wants to give her place in spotlight to the audience. An author and Yale professor and co-founder of *Design Observer*, Helfand thinks that the time has come to stop gawking at the stars pontificating the podium and instead start conversations—meaningful ones—with each other. To this end, she recently prototyped something she calls The Next Stage, in our Boston studio. And the moment that experiment ended, our Lee Moreau jogged her over to a conference room to record a podcast reflecting on the experience.

Listen closely, and you’ll hear her say some bright, provocative, and deeply humane things, such as:

• “Performance is fine if it’s theatre. Performance is fine if it’s sports. But why does performance have to happen in social engagement, in personal interaction?”

• “Even failure has become a buzzword. Failure ™.”

• “I love podcasting because just as I loved like this conversation this morning because, the minute you put other people in the mix, the vocabulary changes, and you get much more of a rich soup. There’s more flavors.”

• “The whole point is to spawn better, easier, more mindful, more consistent, more connected ideas in the world. That’s civilization in progress.”

• “Viral is not a word that’s good if you’re an epidemiologist or an immunologist.”

• “Designers are really good at making stuff look cool. At making stuff look shiny. And I don’t think that the world is a shiny place. And so, we would be doing ourselves and each other a disservice if we didn’t ask some ruthlessly objective questions about what that means.”

• “Why are we autodidacts in terms of technology and not of philosophy or ideas?”

• “I write to figure out what I can’t make in the studio. And I make things to figure out what I can’t write. And I teach to keep myself inspired by the ideas of others—and it’s just not enough to do it in the classroom.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon

Soon Yu is, according to his seven-year-old son, “really goofy, and he drinks way too much Coke.” He’s also an acclaimed speaker and author who trains his vision on what he calls the Iconic Advantage. In the latest vintage of The Resonance Test, our Toby Bottorf gets Yu to unbottle his opinions on the elements of iconic branding, finding untapped value in one’s brand portfolio, the differences between management consultancies and design firms, and learning to own iconic benefit. He also analyzes the reasons Bottorf digs wearing his Adidas Sambas. Tune in and hear Yu say:

• “If it means that our cash cow is gonna basically get milked away and die, that’s OK.”

• “If you can capture the essence of how an Audi makes you feel, then you can design an entire experiential system focused on delivering that feeling throughout the experience journey that consumers have with the product.”

• “Becoming iconic allows you to reach the highest form of branding there is... It goes to what you believe. And when you get into the belief system, and you own it, you are given so much more credit for being trustworthy, for being relevant to ‘me,’ and for being meaningful to ‘me.’”

• “If you really drive iconicity, you’re actually going to be more profitable.”

• “When you have a brand you love… you don’t want to sit on the fence on that, you want to be all in… Your role is to make sure that your consumers are all in for your products. They don’t want to fall out of love with brands they love—they want to stay in love.”

Host: Pete Chapin

Editor: Kyp Pilalas

Producer: Ken Gordon