8 Women can help me to solve my Enigma

I just watched “The Imitation Game” by Morten Tyldum.

I am not going to positively or negatively criticise it: we all know that it doesn’t tell the real story of Alan Turing. Or, it tells it in a soft and cinematic way.

However, it made me think of Joan Clarke and how women can be smart, great problem solvers and still feminine at the same time, how their working behind the scenes is often fundamental. So then I started reflecting about my past couple of weeks.

I subscribed to Ada’s List about a month ago. After a couple of days that I lost my job, at the beginning of February, I wrote a message to the googlegroups, telling my story. It was about the second ever message I wrote to the group, after the introduction post. The message was short, as my intention was only asking if someone knew someone else who was looking for a digital strategist or entry roles in marketing and community engagement.

In 3 weeks I didn’t find a full time job: I found much more.

I found strong, smart, competent and powerful women ready to give me a hand without knowing me, not even virtually.

Kat Farrants is the founder of Movement For Modern Life, a platform for yoga lectures in streaming. She was also the first lady that welcomed me into the list, and the first who wrote me after reading my message. She gave me some freelance graphic design work to do (I am not a “professional” graphic designer, and also I know that on Fiverr she could have found someone cheaper for sure) for her communication campaign.

Eunice Ball, founder of Africa Technology Business Network (forum designed to build a bridge between the tech communities in the UK and Africa) was the second lady that sent me a message after my first introduction, and the second to reply to my unemployment message. She got me a free ticket for her event “Unlocking opportunities in Africa through business and technology” and also asked me to speak at “Learning From Your Mistakes #FounderStories” , a meetup of The Pulse next Tuesday.

Ana Alberts is the founder of Charub.org, an app that lets users select businesses to advertise on their personal social profiles; for each click on the advert the businesses give money to the charities chosen by the user. Brilliant, isn’t it? Ana offered to fund my ticket for the +SocialGood UK Summit by Mashable, as I couldn’t afford it but I was very interested in the event; in exchange for the huge favour I will help her with Charub’s content strategy (and I am excited about it!).

Iram Quraishi, the Project Manager of Loop Labs, got in contact with me through another amazing list member, Katz Kiely. Loop Labs create digital solutions to city challenges through Experience Design, and since a week I am their part-time intern. They got me on board even if they knew that I will go on with my job hunt. It’s really impressive. I am working on the content strategy and community engagement with Kabelo Thomo and Graham Brown-Martin of a very challenging and innovative project which will bring science and innovation into local communities through Experience Design. Follow us to know more 😉

Ada’s List is really an amazing network full of AWESOME ladies. I receive the Daily Digest and, trust me, I open it every day. I have never done it before with any other Daily Digest.

In addition, during the past week I got in contact with other four young, multitasking and professional ladies that demonstrated me attention and care, even if they didn’t really know me: Silvija Jordanovska of TechMeetups (a global network of Tech Startup communities), Sinead Mac Manus of Fluency*, Yasmin Desai of Monkfeet** and Erika Brodnock of KarismaKidz***.

I dropped Silvija an email about a week ago, telling her that I was willing to give her a hand for the event she was organising last Thursday, the “TechStartups Jobs Fair” (#TSJFair), even if I could have only helped her during the event, because during the afternoon I would have been at another event (see below). When I arrived on location she welcomed me with a big smile, the same smile that said “see you later” to me when I left 🙂 . Letting me tweeting about the event got me many contacts and followers, so, in a way, it’s actually Silvija that helped me.

*One of the participant to the Tech Startups Job Fair was Fluency, which offers four-week courses to young people in areas like social media marketing, SEO, content marketing, web analytics and more. Its founder, Sinead, is also part of Ada’s List. I presented myself saying that I was Francesca from the list, and she remembered my email about my lost job. She was extremely kind and empathic, even if she never met me before as well. Impressive.
**Monkfeet offers high quality courses, workshops and meetings about business, corporate, startups, SEO and other professional topics. About a month ago I participated to “How To Make A Professional Corporate Video With Your iPhone“. After the lesson the instructor uploaded some resource materials and I got an email from Monkfeet, but there were some issues with the interface, so I tweeted to Monkfeet just to warn them about that issue. They were very grateful and kind to me and also told me that they were willing to help me in any ways, as an exchange for a tweet! People are amazing. Last Tuesday I went to their (+ Rainmaking Loft‘s) “Investors On Stage with Federico Pirzio-Biroli of Playfair Capital“, another very interesting event, and I was so happy to find out that behind of Monkfeet there was actually a woman, Yasmin! She was super kind and told me to send her my CV, so if she will hear about startups hiring she will contact me. Again: she doesn’t really know me. It’s incredible how women can be so open and welcoming.

***Finally, on Thursday afternoon I went to KPTG‘ s “Best of British Mobile Startups“, where I found out about Karisma Kidz, a fabulous app aiming at developing emotional intelligence in children aged 3-9. I saw the presentation by its founder, Erika, and immediately felt her confidence an power, as well as her femininity and kindness. I went to speak with her to congratulate with her, and she asked me my contacts for future collaborations. It might not end with anything, but for me it was a honour.

So, yeah. I am still looking for a full-time job. My Enigma to solve is how to find a job before the beginning of March, and I am starting to be worried.

Nevertheless, all those women of different ages and at different stages of their career gave me a great strength and inspired me to go on and do not give up.

Thank you, beautiful ladies.

Puss in boots

if even a cat likes to wear a pair of boots, it should mean that shoes are very important.

Last Friday at MACE we had a lecture of DesignThinking, and we had to prototype a new shoe with team- works.

Fist step: why a shoe?

I never took shoes in great consideration, I always thought they were just like the other clothes. If I had the possibilities to buy more clothes just for vanity, probably I would buy earings or bracelets.

Otherwise we stay on our feet for the longer time of our day. That is why every person we (me and my team) interviewed about their shoes described theirs as “comfortable”. It makes sense.

Second step: create a “Persona”.

If you have to prototype, you should need to do it. We based on the details of the persons we interviewed, and then we tried to focus on their particularities and needs.

Franco, half British and half Italian, Londoner, 24, last year student of Architecture/ worker part-time, smart, polite,usually  goes to the pub with his friends on Fridays/ Saturdays.

Third step: which shoe fits the Persona?

Franco lives in London: he needs a shoe he could use for the whole year, with every kind of season, temperature, weather.

Franco is very busy, and often he does not have time to go home from University or from his job to clean himself and change his clothes before going out: he would like a shoe he could wear during the day and the evening.

Franco is an Architect: he likes aesthethics and tidiness. He would like a minimal shoe.

Forth step: what could drive him to buy a new shoe?

Franco is smart and polite. He reads the newspapers, he knows about the troubles of our world. He could be interested in a brand which tries to help the world by giving some money to the developing countries, or to the technology innovation, to the social integration, to the water and environment preservation, or to the public health.

Anyway we can not know if those reasons were enough: this is the challenge of the Design Thinking. You never know. But you can always try.

Creativity lies in a children’s playground

If you are thinking this is a blog post for nannies, you should be wrong.

Otherwhise, perhaps you should not: creativity could improve every kind of job.

At this point you might be confuse. As a conseguence, it is necessary to define what creavity means for me.

I am from Brescia, a small city between Milan, Bergamo and Verona, in the North of Italy. In the Italian language, “to create” is translated as “creare”. I studied Ancient Greek and Latin at my High School, and I can remember that “κραίνω” meant “realizing”, and the Sansckrit root “KAR-“, which is the same of “crescere” “to grow”, meant litterally “the Creator”. I remember that this meaning surprised me. I have always connect the word “create” with some artistic, intellectual and abstracted behaviour before, while I found  it was related to an action, “realize”.

Two weeks ago it happened something which had the same weird effect to me.

I was at my 48 hours workshop for the Induction for my MA in Film Making & the Creative Economy. Me and my team, as a startup, were managing to design a mobile application for smart phones. It was headed for movie lovers and social media followers.

We were actually very busy- working, trying to follow all the steps of the analysis, from the target to the assumptions, to the design of the paper prototype, to the business model, and I really enjoyed and found it very interesting, useful and precious for my future.

When we had a break Janet, one of my team- members, shown us a children’s playground she helped a friend to build in her Country, Malta. They made everything for free, just to give to the children a new place to enjoy together instead staying alone at home playing with their computers. The area was on the beach and it was full of simple but beautiful attractions. There was also a colourful Hopscotch: that was the element which made me thinking more.

A beach is a beach, and the town already had it. A playground is a playground, and I am pretty sure there were at least one already in the town. Every child could already enjoy both of them. Every child could already go there and play with his friends. Rationally the community of the town did not need to build a playground on the beach. But it was created, and now the children could see the beach in a new way, with new attractions, also by rediscover an old game like Hopscotch. And I am pretty sure as well that they are going to use it.

During the Induction Eewei Chen (@ultraman), Design Director at BskyB and workshop guru, told us a lot of times that we had to be focused on our Jeff, our “Persona”, that we should fix its characteristics and its behaviours. We live in a world which is always calling for our work. The Users of our apps could be everywhere. As a conseguence there could be billions of different apps we could design. Otherwise the secret of their success should be to find some fields in which apparently there is no need of us, just because those fields do not exist yet. The secret of the creative thinking is to see the invisible but important needs of people. To look at what’s below.