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Q&A with a Design-athon winner!


Man with yellow shirt is seated at a table in a boardroom with a window looking onto trees behind him.
Matt Leete, Co-Founder of Spix App

In 2014 Matt Leete participated in our Enabled by Design-athon and six years later he went on to win our 2020 Design-athon followed by graduating from our 2021 Accelerator program!

Matt is the Co-Founder of Spix App, a tool for gamers living with impaired speech to support social connection and rich interaction in-game. This startup was one of the winning ideas that came out of our 2020 Design-athon and the team has since gone on to further develop an incredible prototype that is getting ready to launch in the market!

In the lead-up to our 2021 Design-athon we asked Matt to share some of his experiences and tips for our new cohort of applicants who are gearing up for our online challenge.

 

What motivated you to apply for the 2020 Design-athon?

The opportunity to tackle high-impact problems in the disability sector while being supported by a diverse range of leading industry professionals.

What was your highlight of the 2020 Design-athon?

The first user testing session – After a couple of big days and late nights building out our prototype we got a chance to test it with a group of enthusiastic young gamers. Seeing their enthusiasm for what we had built was just a lot of fun and was the moment I really felt like we could take our concept to the next stage.

What was one lesson you gained from your experience?

The value of a beginners mindset. The experience that Remarkable and their mentors and coaches offer is invaluable, especially considering how quickly the disability tech space is evolving. There are so many complex and nuanced factors at play that it’s best to just embrace the learning experience and immerse yourself in the process.

Since winning Design-athon how has your disability-tech concept evolved?

In the Design-athon, we focused on the desirability of what we were building, without considering feasibility or viability. I wouldn’t change this approach, as it allowed us to throw our passion into the funnest part of the design process without imposing too many restrictions on our ideation and concept development. Following the Design-athon we’ve had to take a step back to focus on those other important factors while continuing to make sure that our product maintains the essence of what excited our early testers.

What is one piece of advice you would give to our upcoming Design-athon teams?

Get in and talk with your target customers asap! Understanding their experience and developing a high level of empathy for their needs is critical in the early stages of your project.

 

 

Applications for our 2021 Design-athon close this Sunday the 29th of August so if you too want a truly Remarkable experience then don’t miss the chance to apply!

 

Apply now at, https://remarkable5.wpengine.com/events/designathon/