Built with, not for
The biggest gap I saw at a neurotech conference is the same gap in most B2B tech stacks.
When I first went to the NeuroTech Frontiers conference, one thing that really stuck out was this message of building technology with, not for. It was a key theme. It came up in the sessions, but not necessarily in the technologies being pitched.
Leah and I were there pitching Sola , a psychoeducation platform and community for neurodivergent adults, to funders, research partners and clinicians. We were also there to learn more about the health tech and med tech space.
A lot of the technology there made a lot of assumptions about neurodivergent brains. When you build for neurodivergent people without neurodivergent people in the room, you tend to isolate them further. The technology becomes a substitute for community, and community is where they practice and learn. That’s why human connection, when we think about healing the neurodivergent brain, is the component we cannot forget about.
That sent me down a rabbit hole on what “with, not for” really means. Build with the humans who are going to use it, not for them, every step of the way. That can look like customer feedback, focus groups, or being the persona you’re building for yourself.
That is the opening. The rest of the essay, and every one that follows, goes out on Substack.
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