MindLight - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I have a Management Computer Systems BBA and a Technology Management MBA. I spent the first 20+ years of my career building software and connecting HIS systems together. A majority of my experience however has been on the backend. I was an Oracle DBA and an HL7 specialist for most of my career.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

I did outsource the coding of the application since there was no way that I could learn all the various components. I think the hardest thing for us was the UI/UX. I have never had to do or design or specify front end requirements – so that was a bigger and expensive struggle.

_{Jackie Schwabe}

Jackie Schwabe is CEO of Mindlight, LLC and vice president of leadership research at North of Center. She is a certified caregiving presenter, caregiving consultant, and caregiving educator. She received her BA in management computer systems from the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater and her MBA in technology project management from the University of Phoenix. She has been active in the area of healthcare integration, healthcare IT, telemedicine, product development, and product management for over twenty years. She has been a cross-sector, cross-discipline leadership practitioner her entire career. Jackie wakes up motivated to help others. Her mission is to provide the tools, opportunities, and connections people need to be their best selves. A career in health IT allowed her to figuratively and literally connect thousands of systems and people. A mother of four children, one with autism, she often says different is not less and communication happens in more ways than verbally. She co-founded Mindlight, LLC as a way to technologically help caregivers. She joined North of Center because she saw a way to use the communication-based leadership framework to help others. She is confident her roles at Mindlight, LLC and North of Center will guide individuals to their best selves, and she wants to be there to help. She is a servant leader and her passion is to lead by service to others in her community.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

I love Insight Timer – it is a great meditation app. I like Quik Pro for recorded video creation for social media. It is easy and makes really pro looking video with limited skill set requirements.

How long have you been working on this app?

We started in March 2017. The first release was in November 2017.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Supporting family caregivers with resources, tools, and support. We wanted to help family caregivers get a team of caregivers together, create a shared responsibility and accountability platform that was also private and secure. We needed to help them find an easy way to mass produce notifications privately in a few different channels when family emergencies occurred. We also wanted them to be able to share information in the virtual file cabinet with just the other secondary helper that needed to see it. The intent was really to help the family caregiver, vs the care recipient – like most other solutions.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Our app was made for family caregivers by family caregivers. I am a sandwich generation caregiver – I have four children – one with autism – and 2 parents that are not aging gracefully. I was struggling to keep up with my caregiving duties, my career, and my own needs. I needed help and it didn’t exist – so I made a solution. Yet, I knew that my situation – and every caregiving situation – is different. So, we interviewed 185 caregivers, 185 care recipients via an online survey. Then we did more than 3 dozen hours or longer in personal interviews. Finally, we had 2 beta tests before the first release with 100 beta testers invited to both. We really wanted the caregiver to feel listened to, supported, and helped - and if anyone knew how it felt to not be supported – it was us. Our innovation isn’t a new technology, but a new mindset. If you empower the caregiver by allowing them to care and taking care of the administrative tasks, and you empower the care recipient by giving them visibility and accountability for the self-care they can perform, and you actively engage with others on the workload, you can literally change lives of caregivers for the better. We are there for the caregivers when no one else is. That is what we are proud of, we used technology to empower and enable – not replace – the loving touch and caregiving of a family caregiver. We allow them to be a better version of themselves by taking some of the burden off their shoulders.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We are very excited to release in the new term a private chat feature and calendar integration. Later this year we are hoping to release customize caregiving task lists that are created by caregivers for caregivers.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Please tell others about the app. The only way we can affect change and help family caregivers is if they can use our tool. They don’t want us to tell them, they want to hear it from you – their trusted friend or family member.