Medium: "Life-Changing Technology in 2024: Human-Centered Innovations"

Talk to your customers. When you consult with your customers you discover the root of the problem they’re trying to solve. Obviously, this is valuable for helping you to develop your technology in a way that ensures it will solve real-world problems, but it also helps you to sift through all of the possibilities to get to the best use case.

...

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Qi.

Alex Qi is the CEO and co-founder of Pontosense, a cutting-edge technology company that was founded with the mission to fundamentally change everyday technology by expanding the relationship between humans and machines. His work in the technology space brings a fresh perspective on diversified thought, exploration, and global impact that he developed while working and studying in North America, Asia, and Europe. He has a proven history of finding the right solutions by asking “why” until all fundamental roadblocks are understood.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

I grew up in Waterloo, Ontario, during the early days of Blackberry, which was then a company called Research in Motion. As Blackberry’s mobile technology solutions took off, the small town of around 80,000 inhabitants came to be crowned the most intelligent city in the world.

We were all proud of those devices and the city buzzed with technology fever. Being immersed in that culture and surrounded by successful technology at an early age built in me an appreciation for the vastness and hope that high-tech brings.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting stories come from the most exciting moments. For me, that involved creating a sensor that measures heartbeats from meters away. Seeing a heartbeat through wireless sensing felt like magic or something out of a science fiction movie. To be able to see that without a watch or bulky medical equipment was truly remarkable.

Then came the realization of what’s next — all the use cases, and where we could take the technology. It dawned on me that the first amazing story was just the beginning.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My family has always been there to encourage me. My mother, father, sister, and wife — all have played a supportive role. For example, on the day of our wedding, I had to take a business-related conference call in the morning when the rest of the family was relaxing and preparing, but we were facing a really tight deadline with one of the biggest customers we had yet to engage with. So, I pulled open my laptop, took the call, and then followed up by sending some proposals before disconnecting from work to enjoy the weekend.

It was unfortunate that the deadline for the deal, which ended up being a huge one for our company, was the morning of the wedding, but my family understood and was supportive. I’m thankful to them for helping me get through the challenging times.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“This too shall pass.”

When you are having a great month, it’s going to pass. When you are having a terrible month, it’s going to pass. We’re all going to go through a lot of ups and downs.

When you are on an upswing, you need to enjoy it and celebrate, because things will level off, and when you are in a slump, you can remind yourself that you will rise again and stabilize. Making sure you understand life comes in waves, and that “this too shall pass,” will help you stay focused in the long run.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

The first is open-mindedness. There have been points in my life where I have been stubborn. I’m sure I’m not the only one, but realizing that you may not always have the answers is really critical. When the people around you voice their views, that is a blessing. Make sure you are open-minded enough to receive their feedback. In fact, work to surround yourself with people who are willing to give you feedback and pay attention to what they bring.

Next, be really careful with prioritization. As a business leader, you will always have a billion things to do. To be successful, you need to be able to identify which are the most critical. I’ve benefited from being able to separate the things I need an A+ on from the things I only need a B on. Some things will need all of your efforts, so prioritize those, while other things are not as critical and can be handed off to someone else.

Thirdly, take care of your health. Get enough sleep, and make sure you are caring for your mental health. It’s easy to get busy and discount the fact that we’ve been on the job all day. We’ve all done that, but we can’t do it every day. We need to take care of ourselves.

I heard someone say once that you always have 30 minutes to move. We can all set aside 30 minutes to pull away from work and exercise a little. It doesn’t need to involve going to the gym. It could be walking the dog or taking a stroll through the park. When that tired slump hits at 3:00 PM, take a little time to move. Sometimes, I’ll take my next conference call outside just to make sure I’m moving.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?

Elderly care is something that has always been near and dear to me. We all have personal stories of elderly loved ones getting injured or worse because they were alone and weren’t able to take care of themselves. In fact, statistics show that about one-third of all elderly in the world fall at least once a year.

The technology that we’re working on is aimed at solving this problem by bringing added safety to those areas where the elderly are not covered and protected by something else. For example, if you are in the washroom and fall, you are suddenly in a very dangerous situation. Typically, you have locked the door, which means you can’t crawl out and no one can get in. How will anyone even know you are in there and that you need help?

What you need in a situation like that is a guardian angel. That’s how we think of our technology, which we call Silver Shield. It’s a life-saving technology with the potential to save hundreds of millions of people around the world every year by helping vulnerable people in situations where they would not have access to another source of help.

How do you think your technology can address this?

The technology we have developed measures small movements like heart rate or other body movements from meters away using radar. There is a lot of technology that is designed to keep the elderly safe — things like cameras and pendants that detect a fall — but they all have their limitations. For example, no one wants a camera in the bathroom. Our technology fills the gaps. It works in the bathroom because it uses radar and not a visual device.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

I have family members who unfortunately passed away because they were in a situation where they needed help but couldn’t alert anyone to their needs. They were not found in time. In those situations, most people don’t die from injuries related to the fall. They may break a few bones, but the injuries are not life-threatening.

What is life-threatening is not being found for eight to ten hours while they are stuck on the cold, hard floor. We may not be able to prevent them from falling, but we can make sure we know they need our help.

How do you think this might change the world?

There are a number of ways that this technology might change the world. Obviously, it starts with making it more safe for people as they age.

With more safety, people can have more autonomy. When you get to the stage where you need supervision, do you want to live in a long-term care home, or do you want to live in your own home that you’ve been living in for the last few decades? I would say people want to live in their own homes. They want to live where they’re comfortable. This technology allows them to live by themselves longer because it allows them to be monitored in a wider variety of areas.

As the technology is applied, it also provides relief for caregivers, significantly cuts down on elderly care costs, and reduces the need for certain healthcare workers. This is a need that is becoming more and more difficult to meet.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

Actually, this technology addresses one of the chief drawbacks associated with monitoring devices, which is privacy. Much of the monitoring tech being used today involves cameras or microphones, but who wants that in their bedroom or bathroom?

You want to protect the privacy of those whom you are trying to keep safe. This technology is the ultimate way to do that. It doesn’t look at what you are wearing or not wearing or listen to what you are saying. All it cares about is whether you’re on your feet and breathing. If there is a question about either of those two things, it makes sure that help is available.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?

1. This technology needs to be urgent, meaning that it needs to have a use case that is going to be urgent and can be deployed widely. Some people call this product market fit. We discovered working with the auto industry that their timeline for implementation is often 5 to 10 years. There is no urgency there, which is typical for large companies. Successfully creating technology that can make a positive social impact requires identifying an urgent need.

2. Scalability. You need to create a technology that is easy to scale at certain points. Non-scalable technology is great for finding that product market fit, but once you’ve found it, you’ve got to be able to scale. I heard recently about a company using driverless vehicles to deliver food, which is a technology with a lot of potential, but the vehicles are not autonomous. They are actually controlled by a remote driver, which is not scalable.

3. Find technology that doesn’t have a lot of substitutes. Our journey illustrates this point well. When we started developing it, people asked us if they could use it in the sports industry, in hospitals, or in office buildings. We told them you could, but that we weren’t targeting those uses because there were plenty of effective substitutes there. There are Apple watches for sports and the myriad of technology tools that are used in hospitals. Rather, we focused our technology on uses where there weren’t substitutes, like monitoring people in the bathroom and bedroom. If you don’t want cameras watching you or microphones listening to you — which most people don’t — there’s no other way to keep people safe in bathrooms and bedrooms except for radar.

4. Talk to your customers. When you consult with your customers you discover the root of the problem they’re trying to solve. Obviously, this is valuable for helping you to develop your technology in a way that ensures it will solve real-world problems, but it also helps you to sift through all of the possibilities to get to the best use case. We experienced this while working with the auto industry. They had a long list of ideas for ways our technology could be used. Talking to them allowed us to understand the direction we wanted to move in as well as the directions we didn’t want to move in as we were developing the technology. The conversations we had were critical.

5. Make sure you have balance in the culture you are creating. Looking back over the last three to five years in the startup and tech spaces, you see this “grit porn” or “hustle porn,” as I call it. That just isn’t the way to go moving forward. You want to build a team that is not going to burn out. You want them with you for the long haul, so you need to make sure the culture is sustainable for a very long period of time. In this area, we have two rules. The first rule is that we do not share about our personal lives unless we want to — whether or not you want to blend your personal and professional lives is up to you. The second rule is we don’t do extra work unless there’s an absolute deadline for it. We want people to show up at 9 and leave at 5. We want them to disconnect from work and have a personal life. If you can’t get everything done in 40 hours, are you going to get everything done in 50 hours? Probably not. Strive to build a culture that is balanced.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

Well, first of all, I’m glad you called me young. Now that I’m on the wrong side of 30, I always appreciate hearing that.

There is a Japanese concept called Ikigai that maps out a path for finding purpose in life. One of the things it recommends is that you do something that the world needs. There are many different ways to make money, but not all of them will truly make the world a better place.

When you are pursuing something that will save lives you are on a really strong mission. It’s not bad to just be pursuing financial gains, but if your work impacts the world in a positive way, it’s going to resonate stronger with your employees, with your audience, and ultimately with yourself.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

One of the people I’d love to have breakfast or lunch with is a scientist named Robert Langer. He is not a household name, but he founded a few very, very large companies. One of those companies was at the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine development — Moderna — and that was just one of 20 companies that he founded.

I think when you’re trying to build something to have a big impact on the world, there are a lot of things that you need to learn along the way. My company is at step one or step two, just getting started. To talk to someone like Robert Langer who has been through the entire journey 20 different times would be incredibly helpful.

For example, we have a very crazy vision that one day there will be no need for hospitals. Hospitals are for sick care. You go to a hospital if you’re not feeling well and they try to diagnose you by putting a stethoscope to your chest, but if you have all of your health data being monitored in your own home, you can change the hospital model to something like a precinct model. There, a group of doctors, surgeons, and other health professionals can monitor the entire neighborhood, let you know when they have a concern, and guide you to better health.

That type of change is not going to come in the next 10 years, but that’s where we may go in the future. So, how do you make something, a crazy idea that’s going to benefit humanity, come to life? I’d love to talk to Robert Langer about that.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

The best way to connect with me is via LinkedIn, where you can find me as Alex S Qi. I read most of the messages I get there myself and look forward to connecting with great people, entrepreneurs, and like-minded folks, who are interested in solving really big challenges.

In the US today, 18 percent of every dollar spent is spent on healthcare, and I wouldn’t say if you surveyed every American that they would not be happy with the healthcare system. There are a lot of improvements we can make.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much!

This article was originally published on Medium on October 15 2023