May 22, 2023 – Acivilate was recently recognized as a Top 10 Innovative Company in Georgia by the Technology Association of Georgia. This caused me to reflect on how we came to develop Pokket. Literally hundreds of people shared their unique perspectives on how the criminal justice and social services system is broken for them.

It reminded me of an Indian story about several blind men each asked to describe an elephant through touch. One said, “It’s thin like a rope.” He had the tail. Another said, “It’s strong like a tree.” He had a leg. Yet another said, “It’s thin, like leather.” He had an ear. Another said, “It’s flexible, like a hose.” He had the trunk. Here’s the thing. They had such different experiences and different descriptions, and they were each right.

Justice-involved people described being overwhelmed, so we provided executive function supports, such as text reminders. They described being turned away from providers, so we developed remote enrollment, to save time and stress. They lost their paperwork when couch-surfing, so we handle that. They were fed up with repeating themselves, and no one being on the same page, so we allowed them to share their information across agencies. And the case manager’s voicemail was always full. Messaging is never full. In such stressful living circumstances, we knew Pokket had to be so intuitive, someone could pick it up and just do what they needed. It was a joy, in our first focus group with the user interface, to hear from guys who had spent fifteen years or more inside, that they didn’t want to wait for Pokket to be released: they needed it now.

In the same way, case managers described being overwhelmed by too many cases, so we auto-sort on which clients are falling behind. They were discouraged because, without context, they couldn’t provide good advice, so too many clients failed. Sharing provides that context. They were fed up with clients not following through, so reminders help them too. They wanted to be able to message, but didn’t want to give out their cell phone number, or didn’t even have an agency one, so we support that. They wanted to be able to work on the go, but not be tethered by an app on their personal phones. Everyone was worried about HIPAA, so we chose the lightest weight way to satisfy that, and collect the approval evidence.

Administrators were trying to piecemeal together funding. They couldn’t find large budgets for pilots. There was no integration funding. We took that into account. They needed reporting, and better leading indicators than the three-year measure of recidivism. I heard stories of fraud and non-performance, so we built in checks. I heard judges acknowledge that they struggled in the he-said, she-said world of technical violations, so we provided the client with an opportunity to build a pattern of good behavior in real time.

We used valuable listening tools we’d learned at Flashpoint @ GaTech. Even so, spending two years listening first to so many diverse viewpoints didn’t allow us to magically build the perfect product. However, it did ensure there is benefit for everyone in the system, including the so very important grassroots organizations who can use Pokket as a case management system, instead of Excel. Each person’s story of struggle was a gift, whichever part of the beast they wrestle each day. They made all the difference!