DohJe: Videos, Photos, Design, and Gratitude

It's been a wonderful week of launching a new pilot site, a news story, and the continuation of great work with amazing people.  We live what we're doing, so this post is all about gratitude.

From Amanda Krantz, DohJe Founder and CEO -

I am so incredibly grateful to Gabe Slate and Eric Eglin at KRON4 News in San Francisco for the amazing story they just did on the DohJe launch at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital.  

Right after the news aired, we had a constant stream of "find my caregiver" submissions on DohJe.com.  And they are still coming in!  We connected with Eric Eglin after seeing his comment on a LinkedIn article by Cleveland Clinic CEO, Toby Cosgrove.  Eric expressed his gratitude to Toby and the staff at Cleveland Clinic, and DohJe Purveyor of Gratitude, Chris Wolstenholme, commented back.  Eric understood what we are trying to do from his personal experience, and graciously offered to wait to cover our story until we were ready to announce the UCSF launch.  

Gabe was the "live" guy, and is clearly a wizard.  He arrived at UCSF BCH at 2:15pm, set up in minutes, and did just one take of everything (because he makes everyone so comfortable).  He masterfully edited the footage and then aired it on the 8pm broadcast the same night.  He even managed to get the video up on the KRON4 site less than an hour later (when it normally can take over 24 hours).  Thank you Gabe and KRON4 News team!  

These three leaders at UCSF have been amazing to work with: Kim Scurr (RN and Executive Director of the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital), Diane Vonbehren (RN and Director-Perinatal Services), and Elizabeth Harrington (RN and Patient Care Manager, Center for Mothers and Newborns).  Here they are in the Charlie's Angels walk that Gabe shot for the KRON4 News story. It didn't make the final 2-minutes, but I thought they look super cool.  (Left to Right: Elizabeth, Kim, Diane).  Thanks also to Juliana Bunim, UCSF Media Relations Manager, who helped me navigate the maze and get approvals to shoot the interview at UCSF BCH.

(hallway video)

I’ve been having fun going to UCSF every week, meeting more of their staff, taking their photos, and making product improvements based on their feedback.  I learned that nobody likes their badge photo, so Team DohJe hatched a plan.  We think we can help them get comfortable putting their face on DohJe if they have a photo they love.  But I’m not a photographer so ...

Eric Raeber, Tea Towel Superhero

Abundant thanks to our superhero DohJe photographer, Eric Raeber!  Eric is super-fun to work with.  After a couple hours of laughing and taking photos of our "model" (rockstar Stanford ER MD, Rebecca Walker), Rebecca helped me capture this photo of Eric.  Rebecca had no idea what she was getting into.

Jessie K., RN

Not only has Eric taken amazing photos for our new posters, he has also taught me how to take headshots.  He lets me borrow his portable flash set-up so I can take photos whenever I’m meeting with people at UCSF.  Then he edits my photos and makes me look like a pro!  

Amanda Krantz, CEO in a sweater

The idea for better headshots came from the guys at about.me.  They did fantastic photo shoots to help get new users, and the awe of the experience just stuck.  This photo was taken at one of those shoots by Justin Winokur Photography. Thanks for the photo and the inspiration!

Eric's photo of Ahn and Rohan

Bobbi Williams, General Manager of Natural Resources, allowed us to set up an a photo shoot in the store's green room. Ahn and her boys were my planned-for models, but we photographed a couple of brave strangers as well. Thanks all!

The gratitude just keeps going and going and going ...

Kiersten Lammerding volunteered her time with early UX input. Thanks, Kiersten.

Thanks to Chris Anton at Cloudburst Design Studio in Boulder, CO for the graphic design on our posters. This is one of a series of eight.  He iterated, gave thoughtful suggestions, and ended up with a great final product.

A long overdue thanks to Angela Chih at AHCDesign for our DohJe logo design, our first website mockups, and our business cards!

DohJe poster on display at Summit Coffee

Thanks to Summit Coffee for providing great wifi, coffee, and empanadas during my "office" hours. And thanks also for proudly displaying our DohJe “Easy Peasy” poster where all of your loyal customers can see it!

Thanks to Elspeth C., the UCSF BCH nurse who helped me deliver a 9 pound baby and inspired me to start DohJe in the first place.

And a final thanks to my co-founders, Francis Li and Dawn Cheairs, who do EVERYTHING!

DohJe: A New Year for Gratitude

Nevada Below - Jan2014

The alarm sounds at 3:30AM.  Off to the airport for a company workshop.  Departing at the crack of dawn on Friday morning with meetings piled up all weekend.  It's the New Year, alright.  Does this sound familiar?  The laundry barely finished in time to get some rest; a quick kiss goodbye before vanishing to the ways of your work.

Busy lives, everywhere.  But in the millions of encounters each day, there are so many reasons to be grateful.  At this workshop, two colleagues will be face-to-face for the first time in four years.  The flight alone is an impressive feat.  Consider a near miss car accident at 70 mph, and the co-worker who maneuvered to avoid the catastrophe.  This is all amazing, but not out of the ordinary.  That's the point - the joy is in the journey.  Little things can have the greatest impact.

DohJe crossed into the new year celebrating over 6 months of collaboration with Mountain Midwifery, RenewalCare, and Westshore Midwifery.  With feedback from clinics, caregivers, and patients - DohJeNotes are easy to use to reach out and share appreciation.  Simple. The excitement at DohJe is revolving around launching with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital this month and expanding to large hospital facilities.

McWay Falls, Big Sur, CA

The story line above is actually based on events from the DohJe team meetup in Big Sur, California.  Attending a workshop to help guide the company culture and growth, the team was also planning the final steps for launching with UCSF mid-January.  The workshop leaders, Terces and Matthew Engelhart, are founders of Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre.  Being as DohJe literally means "thank you" in Cantonese, the alignment for us was straightforward.  But the other participants ranged broadly.  A founder of universities in Egypt, government employees, corporate finance executives, entrepreneurs galore.  They were all looking for guidelines to make their work more meaningful, enjoyable, and sustainable for themselves and their teams.  

It was astounding to see this range of professional guests coming from around the world to listen to the founders of a few restaurants tell their story of company culture.  That alone was a testament to the value of the Engelharts’ business style and reputation.  Participants shared experiences and backgrounds that were so expansive, but the fundamentals of open communication and respect resonated from each discussion.  When explaining the goal for DohJe, a participant dove into his experience with ambulance drivers when his mother was transported to the hospital.  She was very ill, and he was aware that this may be their last visit.  The ambulance drivers were asking him questions but he said that he was frozen in the moment.  The EMT crew helped to guide him through the questions and answers, resulting in the mother and son connecting one final time.  Afterward, he searched and tracked down the EMT crew to personally express his gratitude for their guidance and the gift of being with his mother.  They said:  "you're welcome, it's our job."

It's all part of the job.  Yes.  Your job might greatly benefit others, and certainly many individuals greatly contribute to your success.  Some might think saying “thank you” or sending a note of gratitude is ordinary or unimportant.  It is not.  Each time you act on your feelings of gratitude, you make the world and yourself, better.  Seriously.  Take a look at this Experiment in Gratitude showing evidence that the simple act of sharing gratitude can improve YOUR happiness.

By using DohJe to say “thank you”, you share this goodness with the recipient-caregiver immediately, and a cascade of gratitude begins.  If there is a nurse, doctor or caregiver that you wish you had said thank you to one more time, you should send a DohJeNote, here.

We will locate your caregiver and deliver your gratitude ...even if the hospital/facility is not a member, yet!

DohJe: the Walls Around Caregiver City

Everyone wants to know "how it all started".  Below is the letter written to a  fantastic nurse by my friend and DohJe CEO, Amanda Krantz.  It's the reason she started this whole endeavor and a glimpse into what happens when something cannot be brushed aside or ignored any longer.  

But first, a little note.  

I never imagined it would be so difficult to find a specific someone in healthcare.  After in-person visits and many phone calls and emails later, Amanda was finally given the email address for the nurse that she wanted to thank.  Through her experience and the experiences of many of you, we have learned that hospitals are so locked-down and worried about privacy that they aren't letting in the gratitude.  Safety and privacy are very important.  But so is gratitude and its impact on both the givers and receivers of care.  And I think we can all agree that stalking a caregiver on Facebook shouldn't be the way we find and thank them.

This is why we need DohJe.  We need a way to say "thank you" five years later.  We need immediate notification, even if the expression of gratitude was delayed.  We need to close the loop.  We need to stop writing this "little note" and let you read the letter.

Hi Laura,

I met you 5 years ago when you were assigned to me for labor and delivery of my first son at CPMC.  I've been wanting to say thank you for taking such great care of me!  I'm sorry I never was able to deliver my gratitude until now, but I thought you'd like to know how very grateful I am for the great care you gave me.   I stopped by the hospital a few times in person but you weren't working at those times, and I'm not sure if anyone ever passed along my note.

I know you see tons of patients and this description may still not help you remember who I am, and that's OK. I'll share anyway just to give you some context.  I've also attached a recent picture of my son Jude (who you helped deliver) and my second son, Kai who was delivered by VBAC with no drugs at UCSF (no offense against CPMC, but UCSF was more supportive of a VBAC).

With Jude, I was hoping to labor at home as long as possible and then have an unmedicated birth at the hospital.  However, my baby wasn't moving much the last few weeks and then I was admitted to CPMC to try to induce labor.  Before we even got to the pitocin step, you called in the docs for a c-section. I remember clearly looking to you to make sure I had to do that, and you told me, "yes, I called them in."  I never met you before, but I somehow completely trusted you.  Maybe it was because you had done a home birth yourself but I think it was also because you seemed to really care about me and understand my concerns about medical intervention.  When they gave me the option to take a wheel chair to the operating room, you asked me if I wanted to walk.  I had no idea how important something as simple as that was to me, but looking back at it afterwards, it was huge. Thank you for caring and doing the little things that you didn't have to do. It was really appreciated!  I later found out that when I was stuck in the OR recovery room for many hours because there were no rooms available in the postpartum area, you stuck around and made sure they did not take Jude away. I heard you made sure my son stayed with me, and Vitamin K shot or anything else he needed you would do right there. Thanks again.   

With the birth of my second son, 8 months went by before I went up to UCSF to thank that nurse, but I was able to thank her in person. I started asking her about how other people say thank you, and how we could make it easier so after having a baby and you're super tired, you can still find a simple way to say thanks. I started working on DohJe the following week.   I thought you might like to know that you were part of the inspiration for the site.  We just launched, so it's not working very well on mobile yet, and we still have a lot we want to improve. But you can check it out at www.dohje.com and let me know what you think.   :)

Thanks again for being such an amazing nurse and person.

Best,

Amanda

Unfortunately, that letter was sent more than two months ago, and Amanda has not yet received a reply from Laura.  Maybe she doesn't often check her messages.  Maybe she felt that she didn't need to respond.  Maybe it was the wrong email address.

So dropping by the hospital to connect or calling to express your gratitude to a specific caregiver rarely works.  And now we know sending a letter via email, even though the address was obtained through management, doesn't guarantee your words and photos will end up in front of the right person.  Caregivers are enclosed by so much fortification!  And how many times can we honestly expect the average grateful person to try?

What’s the solution?  DohJe and a mobile application.

Nearly every nurse, doctor, tech and every other person in industry carries a smartphone.  There's a tiny crack in the wall surrounding Caregiver City, and we're going to use technology to shine in some gratitude.  We’re working on the DohJe mobile app, and if we build it thoughtfully enough, caregivers will see a whole lot more gratitude within their fortress.

DohJe and the Path to Wisdom

As a startup, DohJe is faced with interesting challenges daily.  Thus far, we have been self-funded, self-reliant, and happy about it.  A few months ago, a fantastic entrepreneur and Stanford graduate, Vanessa Callison-Burch, let Amanda (DohJe CEO) know about an innovative award opportunity.  The Wisdom Award is “designed to further develop the great ideas that help people learn and share awareness, wisdom, and compassion.”  Vanessa’s endeavor, What Matters Now, provides websites for people affected by serious illness or injury and was one of three 2012 winners.  She urged Amanda to take a chance and apply for the award.  We decided to give it a shot.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Wisdom”?  A bent-over elder with silver hair and cryptic answers that all make sense later on in the journey?  I have the silver hair, but wisdom is not something I can say I own just yet.  Wisdom is more than intelligence and more than experience.  Wisdom comes when knowledge and experience meet up with good judgement.  As Amanda and I filled out the application for the Wisdom Award, so many truths were brought to light.  I've highlighted only a few of the many things we learned during the process.

Iterate Until It Hurts.  Occasionally, you can write something and it comes out fully-formed, as intended and perfect.  But so often, the first draft is only a hazy glimpse of the brilliant idea.  It does take several iterations of the same concept to really get to the meat of what you are trying to say, just like my College Prep Comp teacher lectured in high school.  However, going over the same bit of text 97 times may be a bit insane.  And two perfectionists working together equals many, many, many iterations.  The end result is something that we are very happy with, and have used bits of each piece already for other purposes.

Collaboration Makes It Better.  I am guilty of not sharing responsibility.  I don’t share because I like things done a certain way, or because I just don’t trust anyone else to get it done properly.  I like control, or the illusion of it anyway.  In this award application process I have learned to let go just a little bit.  It’s the collaboration of ideas and styles that allow the message to reach a much wider audience, appeal to a larger group, and resonate with the people necessary to take DohJe to the next level.  Working with an equally stubborn soul has shaped our vision, our mission, and our daily practices in a dramatic and positive way.  Instead of accepting compromise, we strived for unanimous approval and wrote pieces that contain the best of our ideas without any dilution.

Writing is Writing.  Composing these descriptions and goals for the Wisdom Award has been like writing a song that fits with a particular message.  Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the passion, but once it’s found, the process is the same.  Writing the song or writing the battle plan or writing an award application is an oscillation between creative and concrete thinking.  And again, compromise does not work here.  The best writing happens when the entire group is on-board and ready to rock.  Good thing Amanda and I were in a band together.

Working Remotely Makes It Work.  Some of you already know the benefits of working from home, of telecommuting, of conference calls across the country and around the world.  But this world is completely new to me.  Prior to DohJe, I had always been physically present to do my job.  Technology has allowed my friend and I to work on a document simultaneously, all while chatting and arguing and posturing.  There was no lag-time between the thought written down and the edits that came after.  Back and forth, back and forth, until the words on the screen suited both of our wills.  Thanks, technology.  We literally could not have done it without you.

So what’s the takeaway here?  Going through a difficult process almost always proves to be a worthwhile activity.  Even if we don’t win this award, the experience has been beneficial, and we now know ourselves and our goals so much the better.  I challenge each startup crew, entrepreneur, idealist, and inventor to go through the process of applying for an award or grant, and see for themselves how much better they become.  It may be subtle, it may be dramatic, but it will be different and it will be better on the other side.

DohJe: Just In Time for Nurses Week

You may notice a lot going on in the first couple of weeks in May.  Not only do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Mother’s Day, but these first weeks are also highlighted for our friends and neighbors in the healthcare industry.  National Nurses Week and Hospital Week help focus our attention on these individuals and institutions that are so important to our communities.  Most of us don’t need to be reminded, but plenty of us do forget to say “Thank You”.  These amazing people care for us through some of the most significant events in our lives, and now we have an easy way to show our gratitude to them.  

Meet DohJe.

Imagine you are about to become a parent.  You’ve done the research.  You think you know what to expect.  And then miraculously, brilliantly, your anticipated stranger arrives.  Everything you planned for fades into the background and that tiny human is now the star of the show.  Household chores and important correspondence alike are gently replaced with hope, swaddled tightly in good intentions.

Now imagine you are waking up in an unfamiliar room with bright lights, strange sounds, and a scent of something you almost remember.  Oh yeah, that’s what clean and fear and necessity smell like.  You were in an accident, and there’s a person above you holding your hand and asking how you’re feeling now.  A halo is above this man’s head, and you suddenly feel the urge to embrace him and name your firstborn after him.  After several weeks in the hospital, then a couple of months at home, you are back to normal, but there’s this nagging thought that you can’t quite identify.

Unexpressed gratitude.  That’s the common thread in these examples and probably in your life, too.  Crazy, tragic, significant events occur, and we feel so thankful to the people that help us through them.  Sometimes, you don’t realize how important it is to say “Thank You” until weeks or months or years pass.  Sometimes, you’re ready right away to share this gratitude, but can’t find the deserving recipient!  This is the reason that we’ve created DohJe.  Now we all have a tool to help find these amazing caregivers and thank them.