(2) The initial design phase.

My first step was to bring in consultants. Given the important and sensitive nature of this work, I assembled a global team of experts. Among them: a global vice president of cloud operations, founder and chief technology officer, and a software engineer, all from major tech giants.

To get started, I provided them with this detailed schematic:

Naturally, the inspiration started flowing. We jumped right in with some user testing, to see at what arm angle one could effectively type. Once we established the precise angles, I iterated on some designs based on a back-brace-and-rod approach.

In the next round of usability testing, I discovered that participant (n=1) experienced mild discomfort in the armpit region. Fortunately, my West Coast consultant was coming online. Bringing to the table 20 years of technical expertise and leadership, he unsurprisingly had several innovative ideas. He challenged the obviously impractical solution of voice-to-text:

Keys on the hoop

Keyboard hat

Mouse shoes

​Thus ends another productive day of entrepreneurship with lots to think about. Back to the drawing board.