Exude bold humility

Cue Advanced Visit Notes — A screenshot from a training video for the Cue visit note editor (note: the keyboard was not part of the actual UI but an overlay for the training video)

(Post 3 of 5) This is the third in a series of posts about the origins of Ambiki’s values.

Our third value: “Exude bold humility”.

When I first started at Curlee Communications (now Sidekick Therapy Partners), I was immediately drawn to visit notes - notes that therapists write after a session detailing what they did.

Why? As a data nerd, I observed this incredibly deep and detailed shorthand that was only being saved as a plain text string in the database.

It felt wasteful. Therapists were investing so much time, effort, and thought into these notes. Yet, there was so much depth from a progress tracking perspective that wasn't being tapped into because the data wasn’t stored in a structured manner.

I soon embarked on building an advanced visit note editor - a way for therapists to capture structured data. The challenge was making it both optional and quick.

Therapists were already overwhelmed by the demands of note writing.

The new editor I crafted included keyboard shortcuts. However, akin to a developer learning a new IDE, there was a learning curve.

Time to complete a visit note — The time to complete a visit note decreased as therapists became proficient with the new keyboard shortcuts, although not to the extent of the old system that didn't capture any progress tracking data.

Even though these advanced features and keyboard shortcuts were optional (at its core, it remained just a text box), I encountered significant resistance.

“Why can’t you just give us a text field to record the errors?”

Despite the editor's flexibility, resistance was inevitable. While I acknowledged that this initial model wasn't perfect (and I was aware it would evolve as therapists began using it and offering feedback), it took boldness to champion this vision.

Without that initial bold step, we wouldn't have reached the current version on Ambiki where we've eliminated the need for all those keyboard shortcuts. Through the integration of AI, therapists simply write their note, and Ambiki automatically extracts all the structured data, aligning it with the appropriate goal.

With Tenalog™, we've advanced it even further. AI generates a complete visit note with structured data from an audio recording of their session and therapists then review and make occasional edits as necessary.

Yet, even with these advancements, I recognize that our work is not done. Just as with earlier versions, Tenalog™ will continue to evolve, always listening to, and valuing, the feedback of our dedicated therapists.

To "exude bold humility" means not shying away from a strong, opinionated vision while simultaneously remaining open and receptive to feedback, direction, and varying perspectives.