Green Mountain Support Services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Alai Israel. All people know limits. Why are we here today? What's the reason behind this event? So today is the grand opening of the Taylor Street housing and bus station. And we are just so excited to have this as an addition to our community. And last question, as far as homelessness and eradicating homelessness, do you think this puts a big chunk in that hole? Well, I think that all strategies to address homelessness are good strategies, generally speaking. And adding more housing is absolutely a part of that. Is that going to end homelessness? No. But these 30 units in this building are going to be permanently affordable. Over time, they've got solar panels and they use heat pumps. And so the operation of them, like the running of them in terms of energy and utilities, should be relatively low. And that, I think, is a good step in the right direction towards keeping people in their homes. And last question, as far as down street is concerned, are you guys at City Council going to create more partnerships with down street and keep them strong? Absolutely. So we have a housing trust fund that makes available money for people who are getting into new houses in Montpelier and makes available money to major projects towards housing in the City of Montpelier. And we've given down streets on multiple occasions money towards housing projects. And I have no doubt that we will continue to support them and these kinds of projects financially when they come up. Hi, my name is Bill Fraser. I'm the City Manager in Montpelier. What's the reason why we're here today and the importance of this event? Well, first of all, we're providing 30 housing units in the heart of downtown. We're creating a new transportation hub for cars, rail, bikes and all sorts of transportation options here in the city. And it's exciting because after 20-plus years of work, this is ready to open. And it's a big day. In your opinion, since you're still in our home, this is from Montpelier. That's what the story is. Is the 30 apartments really a damper in that? Well, I don't know the direct relationship between the amount of homeless people and housing, but most of these units here are subsidized housing for affordable housing. So it stands to reason that when you have more affordable housing in your market, that there will be more options for people. So exactly what is this event today and what is the correlation as far as the partnership with Downs Street and yourself and your agency with this whole new building? Sure. So it's a very exciting event today. You know, it's a building owned by the city of Montpelier. They were the grantee for the federal funds. We'll be a tenant of theirs in this building. We're very excited to operate out of here. It's a beautiful facility. It'll be a big improvement for our passengers and for our employees with break areas, bathrooms. Hopefully we'll have a vending option in here at some point so you can buy a cup of coffee or a quick sandwich. You know, people can wait outside the elements and air conditioning and heating. So big improvement for everyone involved. Will there be a, just to follow, a security guard? We'll have, no. So we'll have customer service reps stationed at the facility. So you could buy a pass. You can ask a question, but the building will not be open overnight at this point. So going forward, do you think this closed the gap with, you know, people, for example, waiting in the elements and not having a transit center when other places in Vermont have it? Yeah, sure. So we opened a transit center in Burlington back in October of 2016 and that's worked out really well. Again, you know, no one wants to wait out in the cold or the rain for a bus. So with this facility, you know, we hope it increases ridership, provides better service to our existing passengers, and ultimately get more people on the bus and be more comfortable doing it. Can you tell us what today's event means for the one person of the year? Sure. So today we're celebrating the opening of the Taylor Street Apartments. That's 30 units of affordable and market-rend apartments. And basically what it means for the community is more housing, more housing for everyone, more housing downtown, and more housing in this beautiful building. Last question. Sure. Do you think this, in your opinion, is somewhat of a gap? Well, I can't say it closes a gap, but it certainly helps address the problem. So Down Street is committed to providing housing for homeless individuals and we'll continue to do that not just with this project and with all our projects and hopefully in the near future. That won't be that problem here in the city. How long has Down Street been a part of Montpelier and been part of the state of Vermont? Well, Down Street's always been part of Montpelier. It actually, its roots are here in Montpelier and Down Street was founded in 1987, so I think that's 32 years now. So there was nothing for housing and development before 87? Well, as an organization, we were formed in 87. So there was other organizations that filled that need. Since you had the time to fill the conversation with the Lord, can you explain to me the importance of today's event and the reason behind this beautiful house? Well, the importance is that we're building a transit center that's going to be accessible and usable by everybody and we're building housing that's needed desperately in downtown Montpelier. And it's an energy efficiency building. No fossil fuels are going to be used to heat it. And it's about building our strong downtown community. So the thing that's so inspiring to me is that there's one obstacle after another that all the folks who had this vision had overcome. And they did. And they did by working together. And it is an example of the power of cooperation and persistence. So this is a special day where there's a lot to celebrate. And this transit center in this housing is going to be available for generations. So congratulations to all who played a role. Last question comes to you. Since there's still a previous population, anything to remind you? Do you think the 30 units in this building close the gap or close a little bit of all opponents? Why? Why not? Well, they don't. But they help. I mean, it's one housing unit at a time. So the fact that you can't solve it all at once doesn't mean you don't do everything you can when you can. As the executive director of Down Street, a private nonprofit organization on a mission to foster social justice and create collective prosperity through the power of housing. Down Street along with our partner Housing Vermont co-developed this beautiful building and we are responsible for maintaining the Taylor Street apartments in perpetuity. Today is a big deal for Montpelier. And it's been a long journey to get here. I'm going to leave that story for the city to tell. So instead, I'll speak a little bit about the importance of this project. In recent months, Montpelier and many communities across Vermont have seen an increase in homelessness, particularly homeless youth. Like all SOSO challenges, homelessness is a complex issue that needs many varied solutions. The Taylor Street apartments and the French block apartments on Main Street that opened in January are certainly a part of the solution. Importantly, they provide a physical space that is safe and affordable and signals to an individual that they are worthy. Together, we have added a total of 48 new apartments serving previously homeless individuals, modest income households and market rate renters to downtown Montpelier in the last year alone. This is a big step forward in our fight to end homelessness and alleviate the housing burden many of our fellow renters face daily. We must also understand that four walls and a roof are not enough to make a home. To make a house a home or to make an apartment a home, there needs to be a connection to community. Commonly, community is thought of to be one's family, but all too often, and particularly for our homeless youth, that's not an option. All of us need a community that celebrates our successes and supports us through life's challenges. From Montpelier, in towns and cities around Vermont to Flourish, I truly believe we all need to not only increase our attention and investment in housing, but actively create and strengthen our community connectedness. That is why I am proud to be here opening 30 additional affordable apartments in the heart of Montpelier and celebrating community. Because going beyond four walls and a roof and harnessing the power of our collective community is transformational change. And that is exactly what this project was all about. So thank you all for the community investment of time and resources to make this beautiful building and what it stands for possible. In the spirit of harnessing the power of community, I ask that as you wander around the property or order something from the great local food vendors, and while you're stomping your feet to the sky blue boys, take the time to connect with someone. It could be someone new, it could be an old friend or someone you came with. What's important is that you make a connection. And if you'd like, you can start with Down Street. We have staff who are available to chat. Our tables are over here. You can also visit our brand new website at DownStreet.org. And this is very high techy. You can also text the word Down Street to 33777 to join the conversation. As we work to harness the power of housing in our community today and every day here in our beautiful capital city and across central Vermont. Before I hand over the mic from my full heart, I would like to say thank you all for sharing in this historic moment for our community. Be proud of your contribution, celebrate and have some fun. Thank you. It's now my great honor to introduce a man who has been a champion for Vermonters throughout his career. Since his election to Congress in 2006, he has been a thoughtful and effective legislator who chooses governing over gridlock. The congressman is a great builder of community and connection through his many, many roundtables he has across the state of Vermont. He walks the talk representing all of us each and every day. We're happy to have him join us here today. Really thrilled to be here. And you know, I mean your remarks really kind of nail it. We're facing a lot of challenges in our country, especially in Washington. And a lot of what I hear from people, whatever their politics are, are a sense that you've got to find a way to come together to get things done. But it's about a community. It's not just getting ahead for yourself. And that's why what you're talking about with community is so important. You know, I leave advice, talk to somebody next to you, that's important. But what's really important is finding ways to work together. What is so inspiring to me about this project is that this is impossible to achieve and here it is. Where do you get the money? How do you deal with the planning commission? What did the mayor and the town manager have to contend with? What happened when you started digging and found stuff that you wish wasn't there? I mean, this would not have happened if anybody knew what faced them when they had this wild idea of this transit center and the housing right here in the heart of Montpelier. So, you know, most of us get so much more satisfaction when whatever talents and whatever energy we have are put together, put towards making something that's going to have lasting benefit. And this could not have happened without a lot of individual people deciding that they had to work together. And it's across the whole range. You know, the original money goes back to when Jim Jeffords was our senator. And he worked with Pat Leah, a Republican, and I think Jim was a Republican and a Democrat at that point. And then you had the challenges at the state, which is always on a tight budget had to contend with. And then you had our wonderful state agencies that has people that just don't take no for any answer. And then you had to have that driving force and confidence that comes from local leadership.  And here we are. We're going to go about it. This public space just right here, you look out over this magnificent river so that is getting opened up. It's something we can all enjoy, wander down here on a warmer day and have lunch. But then we're going to have people that are living right here and being able to walk around downtown. You've got the Transit Center, which is going to help us address the significant transportation challenges that we have. So it's just a wonderful moment to celebrate. And it's a vivid reminder that our efforts make a difference. Everyone who has had a role in this, your role was crucial to making this happen. And this is a legacy that is going to be here enjoyed by young and old in generations in the future where they had no clue about how it came about. They'll be growing up in a world where this has always been here. And let's hope that when their opportunity comes, they're going to have the vision, the will and the capacity to cooperate that you had. So thank you so much for letting me be here to enjoy this celebration and this extraordinary accomplishment by the citizens, the governmental officials and the people of Montpelier and of the state. Thank you. Thank you, Congressman Welch. Our senior senator who grew up just down the road across from the State House is a tireless supporter of our communities, affordable housing and public transit. Every year, Senator Leahy successfully leads the effort in the Senate to secure federal funding for affordable housing. Back in 2003, Senator Leahy along with Senator Jeffords secured $7 million in federal funding for the Montpelier Transit Center, laying the groundwork for the project. We cannot thank him enough for all he does for our nation, Vermont and his hometown. And on behalf of Senator Leahy, we'll now hear from Pauli Major. Senator Leahy was here for the groundbreaking of this project a little over a year and a half ago, and I think many of you are here as well, and it was a little bit warmer that day, but the same cheer was there that day as there is here today and the same excitement for this project. As Eileen mentioned, Senator Leahy has a long association with this project. Back in 2003, he worked with his friend and colleague, Senator Jeffords, to secure original funding for the Transit Center, $7 million. And what that funding was part of was a vision to create a statewide network of transit centers. In Bratiborow, there's a transit center in Rutland, one in Burlington, and now with this one in Montpelier, it's really completing that network and completing that vision. Now, when Senator Leahy travels around the state and meets with the Remanters, he frequently hears about the challenges of rural poverty, and two issues often rise to the top in those discussions. One is housing and the second is transportation. And we all know that housing provides us all with safety, with health, and with dignity, and transportation links us to our work, our communities, and our families. So he has supported this project throughout the years because it addresses both of those critical needs together. And he knows that it will improve the lives of the Remanters who live in this building, those who pass through the Transit Center, and those in Montpelier as well. He wanted to give a special thanks to Housing Vermont and Down Street, who, with their incredible leadership, had the skill and expertise to bring this complex project across the finish line. So he says, thank you to Eileen Pelletier and Nancy Owens at Housing Vermont, and their incredible teams. He also offers his congratulations to everybody who lent a hand in this project. To the travelers who will pass through this Transit Center, he wishes a safe journey. And to the tenants of Taylor Street Apartments, he says, welcome home. Thank you. Phil here is always a great partner to Down Street in Housing Vermont. We would not be here today without the hard work of the city staff and the city council led by Mira Ann Watson. But I want to take a moment and say something to my friend and colleague, Bill Frazier. Congratulations, buddy. It's been a long, hard journey. Your determination and hard work were instrumental in getting us here today. As well, I'd like to thank the Montpelier Housing Trust Fund led by Jen Holler and Pauline Nickel for their support of this project. And now we'll have a few words from Mira Watson. Thank you for coming out today to celebrate with us the opening of the Taylor Street building. The council in Montpelier has had a goal of increasing the amount of housing in Montpelier since before I was mayor, since before I was even on the council. It goes back a long time. So I know that I don't simply speak for myself when I say that the council is very excited to see this project finally come together. This site has seen some significant transformation over the last few months. And so I just want to take a moment to journey back a little bit to remember what was here. When I first moved here, this was an empty lot with a trailer and an office on that site, on the site. And some of you may remember that this site was a junkyard before that. Who remembers that? Some folks might remember when it was a junkyard. What a long way we have come. This transit center, bus station, and housing are all such a welcome addition and asset to the city. This is going to be, or it is, this is an entrance to our city. This is a gateway. This is where some people may be taking their first steps into Montpelier, where we have a chance to make a first impression with visitors. I think this modern, lovely building is going to make a great first impression. I'm also delighted that these 30 apartments that are in this building are going to be permanently affordable. And in addition, this building is not heated with any fossil fuels, which I think is just remarkable. This is also one of the first buildings that has been built with the river in mind. We have a recent campaign in Montpelier to face the river. What does that mean? We've been ignoring our rivers for a long time, but when you get to take a tour and see the views out of the windows, oh my goodness, the views are amazing and it just so celebrates the rivers. So that I think is also just a wonderful aspect of this building. There are many players who have worked together, as has been mentioned, to make this project happen. So in my capacity as mayor, as much as I can represent the people of the city of Montpelier who voted in support of this project, I want to add my voice to thanking all of those who collaborated to make this happen. So thank you to our state delegation, also to Down Street and Housing Vermont, and thank you to the state for their collaboration support, financially as well as otherwise, in terms of making this project come together. So I'm going to turn the mic over to our city manager who has been involved with this project significantly longer than I have. So Bill Frazier, our city manager. Thank you again. For the units of housing, the new shared use path, the new bridge and a designated green space for a new confluence park. This has also spurred a new Taylor Street upgrade which work will be in shortly and be completed by next July. Next week on the same site we're unveiling a new significant piece of public art. The transformation of this area from junkyard, gravel parking lot, and back alley out of town into a modern community center in downtown gateway will hopefully be completed to the near future with the addition of a new hotel and parking facility. This vision was articulated in a city state master plan adopted in 2000. That plan was used to secure a city bond in 2002 and as you've heard, 7 million in federal highway and transit funds in 2003. In the many, many ensuing years, the project has overcome almost every hurdle imaginable. EPA approval of both testing and then the remediation for a hazardous waste site. FEMA, redesignation of a floodplain requiring us to redo all the flood work, flood corridors, a failing retaining wall out here, complicated property acquisition processes, changes in regulations as the time went by, budget challenges and complexities inherent in using multiple federal funding sources. Through it all, we're here in front of this magnificent building and site. This work represents a new era of downtown residency and transportation options. This center will improve both transit and interstate bus travel, allowed for future rail opportunities, increased pedestrian and bicycling option. With the new parking facility nearby, this will become a hub of true multi-multi regional transportation. Now I started to think of people to thank and sort of started feeling like a graduation where everyone's name gets so I'm going big picture. But we would not be out here without our amazing partners, Housing Vermont, Down Street and Green Mountain Transit. So those folks are here. And I give a quick shout out to our original housing partner, Red Stone who was going to do this as a private project, realized it didn't work and gracefully worked to transition it to the more public nonprofit agency. We thank VTrans, the highway, transit and rail divisions as well as Secretary Flynn who provided us help. Federal Highway and Federal Transit offices provided the initial funding, regular guidance and long-term patients. The agency of Commerce and Community Development supported the housing side of the equation while also supplying HUD funding for the retaining wall restoration. Du Bois and King through Jeff Tucker has served as the overall project manager for many years. GBA architects not only designed a fabulous building but led a comprehensive public process in advance of that design. In DEW, our lead contractors and their subcontractors have worked cooperatively to stay within budget and assure quality on that project which you will see when you tour. Private landowners, the trust, TKS properties, Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Overlake properties, the HEMI family and the Basharar family and most notably Alan Carr all sold all or portions of their private property to the city to allow for this to happen. Two separate local citizen committees invested significant personal time into creating and implementing this vision. City Councils over the years remained resolute in seeing this through to completion and made difficult but necessary decisions along the way. City staff and the planning development, Public Works Finance and Assistant City Manager's offices went above and beyond in meeting the many challenges.  Corey Line and Public Works came in as a new project manager, young guy, thrown into this very large and complex project with moving parts and large personalities. He's done an admirable job of getting us today's finish lines. Of course, here, thank you very much. It's perhaps appropriate for this project that the last minute environmental issues have held up completion of work on the other side of the river. Like the rest of the project that it will get done and the community will be proud of it should be done by spring. I think all involved for making this project a success and a less severe. I thank all of you for listening to these speeches when you really just want to get in and see the buildings. So have a good time. Okay. A couple quick thank yous before I hand it off to Kathy Byer from Housing Vermont. So I also want to acknowledge Sheila Reed from Senator Sanders office who is seated here to my right. Hopefully we'll have such a strong support for housing and all things community by our entire congressional delegation. And in addition to that I want to take a moment and thank our state senators and legislators who have joined us here today. So if you're here in that capacity, thank you senator. Thank you for the work of affordable housing in strong communities for many years as well. And now I want to introduce Kathy Byer from Housing Vermont. My dear friend and colleague who we would not be here today if it wasn't for Kathy's determination in the details of this project. When we came in a couple years ago it was called up and said Kathy we got to do this one and she got in her car and got to Montpelier and got the job done. So thank you Kathy. Thank you Eileen Bill and Mayor Watson and everyone who's here today. You know when Down Street and Housing Vermont were first approached about getting involved in this um in Tana Street I remember having some doubts um it was a visionary concept and I got online and googled and you know there's not many examples of housing being built on top of a transit center in fact I found one example in the entire country um there is housing built near a transit center but there's not a lot of examples of housing being built on top. But here we are today with the vision completed and this beautiful building at Tana Street I call it the most transportation efficient building in the state. Whoo! Did you The money Vermonters spend on their um energy budget over half of it is on transportation.  It's just can you imagine spending half the time in your car that you do know. Here at Taylor Street you can hop on your bike you can hop on a bus or you can just stroll downtown. So I am particularly proud of this building today and as is usually the case we have some investors and funders to thank for helping us get to the finish line. The equity investment at Taylor Street and the construction loan came from People's United Bank Maryland Hardacre Senior Vice President for a commercial lending at People's is here today um and she's standing in the back raise your hand Marilyn. Let me just say given the fact we have one building but two owners this wasn't exactly an easy construction loan for Marilyn to underwrite. So I want to give us big thanks to Marilyn. We also had support from our three leaders in affordable housing the Vermont Housing Conservation Board the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and the Vermont Community Development Program. During 2017 the legislature Governor Scott and our state leaders in housing work together to pass a $28 million housing revenue bond. It is through this housing revenue bond that we've been able to build more housing across the state as as is a case with Taylor Street which is $289 million from that bond. Today we get to hear a few remarks from all three of our state housing leaders starting off with Gus Selig from the Vermont Housing Conservation Board. What a wonderful day to be with everybody. Thank you I'm going to be very brief today we invest in housing and conservation all over the state because communities care and because it's a point of unity and I want to particularly thank Congressman Welch because 30 years ago the idea of environmental community the historic preservation community and housing advocates working together seemed to most people as kind of crazy and he was one of the lead sponsors and the president of the senate when the legislation passed so thank you so much Congressman this happened because the city had a vision and it was a vision of downtown and a vision of access to the river but also a vision of inclusion and that inclusion is talked about and worked on by your housing task force and all the taxpayers here which includes a whole lot of my staff contribute to that housing that's local housing trust fund and it's one of the reasons that it's so easy to say yes to this community when it seeks resources. Because of the housing revenue bond which there's a number of legislators who should be called out including Representative Stevens, Senator Cummings I don't know if Representative Hooper's here but all of them supported the housing revenue bond and you'll hear from in a moment from my colleague Maura Collins who runs among the most creative housing finance agencies in the country that issued the bond it is a really big deal that this development these 30 homes and 19 more down the street have been produced in just one year by Down Street and Housing Vermont and hats off to you and really over the last dozen years along with the Montpelier Housing Authority 100 homes added to this community and a tribute to everybody who contributes to the housing trust fund Planning Commission who support that work because of the revenue bond our investment here is about double what we usually can do about one third of the cost of the project the last thing I want to just speak to very briefly is we get asked all the time about why is affordable housing so expensive and I often say well if it wasn't expensive it would be affordable but there's a different part of why it costs so much and we had this conversation in St. Johnsbury it's about what our values are it's not just what the cost is so we want buildings that are energy efficient we want buildings that are conveniently located to services and to commerce and to all the amenities of a community and what I want to say is I think in all those cases this development these homes the homes of the French block will exceed the cost so to those of you who've done the heavy lifting and made those of us at the housing and conservation board look good by being able to provide grants and loans thank you so much for a job well done and we look forward to the next time we can be back in this community next we'll hear from more Collins from the Vermont housing finance agency as Gus said one of the most creative HFAs in the country VHFA allocated the tax credits to this project but also provided a $500,000 permanent loan to this building and we closed on that loan in September I'm a numbers nerd I love this number the interest rate is 4.085 percent that is a really good interest rate thank you more one of many funding partners in this project we awarded the federal tax credits that went to the partners that our partners People's United and others invested in and these federal tax credits make up about 70 percent of the housing portion of this building and that program is critical for wonderful downtown communities like this and we are so lucky to have representative Welch who has long supported this important program including an expansion of that program that's being considered now by the Congress and it also has the support of both of our senators as well so in Vermont we are being an example that our federal partners are pointing to properties like this one when they are championing the need for more of these federal resources and Bill and others have all spoken to the past history of this site I am one of the newer comers players of this property I was at the groundbreaking but I wasn't even in this job at the time that this building first dug the first shovelfuls and so as one of the newer people I can't have remarks about the long history of what happened on this site. I've heard the stories of John Anderson and others and the tireless champions who fought to make sure this vision became reality but I haven't been part of that but I have never been so excited to look towards the future for this site I think that it's wonderful to know that there's such a commitment by Down Street and Housing Vermont and many of the local social service agencies to make sure that homeless Vermonters will have homes in this building. It's wonderful to know about the recreation and transportation connectivity that's going to be possible but the vibrant downtown can be equitable and accessible to all for the future so thank you for letting me be a part of this and I look forward to watching this building and its residents blossom from here thank you Vermont Community Development Program through the city of Montpelier also provided a critical piece of the funding puzzle and Commissioner Josh Hanford is here today also representing Governor Scott who couldn't make it. Come on up Josh It's getting chilly and there's a lot of people out there really quick but just sitting here and watching the people walk by with their dogs and the bike this is a game changer really from Montpelier to not just be looking towards State Street and at the Capitol but actually appreciating the river that's here and this bike path and this public space is just incredible really for the work we do at the department, downtown housing, community development this is all of it wrapped in a very pretty picture I just wanted to thank a lot of folks that are involved obviously the city of Montpelier Down Street, Housing Vermont but really I remember a day shortly after maybe a year after Irene walking with Mike Miller and Kevin Casey right in the bridge looking at that retaining wall and thinking how could the federal funds that Congressman Welch and Senator Sanders and Senator Leahy brought to Vermont from Tropical Storm Irene how could that be support here thankfully there, it's weird to say that thankfully the wall was damaged by the high water but we were able to replace it and remove some of the contaminated soil behind it five, six years ago and then add on with direct support for the housing here through the city again just recently so this is awesome I really plan on spending some time down here myself walking from up on the hill to the vibrant downtown that you guys have really been champions in creating, thank you people who spent more hours on this building than I think any of us could possibly imagine Echoeen, Bill Frazier's comments about Gossens-Bachman architects great Gossens could not be here today Tom Bachman is out there and I believe is a master at creating a sense of place with each building he designs and beautiful homes for our residents and I really think both of us say thank you a big thanks to our contractor that Bill also mentioned is Don Wells here I thought he was going to be here President of DEW maybe he didn't make it but I see some folks with DEW jackets on here raise your hand thank you so much I think we had a team of project managers on this building we had Allison Freikin from Down Street, Ted Samuelson from Housing Vermont Corey Lyne and Todd Bevincher from the city Sue Allen used to be with the city Mary Jane Pointer from Efficience in Vermont, these folks these folks and countless others deserve a huge round of applause for all their efforts moments away from getting into the building I promise I want to thank the board staff and supporters of Down Street housing and I also noticed that both our board member and representative Stevens is over here on the left so thank you for being here as well we have a community photograph and we mean it when we say we would love it if all of you could come we're going to walk around this way we're going to take a photograph as soon as that's done the housing part of the building is going to be this way over here you'll see a door and the transit center of course is right here so please I got the video here two, three sorry everybody who wants to be in the picture will give me one two, three that's for the taking can we take one? can we? to operate out of here so we're hoping on November 25 I'm calling the phone yeah the way it's around. That's what it is. It's a lot of... Next one. That's sad. Interesting. I'm not good at it. Just kidding. Yeah, but it's sad. Very sad. Very sad. To support for Ableton on Air, Green Mountain supports services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health where hope and support come together. Ala Israel. All people know limits.


from Korea to Germany, from Alaska to Puerto Rico. All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert to defend our country, you the American people, against aggression. This is the big picture. An official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the big picture, here is Sergeant James Mansfield. Today, we look at the American Army in Germany, the United States 7th Army. This area, along with the section of Berlin, is the sector we hold out. To the west is the French sector, the British in the north, and in the east, the Russians. We've maintained troops in Germany ever since we cracked the Siegfried Line, and at first, helping to denazify the country and helping law and order back on its feet so that one day, Germany might regain its place in the family of nations. When the Cold War in the Far East reached the boiling point with the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, the Cold War in Europe lost none of its chill. And still today, the 7th Army is ready for anything. And now, the big picture inspects the Army's effort towards getting ready and staying ready in Europe. In Berlin, Germany, there's a big bell. It hangs high in a tower of the Schoneberg Rathaus, seat of the government of West Berlin, a gift of the American people to the people of Berlin. Maybe you were one of the thousands who chipped in for it. On it, there is an inscription that this world under God shall have a new birth of freedom. At precisely noon each day, this bell is rung. To keep that bell ringing, to help make the bell's message stick, that's what the American Army is doing in Germany, alongside our lives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That's the job of the United States 7th Army. In the hottest spot in Europe today, it spells out just one word. For occupying Easter in Germany is a power that has long declared its intention to dominate the world. Army go home, they say.  Heckle, kidnap, murder, spy, and enshrine men like Mao, leader of communist aggression in Korea. And behind their curtain, they mass their strength. We don't know when they're going to move or if they're going to move west. But whenever and if ever, we've got to be ready.  The big guns are ready with live ammunition and so are the small weapons. The machines are ready and so are the men. Alert. A word here that means two things in the big picture, ready to discourage an enemy from striking, ready to meet him if he comes. But you can't keep an army wound up like an alarm clock just waiting. So the 7th Army comes and closes at Cannes to fighting its own war in Germany. In maneuvers like the recent joint United States French exercise rose punch. With the arrival in the field of Lieutenant General Charles L. Boathe, then commanding general of the 7th Army, and now in command of all United States forces in Europe, the exercise is launched. At all 600 hours, an aggressor force of 25,000 American and French troops representing the armored spearhead of an enemy went into action in the cold rainy dawn of northern Hesse. Mission? With a lightning surprise attack to seize the vital river crossings of the Middle Rhine between the German cities of Mainz and Bonn. With the job of defending the territory, 50,000 friendly troops, specific mission to cushion the shock for 72 hours while a strong defense line could be built up along the Rhine, and machines on the move. The aggressor elements trying to plunge through in four armored columns. The defenders slowly withdrawing, trying to keep their units intact, but delay the aggressor for those long, long three days. All the knowledge, all the training, and conditioning of every man put to the test that might one day come for real. With bullets instead of blanks. No enemy fire overhead, but if there were, the troops couldn't have moved any flatter. No enemy machine gun cutting loose on the embankment, but a sortie against one couldn't have been executed with much more realism. And when a man hit for cover, he hit, even though it might be a little soupy. Nothing to hide from, except maybe the future. But the time to learn to smoke screen a movement is now, where a mistake can be pointed out by an instructor instead of an enemy marksman. Alert, and it's food on the fly. And the stars and stripes, the GI newspaper, really on the fly, delivered to troops in the field by helicopter. And in place of enemy fire to determine which troops would have been killed or captured, umpires like the major. Even though it sometimes took an argument to convince an earnest lieutenant that he and his men had been legitimately captured by a French unit. But as in any kind of game, even one of war, the umpire is always right. French Marshal Jouin, NATO commander of Allied land forces in central Europe, was one of the many high-ranking officers on hand to study the preparedness of the troops, along with high-ranking officers from almost every nation allied to us by the North Atlantic Treaty, like Portugal's General Pinto Ribeiro. The German population too got an eyeful of the strength that is ready to be mustered should trouble burst out of the east. And just as wherever the United States Army goes, the smaller citizenry got a stomachful of chocolate bars and gumdrops. But out in the country, there were some hopping mad farmers until they learned the army would repay them for crops unavoidably damaged by the great treads of the tanks. For three days and three nights, exercise rose bush went on. Towns fell and were retaken again and again. The defenders falling gradually back but winning their goal.  The defenders held stubbornly to every foot, every vantage point, till superior aggressor power incontrovertibly put them out of action. At the end of the exercise, the critique, our own high brass with that of the NATO nations conferring with the officers actually commanding troops in the field to hash it out, to find out what was right and what was wrong. What is the potential of the forces committed to dissuading or stopping an enemy attack?  But to get back to that word alert, the key word of the seventh army and what it means to the American soldier, the GI himself in Germany. Sergeant Martin here is pretty typical. How about it, Sergeant? Alert, what is its significance to you? Well, right now I guess it means getting this VHF antenna up. Communications, it'll bring into the command post here the high frequency signals transmitted from battalion headquarters. That's the job for today. But you know, alert means something else to us GI's stationed here in Germany. We live a pretty good life when we're not in the field. Almost like back home in Detroit, except for that word alert. Take me for instance. I've got my car. I've got a pretty good home here in Frankfurt. Nothing fancy, but I've got my wife here and my kids. Karen, she's in kindergarten. Special school for army youngsters with teachers right from the States. Yep, and Christopher Martin, born Frankfurt, Germany. Who'd ever have thought that when we were coming through the Siegfried line? Leslie, Mrs. Martin, she's been over here for quite a while now. It was a little hard at first maybe for her to adjust. Now you'd think she was brought up in Germany. Bet she sets as good a table as any Hausfrau in Frankfurt. Knows how to shop. Of course, there's a commissary for military personnel. But there's shopping to be done with the German merchants too. Good morning. Good morning, Paul. Will you be here close to the stairs? I'm not here. Okay. So, how do you feel? I'm not safe. So, thank you. Paul adds up to good chow. For the rest of it, it's pretty much like it would be anywhere else, I suppose, for a working man. Of course, the football game you watch over here is soccer and there's that clock ticking away in your head with a built-in alarm that can go off at any moment to ring that alert. There's church on Sundays.  There's window shopping with the wife. Wests and Germanies really back on its feet too. Plenty to shop for. Yeah, even a hot dog. Except that in Frankfurt, we call them Frankfurters. Then sack time till 6.30 when the kids blow their own special tune for Reveley. That is, unless... This Martin. Okay. Okay, I'll be there. And that's right where the happy family life of yours truly takes on a different picture. The whole family is geared for getting pop out on the fly because there's just one thing we're really here for and whether it's the real thing or another practice alert, we've got to be on our toes. A good part of most GI's time in Europe is put into special training to better fit him to meet an enemy wherever and however he comes. At the Mountain Warfare School, South Feldon, Austria, it's done on skis. A little clumsy now, maybe some of them, but before the course is over, learning from Austria's top instructors, men who never saw a pair of skis before will be riding them as though they were born wearing a pair. Sport? Sure. But with obstacles that don't usually race the polite ski run, they'll stay at it till every man can make that ditch and keep going, learn how to survive in the snow too, to live out in it and build their own shelters, be it ever so humble. Soldiers on skis, mountain troops, ready to go places on the white stuff fast if that's what's called for when an enemy strikes. In Lund, Greece, Germany, a former Nazi SS installation is used now by us for training infantry scout dogs. A nose for trouble, recruited and trained to sniff it out on patrol. Most of the commands taught an infantry dog are silent. You can't yell out here, Fido, when you're prowling around enemy territory and the dog has to learn something about that old business of the army traveling on its stomach. He must develop unquestioning obedience, regardless of what he is asked to travel through. Or, for that matter, over. He also has to learn to be tough if necessary. The idea isn't to make him a one-man dog exactly, but he's got to know that there are people in the world he isn't supposed to be fond of and that it's okay for him to attack where his nose is smelled out trouble. And every soldier has to learn to drill, to proudly swing out with soldier master in an infantry scout team. And here at Degrendorf, Germany, is where army nurses learn to be rugged. In an intensive course, every nurse learns how to live and work in the field, even to putting up their own canvas hospital. Learning to work outside the big, well-appointed hospital without the helpers and the stainless steel operating table. To understand what it's like to perform where a soldier's life can depend on the speed and the know-how of the nurse upfront, with the start of the shooting in Korea, every effort's been made to conserve supplies and training, as here in the Artillery Observation Course in Munich. In this problem, you will focus all the knowledge of artillery that you have gained in your other classes upon the destruction of a specific target. Gentlemen, your field of fire will be this puff board, which represents the actual terrain with road intersections and the church steeple. The maps that you were issued prior to the class represent the area that you see before you on the puff board. Okay, Sergeant, to Spain, you take the first problem. Your target will be this tank in the wooded area here. Now, Sergeant, fire this mission just as though you were on the observation post in the field. The ingenious puff board lets the student perform as though he's calling for actual artillery fire. Chemicals simulating shell bursts, register his shots on targets. Forward observer, able company, fire mission, asthma, 5,800, marked center of sector, enemy tank will adjust, 400. An operator under the puff board simulates fire on the exact spot it's called for. Overline, drop 200. Okay, Sergeant, to Spain, you're on the target. Now what will your next command be? Repeat range and fire for effect. It isn't all training for the GIs in Germany though. Through the German Youth Activities Organization, they're doing some of the teaching themselves, teaching German kids a way of life for one thing. The GYA just sort of grew up from the days when American troops were taking swastika handled daggers away from Hitler youths and teaching them how to play baseball instead. Now in almost every city and town in the American sector of Germany, GYA clubs sponsored by the army bring hobby and art instruction, recreation and sports to thousands of German youngsters. And boxing gloves with Marcus of Queensborough rules in place of Nazi daggers. Then there's the soapbox derby each year held by the GYA. Each driver has his own GI sponsor and coach. Entrance come from all over the American sector to the final heats on a Frankfurt slope. American general to the winner. Symbol of the thought that the soldiers of a democracy are here to help, not as conquerors. Seventh Army troops have had other opportunities to demonstrate themselves as good neighbors in Europe. When Holland's dykes went out under the hammering of tremendous seas last winter and new storms were blowing up, army engineers went into fast action. Sandbags were the fingers in the dykes this time and GIs prepared them by the thousands working night and day to ready the dykes against a new onslaught of nature. A bulwark against the further devastation of flood. The Dutch will not soon forget help rendered in time of desperate need by American soldiers working shoulder to shoulder with their own men around the clock helping to save the lowlands from further ruin. But mostly with the Seventh Army, it's preparation to meet man's worst catastrophe, war. Remember all the river crossings our troops made in Germany when we were shoving ahead in World War II? Well, our army is still crossing German rivers the hard way in training exercises like Operation Boat Ride. Problem, a division crossing of a mine river from Hanau to a Schaffenberg. The farther shores theoretically held in strength by the enemy. To cover the crossing, keep the enemy ducking on the other side, heavy firepower. The division artillery including the big self-propelled howitzers are ready to throw across a curtain of steel and lead as a screen for the hazardous operation. Machine guns ready. The artilleryman working as fast against time as though lives depended on a quick ranging of the pieces. The combat engineers too fighting the clock as they hurry the construction of a bridge across the river. A bridge on floats that must sustain the thousands of tons of a division's armor. And meanwhile the infantry moves out to secure the other end for the bridge, a beach head on the enemy shores. A striking force that has to hit hard and fast in a dangerously exposed job of a river crossing. Tanks too ferry across the mine on steel treadway rafts to join in the simulated fight for the beach head. Armored support for the infantry to smash ahead where enemy resistance is most stubborn and let them roll. We did it before and to make sure we can do it again if we have to. We're doing it right now. In the strange shadow war we wage in Germany. Your seventh army on the alert, ready to lead trouble out of the east. That this world under God shall have a new birth for freedom. That's your seventh army in Germany. An army devoted to discouraging a fight but meanwhile building up a solid stiff punch should it come. Next week on The Big Picture, it's firepower. The story on the artillery. A study of our great new atomic cannon. A look at the fantastic sky sweeper designed to keep enemy aircraft out of our skies. Also The Big Picture will show you how American artillery is employed in Korea. How and why we fire 10 shells for every one the communist fire at us. You're invited to be with us. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the army at home and overseas. Produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center. Presented by the U.S. Army in cooperation with this station. You can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.


We're here at Wicked 2012 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and I'm very pleased to be joined by Foste Manuel Toscano, who is Director General and CEO of ITSO. Foste Manuel, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. I'd like to talk to you about ITSO's presence here at Wicked and what your impressions have been so far. Well, thank you very much for having me here. It's also a pleasure to be here and in giving this interview. You know that the international telecom regulations have been many years that have not been reviewed. In these many years, many things happened in the sector, liberalization, introduction of new players, and as such they have to be reviewed, they have to be adapted to the reality and they have to contribute to a common goal that we all have, which is to alleviate poverty. Now, ITSO has in its mission international public telecommunications services and such as you could understand we have to be here and we have to contribute as much as possible to the success of this conference and that this conference at the end of today is a milestone in the implementation and often in broadband infrastructure, which as you know we have known each other for some time, is one of my babies. And there have been a lot of changes since the last conference. Perhaps you could talk a little bit about what in your opinion have been the major milestones. Well, there have been major milestones, I believe. These milestones started with the liberalization of the telecommunications sector, with the introduction of new players in the sector, with the introduction of a concept, which for me is fundamental, which was the concept of the universal service, with the understanding of the need for telecommunications and what the telecommunications may mean to implement policies of a government. And finally, by the realization of the importance of broadband in order to achieve common objectives. And as you know, in 2000, there were very, our leaders have taken a decision which was by 2015 we have to alleviate poverty and have implemented and have agreed on millennial development goals. And what is important is that there has been a conceptualization of the international community of the importance of ICT, of the importance of telecommunications and the importance of broadband to achieve those objectives. I think this is a milestone, very frankly. And what in your opinion do you think will be the most positive outcome from this conference? Well, I'm very hopeful and I'm sure that the outcome of this conference will be a set of regulations which facilitate one common objective. And common objective is that broadband is available to everyone. In the past we talked about digital divide, today we talk about broadband divide. There are still many people who don't have access to broadband. And if they don't have access to broadband, they don't have access to service-like schools, they don't have access to service-like health. And we international community, myself as a commissioner of the broadband commission, as you are aware, have a duty. And the duty is that we make possible and we create the conditions for broadband to be available worldwide. And I'm very hopeful that this conference will be a milestone by coming with a set of regulations which will facilitate this implementation. Jose Manuel Toscano, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. And thank you for having me. Thank you very much.


Hi everyone, my name is Barbara Porignano and today I want to talk to you about product discovery and why it's so important for the success of your product. Product discovery is a big topic and in this webinar I will just cover the main concepts but I will also suggest you some readings and so you can go ahead and learn more about it. So let's get to it. First of all, something about me. A long time ago I studied fine arts and web design. I worked in the gaming industry for over 16 years and I'm now product director at King. You've probably heard of some of our games like Candy Crush Saga, Crash Bandicoot on the run, Bubble Witch Saga, Farm Hero Saga and so on. So if you have any questions after this webinar please just get in touch with me either here in the chat or on LinkedIn. So let's start. Now I'm pretty sure that some of you found themselves in a similar situation. If not, you probably will at some point. A lot of companies out there are still following this waterfall model where the list of requirements drive design and the development. Typically in a waterfall model, product management would look something like this. The product manager acts more or less as a bridge between the business and the engineering team. This is an illustration I took from the blog of Teresa Torres. For those who don't know her yet, she teaches me and writes about continuous product discovery. She's great. Just go and have a look and you will learn a lot about product discovery. So what usually happens in a waterfall model is that first the stakeholder or business leaders decide what to build. The product manager gathers the requirements from the stakeholders or from the business leaders. Then the product manager writes down the list of requirements and gives to the engineering team for implementation. If the team has a designer, very often they don't. She then would go and create a design based on those requirements. The engineers would build software based on the design or on the requirements provided. So what's wrong with this way of working? In my opinion, the list is pretty long. I'm just going to mention the most important ones. First, risk of falling in the trap of delivering outputs instead of outcomes. You'll find that many companies celebrate the delivery of features and measure their success by the amount of features delivered. But later they discovered that those features didn't bring any value and wasted a lot of time and money. In my time as product manager, I've seen this happening quite a few times. Years to deliver loan projects with hundreds of features and then in the end they didn't really solve the real problem and didn't bring anybody to the users or to the business. Second, business needs often don't need customer needs. User won't buy or adopt your product because they were not interested in the first place or even worse they didn't need it. Three, loss of talent and team motivation. As Marty Kagan says, this model creates a team of mercenaries instead of missionaries. But what does this mean? A team of missionaries is engaged, is motivated, has a deep understanding of the business context, has empathy for the customer. They have an objective to achieve, a problem to solve, or maybe new opportunities. While a team of mercenaries is not empowered, has no real passion for the problem to solve as they are basically told what to do. They have almost no contact with customers. So they're just taking orders and executing them. In my experience, I can tell you that the best engineers, key ways, designers would just lead the mercenary team and seek more exciting challenges somewhere else where they feel more empowered. Number four, the stakeholders' requirements are often not based on actual data but rather on self-convention and fifth, complex and unusable product filled with a lot of features that might never be used. This is just a short list of what I think that there is more to add to this, of course. So product discovery. If we want to shift to an outcome-based way of working, we need to embrace product discovery. The aim of product discovery is to gather evidence so that we don't end up building a useless product. What are the main activities of product discovery? Understand and state a problem or a new opportunity. What is sure we're trying to solve for the users? What needs are we trying to satisfy with this work? Number two, identify the value and any business risk. So will the customer buy this or choose to use it? Will this work make sense for our business? And number three, discover the possible solutions in collaboration with the product, stakeholders, engineering and design. So it's a team effort. It's not like an individual work. So first things first, if we want to succeed with product discovery, we first need to do a couple of things. So yes, let's start from the basis. In my personal experience, before jumping into product discovery work, there are a few things we must take into consideration. First, change people's mindsets. That also includes educating leadership in many cases and promote a different way of working by bringing engineers as close to discovery as possible. So move to a more collaborative model like it's displayed in this picture. This is still a game from Theresa Parks. For the product trio, which is made of product manager, designer, and lead engineer, they work together with stakeholders and the other engineers in the team. So it's not going to be easy and it's a slow process changing people's mindsets, but can be done. Number two, start thinking in outcomes rather than outputs. This means that you and your team need to think about the success of your work, the value that brings to the business and the users, and notice the number of features delivered. It is a big change in the mindset. Number three, I think this is very important. Become familiar with UX techniques. Although I believe that everything to the UX designer sometimes is not possible. And product manager often have to wear multiple hats. That's why it's important to be familiar with UX concepts. Number four, make sure you have a solid product vision and mission that your team is fully aware of on board and on board with that. Without clear objectives, you and your team are not going anywhere really. So make sure that whatever problems you're trying to solve maps to one of the objectives you and your team have been assigned. For example, if your team is dedicated to customer retention, then you want to be sure that the work you're about to start is related to that. And it's contributed to the success of the objective. Number five, you want to be able to measure the success of your work. Key results should be discussed and agreed as soon as possible with your team and with your stakeholders. This is super important. Opportunity solution three. I also suggest you to visually represent your product discovery process so that you can see clearly the different journeys you might take to reach the outcome. So back in 2016, Teresa Torres, a product discovery coach, created a type of map called the opportunity solution three or OST. I personally think it's a very simple and effective way to streamline the discovery journey. It also has the great benefit of resolving the problem of choosing between business needs and customer needs. We should always aim at bringing value to the business, but we'd always be the customer in mind. So this is how I work with the opportunity solution three. I'll just give you a very simple real case example. In the business outcome, you describe the business problem or means, for example, increase customer retention. Ideally, this outcome is very clear and you have discussed it with your product leader. In the product domain outcome, you write how your product domain can contribute to the business outcome, and that would be your focus. For example, if a product domain is responsible for content, you could be retaining more customers by releasing more content into production. Of course, you need some data support to support this assumption. In the opportunity space, you outline the customer needs, their problems and wishes that if they're addressed, they will contribute to achieve your desired product outcome. For example, if a product domain desired outcome is to release content faster, you could run some interviews with the content designers and find out that they don't have time to create more content because they spend hours navigating the tool they use or that they have to go through a long entities process before being able to release content into production. So one of the opportunities here could be make time for designers. From there, you keep exploring until you have evaluated some possible solutions, which are the outputs, and those solutions need to be validated with tests so that we can evaluate which solutions bring more value to the customers in a way that would create value for the business. In this case, increase retention. The opportunity solution tree is a living document, so don't think that this is done once and then that's it. Now, you need to update it based on your findings for the interviews with customers and the experimentations. You should also make sure you can measure how the product outcome will bring value to the business. All these is product discovery, basically. So there is a lot of material out there that can help you with product discovery. I'm just going to mention a few techniques that I personally find super useful. Of course, each technique is based on your specific situation, so you need to decide which one is more suitable for your specific needs. Product decision based on evidence and data, one of the main responsibilities of the product manager is to understand when it's time to say no to the stakeholder request, because making the wrong product decision can be quite costly. Cost of development, employment, maintenance, time to market opportunity cost, and so on. So we need to make product decisions based on evidence and data as much as possible. I quite like this confidence meter created by Ithama Rila, the least common types of tests and evidence you might have and what confidence level they provide. This will give you an idea of the quality of indicators that we already have, how many of them, and what we need to do next to be more confidence before putting anything into development. Often we take product decision based on the fact that any French person in the company is asking for it. That's a very common problem. And trust me, that could lead to disaster. In my years of experience as product manager, I've seen projects going on for years that led to nowhere. And often they were based on solutions dictated already by someone with no data to back it up or any kind of product discovery made. And it often ends up with users not adopting that solution or is too late. They were never asked if they needed it or wanted it. And yeah, the situation should be able to. In the end, you as a product manager will be the one accountable for the outcome of that work. Design thinking, to understand the problem we want to solve, validate the new opportunity and discover the best solution, I strongly recommend to get familiar with the design thinking process. What is design thinking? It's an alternative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumption, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding. At the same time, design thinking provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. Typically, the five phases of design thinking are empathize with the users, define the user needs, put the problem and your insights, ideate by challenging assumption and creating ideas for innovative solutions, prototyping, start creating solutions, and test the solutions with users. These five phases are not always sequential. They don't have to follow any specific order and can occur in parallel and repeat iteratively. So to accomplish each phase, you can use different techniques. Of course, we don't have time to discuss all of them, but I'll give you just a few examples. So the first stage of the design thinking process is that we must empathize with our users. We need to gain a deep understanding of the users that would be using our product, their needs, emotions, and motivations. There are wide range of methods out there for learning more about people and here are listed some. First, conduct user interviews. You can find some templates online that you can use for the interviews with some good questions for us. Then observe users in their environment, possibly in a passive mode. So don't interfere with them. Step in their shoes and adopt their mindset. So do what they are trying to do and understand their frustrations. The Concierge test technique, which I mentioned here, is a really good method to develop empathy with your users. Basically, you do your user job for a while so that you can see how to show you how to do their job and you can see how frustrated they are doing the job, what's missing in the pipeline.  In fact, as product manager, you should be actively engaging with design thinking activities as much as possible and involve the engineers team as well whenever they have time. This is perhaps the most challenging part of the design thinking that we find the actual definition of the problem. Here's where we analyze and synthesize all the findings from the previous stage and we state the problem that will then guide our team during the solution evaluation phase. It's a bit like putting together a puzzle, resolving a puzzle of information in a way that, of course, makes sense. There are different methods out there. Here I listed the empathy mapping and the space of saturation and work. Basically, with both methods, you can put all your observations and finding from the empathy stage in one place in a visual way. You can use post-its, photos, and whatever artifacts you use during the previous phase. You can connect all the dots. Finally, this is the stage where you and the team finally generate ideas for possible solutions. There are hundreds of ideation methods, brainstorm, mind map, sketch, storyboard, workshop, prototype, etc.  That's really good at this stage. Prototype and test. The method of prototyping is used to produce a chip and scale down version of the product. In this stage, you want to identify any problems with the current design and you want to observe a sample of users interacting with it. You can then use the results of this test to redefine the problem established in the previous phases of the design thinking process and change the solution. You can also use this phase to see whether there is an interest whatsoever in the product. Sometimes there is not. Of course, every situation requires a different prototyping and testing method. You will have to choose the one suitable for your situation. Here are some examples. Paper prototyping. I love this one. It's a chip and fun way of prototyping digital user interfaces. You can do it as an activity with your team and users and it doesn't require any technical skills. The intention here is to simulate digital interaction, but in a paper format. You don't observe users trying to navigate through the papers and get feedback early before investing into development. This is a good example I found on YouTube. It gives you an idea of how it works. At King, sometimes we use this method to try new games idea or test some changes to the user interface. Then, of course, we have the result of us. You use the result of us prototype to test with users a concept functionality that does not exist yet, but appears to be real because someone is controlling it behind the scenes. It's quite fun to do it. A good example of user result of us prototyping was made by a company called our part, if I remember correctly, to design their social interface. They basically wanted to learn if their service concept would work before building a new text. They used an instant messaging system and a team of people behind the scenes that were physically resulting the questions to the right people. Then we have the Factor or Factor test. It's a really good method to evaluate if there is any interesting product, any feature or functionality. It can save you a lot of time in development costs. For example, you can have a subscribe button to your product page and measure the conversion rate on that button, but a fake one. After some time, you'll have a sense of how many visitors might sign up and you can decide whether to proceed or not. You need to be careful with this test because some people might get annoyed, so it's good to have some sort of warning saying after the click and nothing happens. Just say, hey, we're trying to measure your interest in this new feature, so they don't see that nothing happens and they get annoyed. Then we have the high fidelity prototypes, which are mainly designed to sketch, figment, vision, and so on. High fidelity prototypes allow us to test user experience without going for a development process. This will require a bit more design skills, so that's your design and you should be doing this. But you can learn it. It's actually a lot of fun if you're into design. Finally, some of my favorite readings, first paper prototyping by Caroline Snyder is found. It's a good book to read and learn how to use this method. It's by Marty Kegel. This is a must-have book for anyone interested in product margin. It's really basic reading for product margin. He's keeping the build track by Melissa Perry. She also has a great podcast on Spotify. Continuous discovery habits by Teresa Torres. This is a great new book, and we'll give you the rest structure to follow in order to discover solutions for product that customers will want to know. Use the story mapping by Jeff Papton. This is a classic book. It will help your team stay focused on users and their needs. Finally, check out the Interaction Design Foundation to learn more about design thinking. That's all. Thank you so much for having me here. Please, any questions just ask. You can also call me directly on LinkedIn through my LinkedIn address. Bye-bye.


Your lawyer went through a divorce and guess what happened? You still called him to candle your court case. Your pastor goes through a divorce and all of a sudden he's not qualified to preach. This was being held at a higher esteem in life. Life can't happen to me. Can a man be a pastor even after he's been divorced? More and more today we are seeing people who are in the pulpit who have been divorced. And there can be a myriad of different reasons why the question is, are any of those reasons are they valid? Do any of those reasons still qualify him? In other words, he was divorced through no fault of his own. His wife cheated or his wife left him, but he still remains a pastor or they would have what they call irreconcilable differences which is not biblical, but for those reasons they split or if he cheated and then that caused the divorce or if his divorce happened prior to him becoming a pastor or becoming a Christian. Do any of these things make it okay? Is there a way around that? Well, those are things we need to touch on. Why? Because more and more we are seeing people who are in the pulpit who again have been divorced. As a matter of fact, those who have been divorced a few times, once, twice, three times. They're in their second marriage, third marriage, fourth marriage and they're in the pastorate. They are in the pulpit. Does that same thing about them or are they forgiven? Well, we need to go look at the scriptures to give us guidance, but I want you to listen to this person's testimony. This is a pastor who I'll put aside the fact that this person has stated some things that are thoroughly troubling. As a matter of fact, his teaching on the sins of scriptures, these alone disqualify him. Know that I heard that and God told me this, Pastor Jamal, I don't know what's going on in the church. He said the prayers of dead new birth members are still lingering in this building. So that part in of itself, this particular person is disqualified because of that, but I want you to hear what he says also in regards to his marriage or his previous marriage. 2011, I went through a divorce, you all know that. Publicly divorced in this church. When I got divorced, people in the city turned on me that I didn't even know care. Preachers and ministers and churches that used to invite me to preach still will not invite me to preach. There were words that had gotten out about me that were devastating to my soul. The sad part is that he's shocked by it. Again, there's a high calling, a high bar for a pastor. Now, this is not saying that a person could or could not be divorced. I'm not getting to that point yet, but the fact that he's bothered by that, that is a red flag for me because anybody that has been in a sin, and then we're now in the recovery stage, the restoration stage, whatever you want to call it, if in that beginning stage they are bothered or they can't understand why people are bothered by their sin, that tells me they're more concerned with how they look to them than how it is for them before God. They're more concerned with getting over, getting past this PR nightmare than actually getting past this sin. I felt pain in a way I had never felt before. I didn't cheat on my ex. I didn't beat on my ex. We had irreconcilable differences that could not be resolved because the fact of the matter is we were not on the same page. And that's not a reason to get a divorce. Reconcilable differences, that's what the country would say. Those are man-made standards, but that's not a biblical standard. It's not. And so therein lies another problem. And so it doesn't matter if you cheated or not. Again, we're talking about the divorce and the real reason is how do people, how would people look at you? Because what you cannot control is, you can control the fact that you committed the sin, that you did something, but you cannot control, nor do you have the right to control, how people view you after that, or the consequences that come as a result of that. I'll speak more about that in just a little bit because this part is important. I got married and didn't understand what marriage was. Well, do you know how many people got married and didn't know what marriage was? A lot of folks got married young and are still married. There are people that have been married for 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years, and are still married, meaning they got married young. I got married young. Now I had my problems, but you know what I can say about that? We're still together, which tells us a little thing or two about how the both of us, even though there's some things that happen in marriage, mainly my fault, but how we both view marriage and our desire for it. And so being married young or not understanding it, that doesn't matter. Which is what the greater majority of you don't know because we come to church and we shout and we jump, but we don't deal with the realities of how to live life. I went through a divorce and when I went through that divorce, it was devastating, wait for it. And because my heart is for the people of God, I kept preaching and teaching at such a high level, the church kept growing. And then a new group of people started to gravitate to my ministry and call me throughout the world to minister the gospel. That's one of my biggest issues because you don't allow for, let's just say something happens and I don't care whether it's divorce, whether it's whatever, if it's a sin, whatever it is, your desire as you said is so great, really what it is is making excuses. Your desire is so great for the Lord that I had to continue in ministry. Why? Because of the people. I love the Lord, I love the people. Well, no, if you love the Lord, then what you will do is take some time to deal with whatever the character flaw is in you.  There's a couple of things that I think we have to understand that have been violated. One, he says it's a trustworthy statement in 1 Timothy 3-1 for any person who aspires to the office. Now, I say person because that's the word teased, but clearly it has to be a man. We're gonna find this out in a second. It's a fine word if he desires to do so. An overseer then must be above reproach. That's an issue right there. He must be above reproach. The husband, and it's this word right here, is Andra, which is a male. So that means it has to be a male of one Gnaechus or one wife, one woman. Temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. And I wanna drop down and show something, a couple things that are also germane to this when it regards divorce. He says he must manage, he must be one who manages his own household well. Now, this also encompasses keeping his children. Doesn't mean that the managing deals with the kids only. Managing his own household, also he has to be keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert. And then we drop down verse 70 says, and he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and a snare of the devil. The part of the problem that he states that I have an issue with. And I'm thoroughly familiar with this because in my own sense, even in ministry, you know what had to happen? There had to be a disconnect from ministry to where now I'm being ministered to. Whatever the issue is, if your desire is to rapidly get back into ministry or not to lose hold of it, then the focus is on you. The focus is more about you than it is about the body and about the name of God. But I wanna go back to look at some of these, these qualifications because there's something that I think we don't quite get one must be above reproach. That means that this person needs to be in a position to where he is not being blamed for anything. In other words, it doesn't matter if he's been blamed for something in the past. These are current qualifications. Now what do I mean by current qualifications? Meaning that it's current and ongoing. You have to, as long as whenever you're a pastor, these are the qualifications that you must meet at that time. Is it possible that you didn't meet the qualifications in the past, but now you meet him now? Well, then are you qualified? Well, there in lies the situation. Is it possible that a person who was divorced in the past, but is now a pastor? Now, is it possible? Is it possible that let's say he was the husband? And by the way, this passage here where it says the husband of one wife, this shouldn't be taken as that he's had one wife only. Now, some do take it that way. Some do take it that way, but when we look at the passage as a husband of one wife, it's really just saying that this person, because in that time you had men who had multiple wives or women and concubines and so forth. And so we're not supposed to have that. It's supposed to be the husband of one wife when at that time, some folks are gonna hold the standard as being only having one wife ever. I don't think that that's what the pastors, as a matter of fact, I know that's not what they're saying. And so I wouldn't want to add anything to the qualifications. The qualifications are clear, not about the person's past, nor about the person's futures, about what they are right now. And so is this person with one wife? Now, the argument is gonna be raised though, but now the person saying committed adultery and now the marriage to the new person is an act of adultery. I'll leave that alone for the moment. But currently, the current standing of that man must be these things. If ever he gets to a point where he's not qualified or he's not checking the box off any of these, then he's not qualified. And what now? Does it mean that he's forever qualified? Does the Bible teach that once disqualified, you're always disqualified? Well, no, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that at all. And so you cannot say that. And I know some folks who want to have me say so because there are a lot of guys out there who you just wouldn't want to see them as a pastor and you want to find a way to disqualify them. So there is no such thing as once disqualified, therefore ever disqualified because someone said, well, what about the things he did before he was a believer? Well, if it's once disqualified, always disqualified, that would have to necessarily even apply to the person that's not a believer even at the time. Why?  Why do I say that? This issue of above reproach, it is how people are blaming you right now. What is going on? Are you blameless of anything right now? If you are blameful of something right now, in other words, that you are involved in a sin right now, you are living a certain way right now, then you are disqualified. And that's part of the problem that I have with this man that when he has his divorce, even as a pastor, he's one, he's not qualified because of the divorce part. Two, you are not meeting the qualifications right now and there needs to be a time where you are being dealt with it. You are being grown. Why? Because look what it says also. It says that this person must be able to manage his own household. Managing your household necessarily means the woman of the house. And if there is some friction, if there's something, well then if that part is not taken care of, the very first ministry that you do have, if you can't manage that, well then how then can you manage the household of God? It's not just dealing with children or the orderly running of your house. It's also with her. The first thing that you have, you had one job or your main job. I shouldn't say one job but your main job and you failed at that. So if you constantly are doing so and this is where it can become a red flag if a person has had multiple marriages, because what does it say? That this person has had a history of not managing their household. Is there forgiveness in that? Or does that mean that the person is always as qualified? Again, once it's qualified does not mean that you're always as qualified. So now I wouldn't hold that standard but now here's where it becomes a bit sticky. If we drop down to verse seven and he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil, it's important that the outsiders also view you in a certain way. Now, there are gonna be people who are gonna look at you for a lot of different reasons. I said, you know what? You're not qualified to be my pastor. Even though you might meet the qualifications but not for me. There are gonna be some folks that are gonna judge for themselves. I would not want to sit underneath you. I would not want to have you as a pastor. That goes to the territory. You have to accept that. It may be that you have been repentant, that you've grown. It's been several years. It's been five years. It's been 10 years, 15, 20 years, 30 years since whatever happened and you're not that person. There still might be someone or some people or if the majority of people, if your overall view by the people is a negative view. In other words, if when they see you, they see the sin and not who you are, there's nothing you can do about that. That's a byproduct of your sin or the consequences of it and you just don't have the right or the ability to change what people think and that's something you have to deal with. So if the majority of people, for example, let's just say a person like, we talk about a Karl Lentz. When we think Karl Lentz, do we think godly or do we think this person's in broad and sin? Then that deals with this point right here. Doesn't have a good reputation amongst the outsiders but even amongst the insiders, he is still blameful. He's still, and had it of course with him, it has not even been that long. Maybe what a year or two, I think is what it's been and so he might think that, hey, I'm ready to get back into it. Yeah, but listen, we understand, we know that it takes a while to grow whatever the character flaw was, it takes a while to grow. I can certainly identify with that. Here I am. About 20 years ago, my issues came to a head and so it takes a while to grow. A year, two, three, four, five years after everything was I in shape to be put back in ministry. I may have thought so, but probably not because first of all, even if I were in a position inwardly, outwardly, the stain has to be taken away with and that's something that God has to do. You've got to give God the ability, should he desire, to work in people's hearts and in their minds to give them a better image of you because if God wants to use you, he's gonna prepare a way for you for him to do so. During this timeframe, I am literally losing my mind. Nobody knows it because I've been given a measure of strength and tolerance, way forward, that is abnormal. Based on the fact that I have strong parents, I've been taught strong faith, so I'm functioning while I'm truly a dysfunctional person. And so there's the oxymoronic statement that he's made, that you are this but you're that. First of all, you have an inflated view, or at least he does, and a lot of times people who are in the impastoring, they have an inflated view of themselves where they feel like that they are capable of handling this, this, this. No, you're not, you're just a man.  You don't have an immeasurable amount or a supreme amount or a gifted amount of whatever you think it is for you to do this. There is a qualification that he, at the time of his divorce, is not qualified. Again, this is an ongoing thing. And so at the moment that you are disqualified, there naturally needs to be a stage of repentance, which a lot of people who go through these, some of these pastors, let's be honest, just aren't repentant about what is that they've done, what they've gone through. There's no shame, there's no brokenness, there's no contrite heart because of what they've gone through even David himself said purge me with his wash me. I don't know what purging feels like. Actually I do, I do know what purging feels like. I'm sorry. I actually do know intimately what purging feels like. It's not a good thing. David says purge me, wash me and I shall be wider than snow. And so he says, break these bones in me and cause these broken bones. As he's saying, he's asking God to turn himself to him. Don't take your spirit away from me. I want Lord, you can see the brokenness in David in what he's done, one in what he did to Uriah and then the affair that he had as well. And so you see that with David, this brokenness. You don't see that with this young man. You don't see him seeming to be contrite over what he's doing. What you really see is him making excuses. If anybody in any one of these categories are making excuses and defending themselves, a red flag has to go off to say, you know what? I might want to push back because it seems as though you might be not, I might be wrong, but you might be trying to push your agenda or make it seem or just try to just defend yourself. And that's just not a good thing. If others by and large want to defend you and say that you are qualified or that will then let them do so. But don't you be at the forefront of defending yourself.   So I'm stressed out, but I'm still preaching. I'm telling people, now they know I just got divorced, but they need me to come to the hospital. They need me to lay hands and need me to do this. They need me to do that and that's fine. That's my responsibility. So there's a problem. You've got this lingering issue, this heavy issue in you and you're supposed to go and deal with other people. No, that's not the way it is. And listen to what he compares this to. Church is conditioned by religious people to judge you. We're supposed to be the place of mending and healing, but somewhere down the line, they started becoming the place of condemnation and judgment. So when pastors go through, they feel like they gotta hide everything because if they don't, y'all gonna fire them. Your medical doctor went through a divorce and guess what he still did? Performed surgery on you. Your lawyer went through a divorce and guess what happened? You still called him to candle your court case. Your pastor goes through a divorce and all of a sudden he's not qualified to preach. This was being held at a higher esteem in life. Life can't happen to me. And so there is a huge difference between the doctor and the lawyer. They're not called or commissioned by God. There are no moral standards for, well, I take the fact they actually are. And so when they violate their moral standards that the lawyers have or the doctors have, then they'll be put down. Our moral standards are different and are actually higher if you're going to be in pastoral leaning. And so you cannot choose it to. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't even want to compare the two. Again, God sets the standards. You can't complain that man has a problem with you. If it takes you 40 years for you to get back into ministry, amen. If it takes you till never. If it takes you five years, 10 years, that will be God's work. And God will prepare the place for you now. Don't you force it? And just because you get a following from people who are amused or entertained by the fact that you may be charismatic and so forth. That is many things. Again, it's these qualifications. These are current qualifications. Again, if you are currently this and if you currently have a good reputation, how long will it take for you to have a good reputation amongst the outsider? How long will it take for you to not be blameful and for you to be blameless? Don't know.  Don't know. How long will it take for folks to see you as that way? Don't know. How long will it take for God to prepare and put you back or restore you? If ever. Don't know. But again, we need to make sure that if a person has been divorced for whatever sin, there's forgiveness without question. We need to make sure that the person has won at least been broken hearted about it, has been contrite. Now this man doesn't sound contrite about it at all. Doesn't sound repentant at all. That's the first thing because that's an indication that he didn't care about the things of God. He cares more about himself. And so my take on can a person have been divorced and then still be in pastoring later? After some time, the possible is there. Now some might disagree and I get that. I won't necessarily fight you on it, except to say that we've got to go with the qualifications. The qualifications, there are no passages to say that a person's sin permanently disqualifies him from leadership. What's going to happen is God is on to them. So let's just go with the scriptures. If we're going to be, as they say, so scriptura, if we're going to be scriptures only, be led by the scriptures, we all we have are what the present qualifications are for the present pastor, not his past or his future. I know it's hard. And if you come across someone who you're just not comfortable with being your pastor, if they don't meet the qualifications to your satisfaction, well, then that's fine. You find the place where you think is comfortable for you to be at and then be there. Amen.