My journey building a B2G side project that burned up in the 2020 dumpster fire 🔥

I spent 4 years working on a side project with support from Scottish Government.

Then just when I thought things were about to hit the growth phase COVID killed it.

The Product

Storing Stories was an impact measurement web application for public libraries. It collected library user’s anecdotes about how their library had helped them through an online form. Based on that data it generated live reports on how well social impact goals were being achieved.

I made the first version with a friend at a future libraries hackathon in Edinburgh. After that I improved the system and worked with the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), who had organised the hackathon, to trial it at 15 libraries in Sterling in 2018.

Based on good feedback the trial was expanded to 38 libraries in Inverclyde, Falkirk, East Dunbartonshire and Argyll in 2019.

The Value

Libraries that used to get a few dozen pieces of mostly negative written feedback a year, collected thousands of impact-centred anecdotes like these:

• ‘The staff are very patient and good with my questions on the computer as I
  easily forget." Argyll feedback
• “Being able to access books on mental health has helped me a lot and being
  able to come here to a quiet, warm safe space is a saviour at times.” Stirling
  Feedback
• “Recently widowed and the staff listen and help me get through the day.”
  Stirling Feedback

Libraries used the insights extracted from all those data points to write management reports, design new services, apply for funding, train new employees and more.

2020 was meant to be the year I finally sold the system to SLIC and I was looking forward to it.

Getting a little cash would be nice but I was mostly interested in making sure the product lived on longer than I was interested in/ capable of maintaining it as I graduated and moved from university life to working adult life this year.

The plan was that they would take over further developing the app into something that could scale to all the libraries in Scotland.

But we all know how 2020 went 😅.

How It Died

The handover was scheduled to happen back in March just as the Coronavirus was ramping up in the UK and we decided to push it forward.

After a few months of back and forth 'you still there' check-ins I finally got an email last week from SLIC confirming that with so many libraries shut and a second lockdown on the horizon they just couldn't afford to dedicate resources to Storing Stories.

So it was time to shut things down.

I definitely don't blame the SLIC team for their decision. 9 months of lockdown has ruined things for everyone, and I can't imagine the mess they have to deal with this year supporting hundreds of libraries that already had funding and staffing problems before COVID came along.

The bright side is that I gained a lot of practical experience in starting and running B2G side project.

Here are three of the most important lessons I learned:

1. Partner up. You can get in contact with people from the government department/agency you want to work with through hackathons, conferences, or cold letters sealed in gold envelopes.

   Don't start with a sales pitch but with a real conversation about the problems they face and their previous experiences trying to deal with those problems.

   Brainstorm and pitch some solutions. Get feedback. Build a little portion of the product and get more feedback. Repeat until you’ve got something ready to be trialed in the real world.

   You’ll know it’s ready when your partners are pushing to move to the next step.

   Also, there’s no need to get in front of big shot directors at the beginning. Long before I worked with SLIC, the MVP for Storing Stories was built in collaboration with two librarians from Stirling who had a problem they wanted solved.

2. Communication is key. We all know that government is a slow slow slow beast. It can be really easy to lose touch with your clients in the long stretches of bureaucratic slog needed to get to the next stage whether that’s initial funding, an expanded trial or scaling up.

   You can avoid losing touch by planning and agreeing on the frequency of meetings long in advance.

   For Storing Stories we had an in-person meeting (remember those) with all the participating librarians and SLIC officials every two to three months and I sent out emails giving updates and discussing feedback every month.

3. Don't reinvent the wheel. The idea of building for the government may sound daunting but you can add a lot of value by just injecting modern tech into outdated systems.

   It’s no surprise to anyone in the IndieHackers community that converting impact data collection in libraries from a paper form with dozens of questions to an online one with only three would boost completion rates but that simple twist generated a ton of useful data.

Don’t underestimate the value your tech knowledge can generate in the public sector.

Thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. If you end up starting your own B2G project tweet at me @KufuorKofi and I’ll be happy to give any helpful feedback I can.