Apply HN: Pearlo.co -- Storytelling as a Strategy for Process Improvement

It is like the difference between getting out a paper map and a ruler and a pencil to document the roads one needs to take in order to get from one place to the next VS yelling "Siri, where's a Starbucks" and spending time and creative energy on other things while the tool does the think-work.

The tool will be subscription-based with the first model offered for free. The subscription is $1600 per year and gives the user access to model improvement capabilities, best practices in the industry, white papers and other useful templates and use cases, etc. The users realize that each model is a living organism that can remain in queue and be revisited at any time (https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/GW43FI8MS#/screens/99...)

To me, a large part of process improvement is statistics, statistics and more statistics. I don't understand how storytelling alone, just as creating Visio diagrams alone could come up with a regime that allows one to measure, analyse, improve and control a system.

"My primary competition is non-consumption. Firms (especially fast-paced tech firms) will just bootstrap a solution using MS Visio or some other simple software application with no business intelligence behind the drawings. In other cases, firms spend a lot of money on consultants or on robust software and a team to learn how to use it. They often get lost in the process of process improvement with very little impact on the bottom line.

Thanks so much for your comment! You are right, there is a mathematical component to process improvement which makes the proposed solution possible. Storytelling alone cannot foster improvement, however, storytelling is all the user will need to know how to do. By simply explaining the story of how the process currently works, the user can enlist the software to (1) translate the story into a process model using natural language processing to workflow diagram. From there, (2) artificial intelligence based on best practices and other process improvement business rules can determine how efficient that model (based on the original story) is. Then, (3) a recommendation or set of several recommendations for how the user can update the story/process can be given by the tool.

I talk a bit more about how the two (storytelling and artificial intelligence) can play a very big role in process improvement and business process management in this article:

http://bpm.com/bpm-today/blogs/1066-can-artificial-intellige...

1) I have absolutely no idea what this is. The explainer graphic didn't help.

2) As lots of VCs, including those running YC have said, the team is much more important than the idea. Who are you and why should anyone bet on your success?

Thanks so much for your question.

The product helps to "democratize" the process improvement activity so that any stakeholder can work on improving process efficiency even if he/she has no knowledge of process frameworks or methodologies or notations. It is storytelling supported by technology to help improve process and workflow. If a person can tell the story of how the process currently works, the product can model that process and give tips on how to improve it.

I've worked for about 18 years as an enterprise architect and process improvement professional and have found that the traditional approach to modeling and improving process is tedious, prolonged and not as flexible and meaningful for most people. I have a PhD in Business with a focus in information systems innovation. I have a wealth of case studies for firms operating below efficiency due to poorly architected processes and have done extensive market research to validate the need for low-cost, no-code, high-ROI solutions in process flow improvements.

The idea involves some natural language processing and artificial intelligence components and I've been working on traditional consulting projects to help gather business rules that can inform the code development.

The second link is "no longer valid."

Thanks so much for letting me know. I'll check into that to get a corrected link for my clickable prototype. Until then, here is a high-level explainer video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7QmHojsXQ0