Thierry

Hey there!

I’m Thierry and no I’m not French, I’m Quebecois!

I’m a neurodivergent thinker who loves to use his brain to solve problems and come up with new solutions — especially when it’s complex! Creativity is an ability I like to explore and exercise on a daily basis — even if only for finding new more effective doing chores and adding to spices to them through gamification!

It may not come as a surprise that I recently graduated from Factry!

What is this thing and what does it eat during winter times?

Factry is the one and only “Montreal School of Creative Sciences” where I had the chance — among 23 other students from extremely varied backgrounds (Engineering, International Law, Business school, Medicine, Philosophy — you name it!) to learn something new everyday for a period of four months. The courses, conferences and workshops we attended ranged from Storytelling to Neurosciences, Engineering to Psychology, Critical Thinking and Clowning: we had it all!

As a final project, the cohort of 24 lucky students that we were had to pair into smaller groups in order to work on an Intergrative Project for the city of Montreal.

The team I was part of chose “facilitating integration for newcomers and immigrants”.

We came up with the idea of creating an application capable of localizing major points of interests according to the user’s very personalized “road map” based on their specific priority needs.

As many of us might have experienced either via travelling or visiting a place we weren’t familiar with, immigrating for most people we interviewed during the empathetic phase of the design thinking process was often described to us as challenging and disorienting.

Therefore we came up with an application’s prototype wanting our users to feel as reassured as possible, as soon as possible once on their new city’s territory — especially knowing that for whatever need they have to meet, there are ressources! The app suggested suited options for the specific user based on his current location, the priority level of each need, the user’s demographics and psychographics.

Depending on the individual’s profile, the app is able to give tips, tricks and suggestions that the user might not have thought about while also suggesting potential people to meet with who have previously been through their current situation.

An example of a suggestion the application can come up is: Newcomers used to more temperate or warm weather who forget about buying warmer clothes for fall, winter and spring especially when they arrive in the summer. The app will tell them what they need to buy, where they can buy it for reasonable price, according to their consumption values, how to use main French sentences (the province one and only official language) which could be useful during their purchase and many other advices related to the culture of their new neighbourhood as well as organizations and communities that can make the acclimatization phase a bit easier.

* I wish I could should our final project — which I was really proud of — it was bought during the school’s auction and I do not owe the rights — the team had to give it all up (something I would do differently if the story were to repeat itself!) Sure thing, I’ve learned a lot during these amazing 4 months and I am more than happy to go through an entire new creative mindset everyday!

There is so much I could write, but that will be it for now — otherwise I could write a novel!

And you who is reading my profile — who are you?

I’m actually qui curious!

Looking forward to meet and connect with creative minds!

Cheers!