Sqair1
ROLE
Founding
FUNCTION
Startup
Background:
Every election season, I struggle to find clear, reliable information about who’s running for local office, what those roles actually do, and how they affect me. When I try to learn, the experience is often fragmented and confusing. That’s why I started designing a service that shows users who represents them, what those officials are responsible for, and how local government functions based on their zip code in one single place.
Solution:
I envision Sqair1 becoming a leading platform that delivers products that help people easily understand complex concepts. The first product on the platform, Local-Ops, would allow users across the U.S. to simply enter their ZIP code to instantly access information about their local representatives while also learning how their local government functions and impacts them.
Assumed Challenges:
Audiences might not care enough to look up local officials or learn about government functions, even when the information is available. So engagement could be a challenge. I'll also need to be creative in seeing how to make this profitable on it’s own without solely relying on grant support (which is a major challenge in the civic tech/ed space). Lastly, with the goal of going nationwide, I'll need to dig into a lot of local governments that are very different. So maintenance and updates will be tough.
Problem statement of Local-Ops.
User enters their zip code and clicks on their result.
User lands on the main page within "Local" tab. The user sees the county map and area of zip code (red). They also see their direct representative within their county district (blue).
User clicks on "Profile" of their district county representative.
User is able to see additional information about their district county representative.
User clicks on "Voting Records" to see their district county representative's past voting history on county bills.
User clicks on "Organization" to see other members that are within the county council.
Representatives are categorized across three levels of government: Local, State, and National. At the Local and State levels, they are further organized by executive branch, legislative branch, judicial branch, and the board of education (each with clear explanations of their functions). At the National level, representatives are grouped by the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
User clicks on “State” tab to see state representatives. User can also see the map change to the state of Maryland and highlights the state legislative district the user is in + their state district representative.
User clicks on “National” tab to see national representatives, User can also see that the map now highlighting the national congressional district the user is in + their national district representative.
Outcomes:
I’m currently working on building a functional prototype that I can use to test assumptions with target users. From there, I’ll assess value validity, technical feasibility, and resource requirements for development.
