By Daisy Bard

Victim Support

This week, Gnome and I tagged along to a meeting about ICE at Victim Support, a charity that helps survivors of crime. It was an exciting experience to go from dealing with the inner workings of ICE – Facebook ads, newsletters, branding, fundraising – to going “client-side” and seeing someone else’s perspective on the product and how they could use it.

This meeting was primarily about us starting the process of getting ICE into the right hands. And given that during the week, we’ve heard about workshopping a product with “extreme users” (e.g. Braun’s all-over hair removal system being given first and foremost to strippers), it felt like a good fit. A crime-stopping device for people who support victims of crime. 

Marc went in with a humble aim: to get a quote from Victim Support about ICE. But after an hour of talking, he hadn’t mentioned this. Everything else under the sun had been covered by both parties, with a host of cool possibilities on the horizon for ICE. And finally, just as we were finishing up, he popped the question. “I was wondering if we could get a quote from your team?” 

This was more masterful than we realised at the time. The takeaway is sometimes it’s better not to go in with your main objective staring everyone in the face. There’s often a much bigger – and in this case, better – conversation to be had first. Recognise what the other person wants and figure out what you can do for them. Connect some dots (they worked with a youth agency that we know, also based in Brixton). And within the context of the bigger picture, your request may ultimately seem quite small. 

Henry and I have asked if we can be involved with VS work from now on. We’re really looking forward to helping the product make a difference in vulnerable people’s lives. And I want the rest of our class to meet the VS team and have the chance to experience what I did.

We’ve been building and launching ICE from day 1 – now we want to see it work its magic.