The Experience Strategy Podcast: Supporting Working Moms Through Systems

To listen, click HERE

Today we are joined by Joyce Cadesca, Founder and President of famHQ, a tech-enabled family concierge service supporting working moms in managing their households and careers.

In this episode we look at the functional, social, emotional, aspirational, and systemic Jobs To Be Done in this exciting new startup.

Voiceover: [00:00:00] Welcome to the experience strategy podcast, where we talk to customers and experts about how to create products and services that feel like time well spent. And now here are your hosts experienced nerds, Dave Norton and Aransas. Savis

Aransas: welcome to the experience strategy podcast. I'm Aransas Savis. And today we are joined by Joyce , who is a steadfast equity advocate and the founder and president of family HQ, a tech enabled family concierge service that supports working moms of color, specifically in their households and careers to really enable them to be their best selves at work.

In this episode, we are going to. Look closely at the incredible product that she's building and the really smart business model she is supporting it with. And then we're going [00:01:00] to probe a little bit about the functional social, emotional, and aspirational jobs to be done. And the way she's thinking about those as a part of the design of this holistic systems-based product that she's creating.

Julie, thank you so much for being here today.

Joyce: Thanks for holding

Aransas: as we get started, let's start by just talking about fan HQ. What is it?

Joyce: Absolutely fam HQ is a concierge company built for working moms. And it basically is a product that companies can use as an employee benefit that they can provide to their workforce.

So, That's one part of it, but there's also the opportunity for working moms to actually be a client without going through their employer. So we provide lots of opportunities to support working moms and maybe tactical ways. [00:02:00] Um, but the way we do that is really just through holistic support

Aransas: and of that way.

But tell me, what does it mean for your company? What does it look like?

Joyce: What does it look like? So I think that, um, Obviously over the last couple of years, it's been a challenge for many professionals in the workplace. Um, our particular focus is working moms in the workplace and there is a lot of talk about support that's needed for moms.

There's a lot of kind of surveys being done about how moms are doing this out of words of encouragement, but not a lot of tactical help to actually help moms. Time back in their day, energy to actually go to work and do well and Excel and be great. And so families Q was built to provide that tactical support.

So alleviating that mental load by providing household support, whether that's housekeeping or organizing, um, Uh, [00:03:00] tasks and errands that need to be done, and there's no time to do it. There's also childcare that we provide, um, on an ad hoc basis where, you know, there's that last minute meeting at work and it's a client meeting and it's the top client and it's 6:00 PM.

Uh, I got it. How am I going to do this? It's that, that extra hand. Um, and it's also a way for companies to provide family HQ as a benefit. So companies that are forward thinking and thinking about wellness and DEI and just holistic support, hopefully what they're able to do is say, well, I've got this suite of benefits that I provide.

And maybe this particular person doesn't want these things. Maybe they've already got all the degrees they need and they don't need tuition reimbursement, and they don't need, you know, that gym because they have a Peloton at home. Right? How can we be inclusive in what we offer and have them be able to pick and choose what means the most to them.

And so [00:04:00] it's really that support at home support with the childcare in the home, but letting employees stop. And say, here's what I can provide to my employers step up and say, here's what I can provide to my employee as an inclusive benefit that will help them. Not only be great, but to help us have a more productive workforce.

That's happier at work.

Aransas: I love that so much. One of the things I say all the time is that stress kills creativity and having been a working mom for many years, the stress of. Basic needs of my children in a family where both parents are working. Full-time jobs has such a cost on my creative and productive abilities to serve the needs of my company stakeholders.

So I really, really love this idea. What inspired you to create a Joyce.

Joyce: Oh, I love that [00:05:00] question. Cause it just, I I'm smiling right now. You can't see me, but I'm smiling because it just brings me back into, um, what I, so I'm a single mom. And when I had my son, I was working at, you know, fortune 100 big bank.

Um, And it was taxing for me to not just get to work and do the job that I could do, but in order to really do well and be a star, all like you. That stress kills creativity. But for me, it was beyond that it was the stress literally like killing my health, like very basic health. Like I started to feel the stress, a stress became a part of my body and I was like, there's gotta be a better way than this struggle of trying to make it all work.

And so family issue actually began as a completely different idea. It began as the idea that. What if [00:06:00] childcare centers, brick and mortar childcare centers also focused on the mom and not just the kid. And so I had this idea to build brick and mortar childcare centers that would center the. But focus on the mom as well through a bunch of different things.

But what ended up happening was, as I created the business plan, I realized it was very difficult to do brick and mortar and sustainably do it. And so I used was able to use technology to scale the idea and bring in the top and bringing the employer B2B model. Um, And that's where it was born. It was born out of my own stress and my own struggle as a mom in the workplace and the pandemic.

So this idea started in 2014 and the pandemic, you know, six years later just exacerbated the need for many, many more moms, not just single moms, many moms to have the access to something that is holistically supporting them, tactically. [00:07:00] And that's, that's where it came.

Aransas: Incredible. Incredible. How do you think about the experience that you provide to your clients?

Joyce: So there's two experiences that I want clients to. When they work with us. And so there's two clients, right? There's the B2B client, which is the target client. And then there's the end user, which is the B2C customer. And so I'll answer your question from the client perspective, which is the, the employer, uh, when they work with us, I want them to feel like we are not just sort of another.

Benefit. That's going to outsource something and say, okay, I'm going to add you to our roster of benefits. Then you're going to outsource a bunch of housekeepers and, and babysitters, and, and you're going to get this job done for our employees so they can come to work and feel good. It's it's really more than that.

I want employers, our clients to feel that we are adding an extended family. We are adding [00:08:00] a village. Into the lives of each employee that they, that chooses from HQ is a benefit. Um, you know, the American family has really from it over the last 60, 70 years, it's really shrunk from the extended family that everybody used to live together and be together.

And the aunt is a block away and uncle is across the street and it's now the nuclear family. And we're so individual and I. Our clients to know that we're adding the village back into the lives of their employees so that they can really come home, come to work, being great, come home and be great. Um, in terms of end user are the moms, our clients.

I mean our customers. I feel that I want them to feel that village. When the household support comes in and does the baseboards, they're going to know the kids' names. They're going to know that, you know, you like little Johnny's [00:09:00] briefs in the upper right hand drawer. They're going to know that, you know, when it's time to get the dry cleaning done that you're missing broccoli in your fridge and they can go and pick it up and bring it to you so that you can get your dinner done.

Right. It's not a cookie cutter. Kind of robotic experience. It's, it's a family and it is a village that they're adding into the lives of the moms. I want the kids and the partners to all know the staff. And that's why we employ our staff in half and house and not outsource is to be able to train our staff, our team, to be that family, uh, in the lives of our end user customer.

How

Aransas: beautiful, how beautiful and no surprise. Of course, since it came from your own lived experience and your own clear need. And it's interesting, I think. That's sort of, [00:10:00] that is the starting point for so many startups to really think about what, what do I experience as a gap in the market and how might I meet that need?

And certainly from an experience strategy standpoint, that's so much of the work that Dave and I lead. And so, Dave, I know you. Often start your conversations with startups and other businesses who are defining experience strategies, but talking about jobs to be done. What are some of the first questions you ask that, that maybe Joyce, as she's continuing to define and refine this experience might benefit from.

Dave: You know, that's a great question. And, and, uh, Joyce, congratulations on, on the solution. When I first heard you start to describe it, I was thinking, this is kind of like the modern opere, you know, of the technologically advanced. [00:11:00] Pear, but then the more you talked about it, the more, it was like, no, this is the modern village where you have a whole community, that's kind of supporting you and there's more of a social component to it.

It's, it's a fantastic what you're doing. Uh, One of the things that interests me is this idea of what is exactly the job that, or the jobs that you're trying to get done for the customer in this case. Let's talk about the end consumer first, because you've got two customers, obviously you've got your, your, um, corporate clients who you want.

Sponsor the program to subscribe to the program, but let's talk about the end consumer here for a second. How would you describe the functional job that you're getting done for the end consumer?

Joyce: [00:12:00] Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for asking that. That's the question that I grappled with a lot last year because, and I tried to differentiate myself from competitors in that.

The focus can be on time and energy. Like I want to wake up so that I have energy to have a wonderful breakfast with my child or with my children. Um, I want to have more time so I can go hiking more like there's so many ways that I could have targeted sort of the wellbeing only of the mom I chose.

However, to have. The job or the jobs be focused on doing all of those things so that mom is better at work. So I believe that. The moms who choose to go to work and the ones that go because they have to, because there's lots of reasons [00:13:00] why people go to work. They know that they go to work for a certain reason and they can go because it fulfills their passion.

They can go because they need to put food on the table and pay the bills, or they can go for all types of other reasons, but they've made a decision to go, right. And when they do, it becomes a part of their identity. So now it's mom. Partner, possibly sister, um, you know, sibling, what have you, and now it's, I'm a professional.

And if it's a part of your identity, you want to know that you're doing well at it. And when you're doing well at it, it becomes holistically part of your overall success. So, you know, the reason we took the employer route was really, we want moms to feel like. They can be great moms and be great professionals and it's and feel okay.

Wanting to be a great professional. There's been so much mom guilt around. Well, you know, maybe I [00:14:00] shouldn't, maybe I should try to get a different job that doesn't need me so much so that I could be home or they feel guilty that they're not doing what they. Could do in terms of being present or what have you, but like eliminating that guilt and having moms feel like, you know what, I it's okay if I want to be a bad-ass and crush it at work, it's okay.

If I want to rise the ranks. Uh, and all of that is okay, because that's a part of who I am as a person. So the job we want to do is, is really to alleviate the mental load that moms carry so that when they go to. They're crushing it. And part of, part of one thing I didn't mention when, when I talked about the offerings is this idea of coaching.

Um, it's not, you know, coaching, it's not life coaching. It's not. Uh, sort of, it's more accountability coaching. It's very much like, okay, what are [00:15:00] your top tasks at work today? How can I help you get that done? And sometimes it means I need the living room vacuumed, right. But no one ever connects those two.

Sometimes people say, well, you need a man. And nobody asks because it's the invisible load. This load is super invisible, but we all know it's there. It's the elephant in the room. Like, am I gonna kill it at work? If I go home and I'm going back to like, you know, crazy town and like, I know it's not gonna work so tactically, how do we make your home and your, your life at home?

Uh, peaceful and, and clear so that when you come back to work, you are, you know, the bad-ass that you want. Sure.

Dave: So you really see the alleviating of, um, a lot of functional tasks that need to be done, like, um, vacuuming or picking up groceries [00:16:00] or, um, or maybe, uh, Um, taking, I don't want to call taking care of the children is kind of a functional type of job that might be more of an emotional or, or, uh, there's certainly functional components to it.

Yeah. Yeah. You're absolutely right. That's really what you're doing on their behalf so that they can, they can focus on work so they can be, um, their, um, the way that they need to be there. You know, one of the things that I think is interesting about what you're you're trying to do is that you're combining an, um, digital tools with actual people and, uh, who are doing the work.

Can you describe a little bit how the tools and the people, uh, that, uh, you hire work together to make that as seamless as possible for [00:17:00] the working.

Joyce: Absolutely. Yeah. So imagine being a mom and it's Sunday afternoon, and you start getting the Sunday scaries and most working moms know what the Sunday scaries are.

It's when you start panicking about the week ahead and reminding yourself that you're not prepared for it and to get the Sunday scaries and your. Oh, my goodness. I've got a parent teacher appointment on Thursday. It's like pajama day on Friday, and also at work. I have this huge presentation on Wednesday that I have to be there for.

Um, and your brain starts. Go in this loop of, okay, how am I going to do it? How am I going to do it? So what we really come in is we have an app, uh, the fam HQ app that's available on iOS and Android. And we also have a web app [00:18:00] that moms can log onto and have a calmer, a chat conversation with a backend concierge of what's going on during the week.

Um, you put that in, into the chat. There's also a calendar function that helps you sync your calendar into the concierge calendar so they know what you have and when it's happening, then you schedule a conversation, a weekly conversation with your concierge. Usually it's Sunday, evening or afternoon to talk about how they can support you.

Um, The ease of this app is almost like taking your phone out to call an Uber. Right? You take your phone out, you tapped some things in and poof the Ubers here. Right? And so that's how we aim to create this ease. And when you have this, this is the human component now. So when you have this conversation with the concierge, it's them asking you, how can they help you with these things?[00:19:00]

Or how can I help you? To have a killer presentation. Um, how can, you know, we can have your household support, have the pajamas out on Wednesday night. So that Thursday morning when, you know, little Johnny wakes up, he's all he's got to do is get out of the shower and put them back, put them on so he can go to school for pajama day.

Right. And so the human interaction is important because if it were just a regular babysitter from. XYZ company that you found, you know, they, they may know what's going on in your life. They may not, but their job is just to come in and make sure the kids are healthy and safe and fed. And, but our job is really to holistically.

See. How we can support you, keep your kids safe, keep your house peaceful, clean so that all of the things you have going on, you can, you can get them done with ease. Um, so that's kind of the experience and, and built into that is regular childcare. Uh, so it's five hours of [00:20:00] childcare per week. We're we're honing our models still, but for now it's five hours of childcare per week.

You schedule it with us and make it happen. Um, when that last minute meeting pops up and it's also, um, with the household support, it's also five hours and it's five hours of concierge. So that includes running errands. You know, I need you to get the dry cleaning or what have you. So it's 15 hours of week of support plus the app that, that really is there to support you, to make sure that you can bring your best self back to work.

Dave: Interesting. So you, so part of the way that you make it manageable is by setting a time requirements. 15 hours a week, five hours of which has child support. And then the person gets to allocate, um, those hours, the way that they, they need to allocate it for that particular week.

Joyce: Describe that, right? Yeah.

That's exactly right. Yeah. So one of the things, [00:21:00] whoops, I apologize. Go ahead.

Dave: That's okay. That's okay. So one of the things that we're looking at and spending a lot of time thinking about, um, and Aransas knows this well, is this idea that, um, people's lives the way that they want to manage their lives today.

Um, is system systematically or systemically. They have little systems that they put into place. Um, for themselves, it sounds to me a lot like fam HQ is, um, supporting their life systems, uh, and especially their work systems, because that's where you're focusing, but it's taking care of their life systems.

Have you thought about. The fair HQ, um, solution as being a systemic type of solution. And if so, what, what does that mean [00:22:00] to you?

Joyce: I have thought about it as systemic. Um, initially when we started our brand, we would, we used to call ourselves lifestyle managers, um, and that resonated a lot with. Moms didn't resonate so much with employers and in terms of providing it as a benefit, but we had to make it clear as to our service offerings being clearly linked to productivity and creativity and all the good things that can happen at work.

Um, there are other areas where. Are considering in the future to grow into, um, whether that is having someone on staff that can do work on diet. For example, like meal planning, there's the option of sort of the financial wellness piece. There are lots of ways where we can embed family HQ into the life of [00:23:00] the.

But our focus just because we didn't want to, you know, that scope creep is real. We didn't want to do everything. Uh, we wanted our minimum viable product to really focus on those key, critical aspects of life. Tactically that can add the most value from a time and energy standpoint to, to, to help working moms at work.

But then that isn't to say, but in the future, uh, you know, if we focus more on B2C model that we wouldn't be able to include those aspects into our offerings. '

Dave: cause one of the things that I think, um, and I don't know. I mean, you probably know your target audience better than I do, but I, I think that companies should be open to this idea that working moms have systems that they're trying to manage, that they're trying to, um, understand, and that the best way to support a working [00:24:00] mom, uh, is going to be, to provide.

The tools that allow her to keep her personal life systems going while she's at work. Um, to me, to me that seems fairly obvious, but maybe I'm too close to things from what are your thoughts about that?

Joyce: A hundred percent agree. I think that moms and I do use a bit, but the vague pronoun for moms, um, I do think that they.

The slippery slope that employers face is fairness and sort of equitable processes for everyone. And so if employers are providing benefits, they want to maximize the use of that benefit for everyone. So as an example, Clearly lactation rooms can only be used by certain people who [00:25:00] are breastfeeding.

Right. That eliminates half of the population more than half, because not everyone's a mom and not everyone breastfeeds and not everyone can breastfeed. Right. That's, that's a very clear cut reason to exclude someone from a better. However we all know what the data says about working moms versus working dads, working moms the three times as much household work per per day, per year, per whatever time period is three times as much.

That's what the data says, but working dads get promoted three times as quickly than working moms. So systemically there's already a problem. We just have to agree. That that's a problem and agree that we want to solve that problem, right? If we are all saying, well, why not provide this still working dads too, right?

If that's the outlook that the employer is having. And if they're not kind of on board with providing this to moms, Or maybe think that, Hey, you made a choice to have children. You should be able to [00:26:00] manage your life. There are lots of opinions out there and employers are all over the graph. If there was like a plot, a four by four plot of employers that get this versus employers that really are not onboard, it's really all over the map.

And I want our offering to make it very clear. That there's a need for this no matter where, no matter what your opinions are. So paring down some of the offerings, uh, could help us do that and could help us by, by just showing the data, help us, help employers to see from, you know, an equity standpoint, from a DEI standpoint, from a wellness standpoint, that this is like you said, a way to have moms.

Attack the systems that they're managing everyday.

Dave: I think that's exactly right. And I love the way that you're taking, you know, services that have been around for thousands of years, [00:27:00] um, childcare support in different ways and your. Mastering them. You're designing them in a way that fits the very systemic lifestyle work style of today's modern parent, which, which is really quite fantastic and kudos to you for, for coming up with it.

I, I hope that lots of companies start to buy into this type of a service.

Joyce: Thank you.

Aransas: It is really exciting, I think from it certainly from a mission and vision standpoint and from an experience standpoint, um, you know, when I think about, we talk a lot about, um, emotional needs to be met. And if I think about it as a consumer and what I would have wanted from it, I wanted to feel supported.

I wanted to feel that my company cared about my [00:28:00] success. And that they were willing to invest in it. And I, you know, you sort of said casually, like not everybody wants a fitness room or a game room. And I do think that so many of the services that companies sponsor. Are geared towards engineers or certainly tech companies in

Joyce: particular, the people who have time to hang out and work out after work.

Right. I can't stay at the gym at work. I gotta go home.

Aransas: well, and I mean, it's true that, I mean, Plays into so many of the other statistics about, uh, company cultures and hiring. And as you said, pay gaps, um, and title gaps, but at the end of the day, if these companies want diverse, To your point, they want the benefits of diverse thought.

They need to respond to a diverse set of employees. [00:29:00] And to me, this is something I would've just hungered for, not just as a new mom. And that's what I thought was interesting about the, the nursing mom comment. I was a nursing mom longer than most, maybe, and yet it was just a few months, really of my tenure.

I'm a mom. For the life span of my child and therefore the lifespan of my career, uh, as a working mom. And so it was just, uh, it's got a much longer tail and, um, I think just serves as an opportunity to make a much bigger difference as a result.

Joyce: I absolutely love that. It's, it's a much longer responsibility and it's.

So needed today. And I really hope that, you know, taking this leap and making this company work and, you know, there are quite a few other competitors playing in this space now. Um, and when the. [00:30:00] Seven eight years ago. I didn't know where we would be today. Um, and, and luckily that means I have an edge because I've developed the product to go along with it, but people are catching on and I think companies will start to catch on as well.

Aransas: I hope so. I hope so. What, when you talk to companies, what gets them most excited about your product? And I, I, I'm going to guess. That it's the financial benefits of it. But what do you think in terms of emotionally? What gets them excited?

Joyce: I think you hit on one of the topics, which is diversity, equity and inclusion at work.

Um, today we are in a space where many companies, most companies are focused on. Not just the theory of D and I, but the practice, what are equitable practices and offerings that could help us attract, develop and retain [00:31:00] diverse top talent. And they're excited that here is a benefit that could help, uh, uh, definitely attract, um, Developed to a degree through our, our coaching and for sure retain based on, you know, employee satisfaction, employee productivity.

So it hits on all the sort of recruiting and talent and HR checkmarks. Um, so that gets people excited. But another part that excites companies is about the productivity. So we all know that, um, time is money, right? And so if you have employees coming in and clocking in spending their time there, if their output is strongly.

Eventually that's going to lead to your bottom line. And, you know, given that we're a startup, I don't have data to back this up, but I'm hoping to track this as a metric, as clients and end user customers get onboarded because I think productivity. [00:32:00] Is a key metric that all companies, no matter what the sector, no matter what the industry are focused on.

And so in addition to the DEI work, I think that the possibility for increased productivity in this population is something that they're really excited.

Aransas: I love that it doesn't surprise me at all. Um, and as you said, about 70 pounds on this episode already long overdue. Um, the other question I had was w as I think about the, the other party involved in this, which is your service providers, we haven't really talked about.

Their experience within this at all. How do you think about that there, your experience delivery mechanism?

Joyce: Our experience delivery, human mechanism. And I love, that's probably my favorite question of this whole time so far, because [00:33:00] I have this vision of, you know, the domestic worker in this country has been so marginalized in so many ways, not just from a legislation standpoint, in terms of the rights that they have, but just the way that they're viewed in society.

And I really admired. The work that Uber has done with their drivers. So I want to tell you that my father he's passed away 15 years ago, but my father was a New York city yellow cab driver for 20 years. And he, he actually, I mean like when yellow cabins were like the iconic, you know, there was a TV show called taxi.

Like literally that was my dad. Right. And he would come home and have all these stories and he felt so proud. Of his work, um, being an immigrant coming into this country in the early seventies, he was just so proud of his work and my mom owned a daycare center. So she started a childcare center in our home on the first floor.

We had a three-story brownstone at the [00:34:00] time, and she did that for 20 years. Um, Coming from that entrepreneurial spirit and seeing the way they did their work, but then going outside in the outside world and seeing how society viewed them, it was, it was like cognitive dissonance. I just didn't get it.

Cause I saw the amazing work that they did, but in society they were just regarded as sort of less than. And what Uber has been able to do has been to give the autonomy. To their drivers, you know, they can kind of choose their, their schedule. They can kind of choose the autonomy, I think is important. And the benefits and sort of the dignity that they bring back is how I, I want to emulate that with our family HQ team.

And, you know, I would love to focus on training and focus on, you know, self-development and even having them be a community amongst themselves, not only just for the moms, but for themselves. [00:35:00] Um, I, I, I envision having. Having them get together for summits on wellness because caregivers need wellness too.

And so I'm excited to build a culture within our field team. Our household support our caregivers, our, uh, concierge team. It, it really is a movement. That I'm hoping to build, to really kind of bring the dignity and support back into the space of these professionals who really make our worlds work without them.

I don't know where we would be. So I love this question and I really hope that our culture is able to, to bring that to life.

Aransas: Yeah, I love hearing how energized you are by that question. Because having run a company with a very large field force of [00:36:00] dedicated. Heart-focused service providers for many years.

I, um, I know how important it is to light their fire in order for the product to thrive. I'm really, really excited to hear where that piece of your puzzle goes. Um, cause it's going to be every bit as. As that end-user's experience and the B2B client experience. I'm so excited to hear the way you're thinking about this holistically about the jobs to be done about the.

Experience on all sides. And I hope you'll come back and visit us again and product evolves. And as it reaches more and more people, it is a, it is such an important mission you're taking on here and we will be on the sidelines, cheering you on land of the way. Thank you, Jerry, for [00:37:00] folks who want to hear more from you or about BMH queue, where should they.

Joyce: They should check us out on LinkedIn. Um, we are at linkedin.com/company/fam HQ. We're also on Instagram at fam HQ concierge. Our website is undergoing a make-over, but our new website will be www that fam HQ concierge.com. We will talk about the release of the website on our social media platforms. So that is the best way to reach out to us.

And you can sign up for our mailing list as well on social media so that you can hear the latest news. Yeah. Yay.

Aransas: Get to go do that right after this episode. Thank you so much,

Joyce: Joyce. Thanks for having.

Aransas: For those of you listening, go check out more about fam HQ, concierge, follow along with this incredible journey.

It's hard to think of many more things that could possibly be more important than setting up [00:38:00] our working parents for success and support. Let us know what you want to hear more and less of on the show. And we'll see you very soon with a another exciting episode. And packed the house, the why and the what I've experienced strategy.

Voiceover: Thank you for listening to the experience strategy podcast. If you're having fun, nerding out with us, please follow and share wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Find more episodes and continue the conversation with us@experiencedstrategypodcast.com.