In the Fall of 2015, Europe received a record number of refugees. Now they, and other non-Finnish speakers, have the interpretation service Tulka, which has courageously grown from an idea into a service in a year.
“I fell in love with the challenge of the need for interpretation and the question of how we can help people understand each other across cultural and linguistic boundaries,”explains Tulka´s Service Designer, Laura Snellmann-Junna. She jumped on board Tulka´s development team a year ago after starting with Wunderdog, a part of Barona Group.
Barona Group´s CEO Markus Oksa had identified a significant need for interpretation and challenged the Barona community to meet it. Tulka´s current Manager Lauti Hyry asked Snellman-Junna to conceptualize the idea by making a video about interpreting.
Tulka is foremost a community of volunteer, peer-to-peer interpreters who meet the customer´s need immediately through the application. Often start-ups begin with a problem that needs a solution. Snellman-Junna states that one must fall in love with the problem.
“Now I am in love with the solution, “she comments. “But you shouldn´t fall too hard for any one solution. Otherwise you will not be able to improve it or be critical of it. The right solution is also good business and that allows for building more solutions.”
The video by itself is not the solution.
What then is the solution the team discovered to meet the sizable need for interpretation?
Tulka is foremost a community of volunteer, peer-to-peer interpreters who meet the customer´s need immediately through the application. Interpreting takes place in a videochat the customer participates in through an application on their phone.
“I knew that the video on its own was not enough. We needed crowdsourcing, in other words a community and the ability to inspire people to help each other,” she states.
Brainstorming began in September-October 2015. By November, the team had recruited an Arabian-speaking Growth Hacker who could use their language skills to develop the service and help find interpreters.
Tulka has grown quickly over the past year. Alongside the free Tulka service there is now Tulka Premium for the more demanding interpretation needs of individuals, communities and businesses.
The way the service has been able to grow has also surprised Snellman-Junna.
“I was incredibly surprised that at Barona one can mock up an idea and try it out first on a smaller scale. Barona is an unimaginable platform for this kind of approach.”
If people are enthusiastic and have a sensible idea, it can amount to something.
Snellman-Junna thinks that the video-interviewing solution Recruitby, which was created in-house, has taught Barona how to challenge and support a start-up so it becomes viable.
“There is an understanding that if people are enthusiastic and have a sensible idea, it can be turned into something that can grow. You just need to have enough trust to encourage people to go out and do things. We have been challenged to be bold and to develop the business further. I really was not expecting this when I started a year ago.”
Laura Snellman-Junna says that the community´s support has been the most helpful. “Hundreds of people cheered us on and offered leads. It has been amazing.”
Tulka is now a year old. Snellman-Junna´s description is that the fun and games prototype-phase is now over. It is time to truly offer a service, operate and create processes. Run a real company. A bigger team is now also looking for a solution to the original problem. There are now several Growth Hackers for different languages.
The need for interpretation is huge and Tulka is used in very important matters.
Tulka has been very successful in finding its userbase.
“We did a small survey about where and when the service is used. Now I am motivated by the numbers,” comments Snellman-Junna.
“We discovered that the service is used when government offices are open and a majority of the interpretation has occurred at The Social Insurance Institution (Kela), social welfare offices, police departments, schools and reception centers. The need for interpretation is great and Tulka is being used in very important matters. The analytics confirm that what we do matters. That makes this meaningful. ”
The meaningfulness of the service is a still a draw for Snellman-Junna.
“Some clients have called our Growth Hackers to tell them that the Tulka community has made their life in Finland much easier. What our team is doing is helping people manage in their daily lives.”
Tulka was born at a moment when working life is being disrupted and it is easier to make more of your professional skills. Tulka, for example, offers people with language-skills an earning opportunity.
“Interpreters also gain work experience and enliven and develop their language skills.”
Tulka in short:
Tulka offers interpretation for anyone for everyday situations as a low threshold microservice. Tulka supports and trains the volunteers who act as interpreters, helping out in ways that their own schedules and circumstances allow. The idea for Tulka was born in Barona Group in the Fall of 2015, when the number of refugees in Europe and Finland reached record numbers.
Tulka was developed by Barona Technologies in partnership with design and software company Wunderdog. In addition, Tulka´s team includes Reaktor Ventures, who are also known for their space technology.
Tulka comes in two versions. Tulka Free is a no-cost volunteer-based service for everyday interpreting needs. For more demanding needs there is Tulka Premium…
