From Research to Reality: The Journey to Launching inCharge

September is here and the response to our national rollout announcement has been overwhelming - in the best possible way. The messages, the encouragement, the "we've been waiting for this" - it's shown me just how much this matters to people. Over the past few months in The Caring Founder blog series, I’ve shared the ups and downs of building inCharge. Today, I want to pull back the curtain a bit more and share some of the lessons that brought us to this moment. Partly because people have asked, but honestly, partly because putting it all down might help settle these launch butterflies.

Lessons From the Early Days

As I shared in April, the road into development was not smooth. In Q3 and Q4 of 2024, we live-launched at events. It was exhilarating to put the product into people’s hands. But quickly, we discovered several single points of failure that delayed family testing. Back then, it felt frustrating; looking back, it was a reality check.

What did we learn? That single points of failure are unavoidable in a small, lean, fractional team. Any one of us could be that bottleneck. But instead of letting it paralyse us, we paused, listened, and then acted.

A huge thank you to Dessy Chongarova, whose advice helped us establish quality assurance processes. We also brought a dedicated part-time product tester on board - someone with patience and deep experience. That decision has already paid off, helping us strengthen our processes while staying agile.

At the same time, our design research with personal assistants gave us clarity on what mattered most for our MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and we have focused on this.

We learned that PAs want to:

●      Build rapport

●      Stay on top of things

●      Keep everyone in the loop

●      Get paid

●      Feel well and supported.

We also learned that personal assistants who are employed by a family or local authority organising and coordinating care on behalf of a person have slightly different needs from technology than a person directly employed by a person with care and support needs. We decided to focus on the unmet need where communication and continuity of care is challenging (staying on top of things and keeping everyone in the loop).

Families First

Back in June, you heard from Jacqui in Rutland about why she believed in inCharge long before it was ready. Today, she and her team are fully onboard, shaping what comes next. And she’s not alone.

The most exciting part? We’re approaching the six-month point of our family pilot. We have been juggling so many competing priorities, we haven’t shared much publicly. We simply had to get the head down and focus on getting the product ready, balance the books and be launch ready.

Our intention from day one was simple: get the app into families’ hands as quickly as possible. Our families have been patient, understanding, and incredibly generous with their feedback.

Here’s how the pilot unfolded:

●      Alix (Northern Ireland) – our very first family-led team onboarded on 06 April 2025. That’s a date I’ll never forget.

●      Jacqui (Rutland, England) – our second family to join, first to sign up (you first met her in June’s blog).

●      My own team in Ireland – yes, we use inCharge every day.

●      Chrissy (Ireland) – starting a brand new self-directed journey.

●      Marian (Northern Ireland) – who said she understands the why and will help us.

●      Janice (Northern Ireland) – about to join, through referral from Alix.

And beyond the UK and Ireland, we are also testing in Australia. This isn’t just to prove the universality of the challenge but to support families wherever they are, when they need it most. Thank you Meredith Coote. I was so grateful to be in the room to witness the live receipt of the daily diary update.

We also set up a WhatsApp group for the founding members of the inCharge community. What’s happening there goes beyond features, fault-finding, or user experience. Families are helping each other solve life problems. As Jacqui said in June, families help families. And we’ve now seen that principle come alive in our pilot community.

Operational Confidence

PAs report walking into shifts with clarity, reducing guesswork and preventing errors through a centralised diary and handover process.

“It’s really simple - once you’re logged in, everything is just there.” – Saoirse, PA

Living Record & Pattern Detection

The combination of diary entries, profile data, and health/mood flags empowers proactive care, surfacing emerging trends before they escalate.

Dignified, Discreet Communication

Sensitive information can be shared in a way that protects the dignity of the person. Research also prioritised key next steps in the roadmap, consistent with our co-design approach.

So, what’s in the MVP?

Back in July, I talked about how our pivot wasn’t grand or flashy — it was quiet, human, and real. We started with money management in mind, but through listening, we realised the real need was scaffolding the relationships around a small care and support team. That pivot has now become the foundation of our MVP.

Here’s what’s inside our MVP:

●      Personal Profile
Not just medical information (though care preferences are there), but a section all about the person. Who they are, what matters to them, what they like and dislike, how they communicate, and where they flourish and what environments may upset them and why.

●      Daily Diary
A digital handover. Every member of the support team can see what happened during the day, how the person was, and what’s important for tomorrow or the next shift. This matters because consistency and continuity build trust and stability.

●      Support Team Schedule
A simple, at-a-glance rota designed for small family-led teams. Not a complex HR system, but a single source of truth for who’s doing what and when.

And this is only the beginning. inCharge has a product roadmap and a vision to become the platform of choice for self-directed and family-led care. But our mission is to remain firmly rooted in need and simplicity. Here’s what’s already happening in our pilot:

●      66+ daily users across 7 family led support teams

●      500 daily summaries and counting

●      3,150 support hours logged and rising

●      Piloting in 4 nations

What’s Next?

Right now, we're in those final, slightly chaotic weeks before launch. You know the feeling - when everything seems to need doing at once. We're finalising materials, onboarding early adopters who've been waiting patiently, and yes, rehearsing that presentation one more time.

All roads lead to Thursday 25th September at the Social Care Future People Powered Policy and Action Conference in Manchester . After years of building, listening, and testing, we'll officially launch inCharge to the world.

As we reach the beginning of this next chapter, we’d love you to join us:

• Sign up to the app - put your family in charge through our early adopters programme. 

• Sponsor a Subscription - gift inCharge to a household that needs it most. 

• Co-design with us - people and their teams can inform our app accessibility and design.

• Subscribe to our newsletter - receive news and updates from inCharge.