Welcome to another comundo conversation. This month, we’re talking to Helene Lassen Nørlem, co-CEO and co-founder of Tiimo, a neuro-inclusive planning and support tool for neurodivergent people.

‍

If you’re wondering what this has got to do with sustainability and energy data, the answer is; not much. However, it does have a lot to do with our core values of community, mastery and doing good, and those values are the foundation for these interviews. 

‍

We’re not sure it’s possible to get more community-focused than Tiimo. The company was founded in 2015 with the aim of creating an app that could transform planning and time management for the neurodivergent community – a community that is only growing as awareness and acceptance of the spectrum of neurodiversity grows and a community that struggles with executive functions. 

‍

Not sure what those are? We weren’t either, but you’ll find out soon.

‍

Let’s jump in. 

‍

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Helene, and I’m the co-founder and co-CEO of Tiimo. We’re building a neuro-inclusive tool for people who are neurodivergent to support them with planning and scheduling in everyday life.  

‍

Could you tell us what being neurodivergent means?

Sure! The most known diagnoses under the neurodivergent umbrella are ADHD and autism, but dyslexia, OCD, PTSD, DCD – and many more – are all there. A common trait for people who are neurodivergent is that they’re challenged with executive functions.  

‍

These are the functions we all use to carry out tasks; they’re about understanding time, organising and planning and having that always-on awareness of when you need to transition into something new and the ability to be flexible.

‍

People who struggle with their executive functions find it hard, to varying degrees, to plan and cope with changes to their schedules. So, moving a meeting by five minutes might seem like nothing to one person, but to another, it can be extremely stressful as they spend so much energy and brainpower on thinking about what they have to do next, when it is, if they’re on time or missing something and so on.

‍

It’s also a struggle to have a sense of time. So while one person might have an idea of what 10 minutes is, some neurodivergent people need to visualise it, through a timer, for example, to keep track of it and make sure they maintain an overview. 

‍

And that’s what Tiimo helps with; it lets people not worry about the time, which frees up a lot of mental space and energy. Interestingly enough, we have a lot of users who aren’t neurodivergent. Everybody needs help planning!

‍

How did you get the idea for Tiimo?

Good question. My co-founder Melissa and I were writing our master's thesis way back when, and at the same time there was a new school reform in Denmark coming out where a lot of children from special needs schools were to be included in the conventional schools. There was concern that some children, especially those with ADHD, would fall between the cracks because while they were considered able to go to a conventional school, they wouldn’t receive the same support they were getting before. 

‍

We thought it could be really interesting to take a very anthropological approach to this in terms of understanding what is ADHD, what are the challenges typically faced, how people manage it today, and so on. And then examine whether or not we could use technology to give them the support they needed. Nothing to replace humans, but something they could use as a support tool.

‍

Our thesis ended up with the concept of Tiimo. Today, it’s still the same concept of providing very visual guidance and structure throughout the day which has been proven to be really effective for people who are neurodivergent. That’s not something we figured out by ourselves – there’s a lot of research supporting this, but what we did was figure out how we can transform this knowledge into a digital product and an app that you could use daily. 

‍

It’s surprising this didn’t already exist!

I know. Everything else was being digitalised, but the methods for this group were very analogue, so pictograms and pictures on boards on the wall, clocks and timers – all things that work, but not very digital. You can’t take it anywhere – and it’s also stigmatising. 

‍

We realised that many of the children we followed didn’t want to bring friends over and if they did it wasn’t their pictures on the wall, it was their younger siblings, or someone else’s, because it could be a picture that helped them remember they needed to go to the bathroom, something they didn’t feel comfortable sharing. 

‍

Why not create a beautiful app that supports that particular brain type? 

‍

So, there was clearly a space for creating a digital product. We all use apps every day to help us carry out tasks and our lives in general, so why not create a beautiful app that supports that particular brain type? 

‍

Are children still your primary audience?

Not really. I think today it’s about 3% of the entire user base. The majority are from 25 to late 30s, so we can see that Tiimo really becomes relevant for people when they move into a more structured school system where they have a schedule every day, or when they go to a university or start work and they need to have more responsibility over their time. Having that in a very visual calendar can be extremely helpful. 

‍

We’re also seeing a surge of people getting diagnosed relatively late, as more and more people become aware of neurodivergent traits and seek professional help. Melissa, our co-founder and CPO was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia after we started Tiimo because she learned more about how it represents in women and in general!

That’s amazing. There must be so many people yet to be diagnosed.

Yes. I certainly didn’t know about it when I was younger, but it’s about 20% of the population who are neurodivergent. While awareness is certainly increasing, there’s much more to be done about it – also within the community itself. There is still a stigma attached to it and some people who are diagnosed find that stigma hard to shake. We want to help people understand they’re not alone, that it’s not a taboo anymore and that you can still fully function in society. 

‍

We’ve just launched a new layer of content called Tiimo Learn which we believe will help with this. It’s video masterclasses and bite-sized lessons with experts on neurodiversity digging into what it is, what it looks like, how the brain works and also what you can do to become more productive.

‍

We hope it’ll help fill the gap some people experience between getting a diagnosis and receiving treatment, which can unfortunately be years. After you’re diagnosed, you can feel like you’re left hanging – what does this diagnosis mean? Why me? Will I be OK? Right now, that information is so fragmented and we want to become the go-to place where you can easily find all the answers and gain some control over it. 

‍

You just need different tools because your brain is different. That’s all. 

‍

We like to say we’re the go-to kit for a neurodivergent journey in terms of learning, understanding and having the tools you need. Of course, there’s also the journey of waiting to get a diagnosis because the systems can’t cope with all the people suddenly realising that actually – that might be me. 

‍

So where do you go while you wait? Tiimo, hopefully. We can’t give out medicine but we can be a place for people to learn, to realise that they’re not alone and to see that they can be as successful as anyone else. 

‍

You just need different tools because your brain is different. That’s all. 

‍

You must get some interesting feedback from your users. 

Oh yes. We hear so much, especially because of all the new diagnoses happening. So many stories about ‘if only I knew this earlier’.

‍

There’s often a grief that’s attached to being diagnosed because you go through that process of knowing you could have done so many things differently, or that you wouldn’t have felt a certain way – that there would have been no blaming yourself. 

‍

We also see a lot of co-conditioning happening. So, a lot of people with ADHD, about 80%, I think, are diagnosed with at least one other mental health condition, like depression, anxiety or something else, but the root cause can be undiscovered ADHD. So when they’re being treated for anxiety, it’s not necessarily helping because the root cause is ADHD, not anxiety. 

‍

We hear stories about how in the past people struggled with “normal” things, and how not being able to do them has intensified the feelings of not being “normal”, and raised all those questions like, ‘Why can’t I do that’ and ‘Why can’t I be like everyone else’. But now, because of Tiimo, they can. 

‍

They use words like ‘life-changing’ and say that they can finally see themselves and have found a safe space where they fit in. 

‍

Knowing we have this impact is what drives us. It can get emotional in the office sometimes!

‍

What’s the future of Tiimo?

Well, there’s Tiimo Learn, which we’re really excited about. We believe that will help fill the gap so many people need. We’re also seeing possibilities in companies with Tiimo Learn. We’ve talked about flipping the content so it’s targeted at leaders and people and culture roles in larger companies. Many of them are starting to become aware of having a neurodivergent workforce and wondering what they can do to help support them as part of their DEIB initiatives. They don’t know where to start, and that’s what we can help with. 

‍

Schools are also a possibility. That’s where we started, after all! It’s quite a tricky fit though, because there are so many schedules to fit in – the school timetable, the personal one, possibly a work rota too and parents! Who is the owner of this and how does it work? We think there’s a way around this by making a desktop app, so that’s something we’re looking into. 

‍

The other thing we always keep an eye on is traction in new markets. English-speaking countries are our main markets, but interestingly enough we’re starting to see a lot of traction in Brazil. Some of it is down to localising the product, but we suspect it’s also awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity. Which is great – not just for us, but for the community and, more importantly, every individual who finally gets the diagnosis and explanation they need. 

‍

Now that’s what you call a company with a mission. 

‍

If you’re curious about Tiimo, you can download it (for free) on the App Store or Google Play. 

‍