The Cabin Ready Hackathon Recap

TLDR: Tom Spillers from Southwest Airlines FADAP partnered with Ghost Founder to create Cabin Ready, a digital recovery portfolio to help flight attendants struggling with substance abuse stay sober and keep their jobs. The app logs peer check-ins and meets the requirements of FADAP and DOT, and helps individuals get back to flying as soon as possible. The hackathon involved our team of experts working together to create a pitch deck and clickable prototype, and the end result was an innovative solution that could positively impact the lives of many.

Bringing an idea to life can be an intimidating task. But at Ghost Founder, we’re experts at helping our clients turn their dreams into tangible reality. Recently, we were engaged in a one-day prototyping sprint for Southwest Airlines FADAP, where we had the opportunity to develop the Cabin Ready app.

The Cabin Ready app is a digital recovery portfolio designed to help flight attendants struggling with substance abuse to stay sober and keep their jobs. Flight attendants with substance abuse issues are often laid off because their jobs are safety-sensitive according to the Department of Transportation (DOT). However, airlines are losing out on a trained workforce due to this, and joblessness often exacerbates substance abuse issues, leading to deteriorating mental health. That’s where the Cabin Ready app comes in – it meets the requirements of FADAP and DOT, logs peer check-ins, and helps the person in recovery to get back to flying as soon as possible.

To get started on this project, we had several scope calls with Tom, who explained the idea to the team and provided us with the goal of the app. Once we had a clear understanding of what was required, we began our hackathon day.

Our day started with a Zoom call with Tom and the team. During this call, we presented our initial thoughts and received approval for the style guide. Designer Emily quickly got to work on creating a sitemap and wireframes for the key screens of the app, all done by hand on paper.

Emily then collaborated with developer Mudit to turn those wireframes into a clickable online prototype of the app, using the tool Canva. Meanwhile, our founder Lovis worked on the pitch deck for the overall product using the Sequoia Capital slide format.

As we worked on the design and software, we also did our research. We found that introducing accountability and homework assignments helped patients to form the positive habits they need to overcome substance dependence. We incorporated this information into the app to ensure that it met the needs of users and was as effective as possible.

We also set up a simple financial model in Google Sheets for the business model of the app. This was an important step to ensure that the app was both sustainable and scalable in the long term.

As we worked, we also used the AI tool Midjourney to generate custom images for the pitch deck. These images helped to showcase the app’s potential and made it more engaging for viewers.

Finally, we wrote a 30-second elevator pitch for Tom to use to get buy-in from his peers at Southwest. We knew that a successful pitch was essential to securing support and funding for the app, so we made sure that it was persuasive and engaging.

Our day ended with the final presentation of the pitch deck and clickable prototype. Thanks to our hard work, the presentation was a huge success. Tom was thrilled with the outcome, and we were happy to have helped him bring his idea to life.

At Ghost Founder, we’re passionate about helping our clients succeed. We believe that every idea has the potential to change the world, and we’re here to help make that happen. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, business owner, CIO, CTO, or CEO, we’re ready to help you turn your idea into a tangible reality.

If you’re ready to take the first step towards realizing your dreams, contact Ghost Founder today. We’re here to help you succeed.