The story behind Nabad

I grew up in Lebanon, where you greet someone with «hi, kifak, ça va». Three languages in three words, and nobody thinks twice about it. At home, a sentence could start in Arabic, borrow a word from French and land in English, and everyone understood.

Nabad began long before it became a product. It began the day I arrived in Canada. I was learning unfamiliar systems, a new language, and a culture that was both welcoming and challenging. I learned what it feels like to have something to say and no easy way to say it. I learned how quiet a room can feel when you are the one translating in your head.

Those feelings followed me into my master’s in User Experience at HEC Montréal, where I studied how technology and public services can truly include the people they are meant to serve. I sat with newcomers and listened to their stories. I came to understand that research is not only about knowledge. At its best, it is an act of listening. Behind every answer, every data point and every silence, there is a person waiting to be heard.

Then I saw the same silence in workshops and classrooms. The facilitator opens the floor and the room goes still. People have plenty to say. But speaking means choosing a language, and choosing a language means deciding who you are in that room before you have even shared your thought.

I kept waiting for someone to build a tool that listened to the whole room. Every platform I tried chose one language and let everyone else fall quiet. So I built Nabad.

Nabad means pulse in Arabic. With Nabad, you feel the pulse of the room. A presentation should never be one-sided. When people can answer in the language they think in, the conversation flows both ways, and every answer counts the same.

I have learned that the greatest purpose of the work we do is to serve. Every newcomer, every participant, every quiet voice in the room belongs. Nabad is my way of making sure the room knows it too.

The practical part

I designed, built and run Nabad on my own, from Montréal. It is independently funded and not affiliated with any other company. The only official website is nabad.live and the only contact is info@nabad.live.

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