Into the forest of possibility
Will Pega Blueprint™ one day help us find Bigfoot? Stranger things have happened.
The boundary between serious software and playful invention is thinner than it looks. In fact, the most valuable insights often emerge when we blur that line deliberately. When we release ourselves from the constraints of “practical use cases,” suddenly the possibilities expand exponentially.
The moment you start asking "what if?" instead of "what's required?" is when innovation truly begins. And what better way to push a platform to its limits than by tracking a cryptid that’s evaded capture for centuries?
Building the unbuildable: Meet SquatchSeeker
SquatchSeeker isn't just any application – it's a comprehensive end-to-end Bigfoot hunting management system built entirely by yours truly using Pega Blueprint. The app orchestrates everything from expedition resource planning and witness interviews to evidence cataloging and real-time Squatch alerts.
What makes it remarkable isn't just what it does, but how quickly it came together. Within minutes, Pega Blueprint had generated a fully fleshed application framework complete with:
- Evidence cataloging workflows with multi-tier verification processes
- Field team assignment and coordination systems
- Equipment inventory management and checklists
- Real-time alert mechanisms with location-based triggers
- Witness interview protocols with credibility analysis
I’m also pleased to report that it tagged me as credible when I pretended to be a witness using the Agent chat feature.
Exploring the impossible to build the essential
Fiction removes the pressure of perfectionism that often stifles creativity in enterprise settings. When you're hunting Bigfoot rather than optimizing supply chains, you're suddenly free to break things, experiment radically, and test the boundaries of what's possible.
The real magic happens at the edges. Consider what happens when a Squatch alert triggers in a remote wilderness zone without cell service. How does your system handle the data synchronization once connection is restored? How does it prioritize and triage incoming reports when multiple sightings occur simultaneously? These same challenges mirror what happens in rural field logistics, remote industrial operations, or disaster response scenarios.
By embracing the ridiculous, you inadvertently solve for the serious.
From forest trails to freight trains
The transition from Bigfoot to serious business is easier than you might imagine. The underlying mechanisms powering SquatchSeeker translate directly to critical enterprise workflows:
- Route planning and tracking → Fleet management
The algorithms that optimize paths through dense forest based on Bigfoot sighting clusters work identically for delivery route optimization. Both need to account for terrain challenges, time-sensitivity, and resource allocation while maintaining real-time visibility. - Equipment checklists → Inventory workflows
Our comprehensive gear management system – ensuring no Bigfoot hunter enters the field without proper documentation equipment, safety gear, and communication tools – mirrors inventory management workflows for field service operations, with condition tracking and maintenance scheduling included. - Team assignments and alerting → Field service operations
The way SquatchSeeker dynamically assembles teams based on expertise, proximity to sighting locations, and availability creates the perfect template for field service dispatching. The alerting system's priority matrix is sophisticated enough to handle everything from routine maintenance to emergency response.
What playing in Blueprint reveals that planning can’t
The real revelation came not from code, but from conversation. I wasn’t testing as a developer. I was testing as a “witness.” I kept telling the AI agent that I was scared. I described strange, loud noises and a large bipedal creature stalking my yard.
It captured the data flawlessly – timestamp, coordinates, physical description – but it didn’t comfort me. It didn’t acknowledge fear or offer reassurance. In that moment, the system passed the test of logic but failed the test of feeling. And that’s where the design breakthrough happened.
I started wondering: Could this system respond not just to inputs, but to emotional states? What would it take to shape not just what the agent does, but how it does it?
Digging deeper, I discovered that if SquatchSeeker were actually deployed in Dev Studio, the agent within it could be refined into distinct operational modes – each tailored to a different kind of human experience:
- Comforting mode: For soothing frightened witnesses
- Excited mode: For engaging enthusiastic cryptid-chasers sharing discoveries
- Analytical mode: For supporting methodical researchers combing through field evidence
What began as a cryptid-themed roleplay became a serious design insight: emotional context isn’t a soft feature – it’s an operational necessity. By stepping into absurd personas, we uncover experience gaps that never would’ve surfaced through traditional testing.
And this kind of playful prototyping? It doesn’t just spark ideas. It accelerates them. The speed, depth, and insight we gain by acting out the edge cases far surpasses what conventional requirements-gathering can deliver.
Whether you’re managing sightings in the wild or workflows in the enterprise, the lesson holds: Sometimes the fastest way to build something real is to start with something a little unreal.
Real innovation is hiding in plain sight
Innovation doesn’t always show up in a gray suit. Sometimes it lumbers out of the woods in the middle of the night, mud-caked, unshaven, and full of surprises.
I didn’t set out to build a groundbreaking app. I set out to ask a strange question – and in doing so, uncovered something hiding in the trees:
- A faster path to insight
- A more human way to design
- A system agile enough to track Bigfoot or coordinate a supply chain, without changing its stride
Bigfoot never appeared. But something else did: A reminder that playful exploration isn’t a detour from innovation – it’s a shortcut.
Because when you chase the unbelievable, you often find what everyone else has been missing.