I built an encrypted task manager with AI agent teams. I wrote about it. People seemed interested in the workflow — the skills, the waves, the retrospectives. What I didn’t tell you was that the workflow was held together with duct tape and copy-pasta. Every sprint, I was the bottleneck. I designed...
I’ve been a Product Manager for 20 years. Design Within Reach, MyFitnessPal, Tonal, Habitry, a cybersecurity startup that Mimecast acquired, a VR fitness app that Meta acquired. On paper, wildly successful. In practice, I’ve been pretty bored for the last six years. Not unhappy. Not ungrateful....
When I think, I write. Most often with a pen, staining a piece of paper with ink. I have amassed a collection of pens, inks, and paper with which I do my best thinking, and people are surprised to hear that I use different combinations of these tools to think in different ways. The bulk of my...
I am Jeanne Varnell’s eldest grandchild. We called her “Boo.” A perfect, unique grandparent name that makes everyone smile as much as she made us smile. If you know anything about Jeanne Varnell, it’s that she was generous. She — like the generations of Hyde women before her — changed the lives of...
Recently, Habitry was approached to design a mental-health chatbot. The company is quite new and didn’t have a pre-existing design process that we were slotting into, so they basically asked us, “how do we even Motivation Science?” from scratch. This was a fun problem to think about and we thought...
“The most ordinary conversations are fraught with life and all its meanings.” — John Haugeland, Having Thought Habitry gets asked to help out with a lot of chatbot design. We got our start teaching health coaches about how to have need-supportive conversations with their patients and clients, so...
This weekend, two giants in the field of Behavior Change Research, professors Martin Hagger and Mike Weed had a debate at the 2018 Meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in Hong Kong. (Oh, you didn’t know? Did you miss the Super Bowl commercial?) The...
On Thursday, May 3rd 2018, my wife and I got a call from her Father that started with, “where are you?” He was calling to tell her that he and her brother were OK, but at 1:00 in the morning the home my wife grew up in had burned to the ground. The home Leon had spent more than 40 years in was...
In 1995, I became a man. I don’t mean that in a creepy way (I was 12), but in my 12 year-old mind I became a man because that Summer while at Skymont Boy Scout Camp, I passed the Knife Safety Course. And it was this achievement of getting all the answers on a multiple-choice test which granted me...
I read a few non-fiction books a week. At any given time, I’m actively reading between 3–10 of them. And since it’s something I’ve been doing since 5th grade, I thought I’d about write how I do it. I’ll get into logistics, but first let’s talk about goals. In grade school, there was a program in my...
The Greek word for philosopher (philosophos) connotes a distinction from sophos. It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of knowledge. This meaning of the word still endures: the essence of philosophy is not the possession...
The other day on Facebook, Mark Schneider asked a great question: <blockquote "Within the SDT/OIT concepts - what defines a “group” or “community”? Is it as loose as “what the person FEELS/perceives” to be part of? Or is there a more concrete idea that may have been used for the research on this...
Habitry is officially partnering with Lift the Bar! Get ready for the biggest hands-on autonomy support program in the world. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Lift the Bar, it’s a place for coaches to get daily coaching, education and support for Personal Trainers. We have been working...
Good news for everyone who loves our podcast, the bettercast, and the work Habitry has been doing for over two years! The short version: As of today, Betterish is here! We’re doubling down on exploring real stories of change. You might’ve noticed we stepped up our podcasting to one episode a week...
This week, I was honored to be a keynote speaker for the YMCA of Canada’s annual summit. When the head office asked me in August if I’d be interested in, “talking to the Managers and owners from YMCAs across Canada about organizing, supporting, and training health coaches,” I felt like Renee...
To kick-off a recent Motivator Meetup, Coach Stevo and I reviewed a new study. The researchers of this study asked an important question: What's more important for goal achievement: reducing experiences of temptation or exerting willpower? We summarized the findings below. You also can watch the...
I remember when I thought it was my job as a coach to motivate clients. It was 2014, and I’d been dreaming of playing coach for almost two years. Finally, I found myself coaching a group online. We had 13 men, who all who wanted to look better naked. Perfect. This was going to be my first-ever...
There is a tradition in helping professions. First you are a client. Then you become a coach. Then you create a system that's the one true way and you teach it to other coaches to become a "Coach's Coach." After that, all you have to do is make a cert, and you're a guru. But what the hell is a...
“How am I helping you?” is a simple question to ask a client. A short five words. Only sixteen letters. Yet such a powerful tool for building strong relationships. This friendly question may even startle the client you ask, but it will also make them think. The ensuing conversation will deepen...
Authors’ note: in this article we go over some tested tips on how to get past dips in motivation. If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll love joining us for our live Q&A session, Nerding Out on Willpower, later this week! When: 2:00PM Pacific Time, Thursday 3/24 Recording will be available later....
Stevo's Blog
Writing on motivation, product, and behavior change.