The Exchanges

Q Do you have a morning routine that you use that gets you psyched for the day that allows you to come with the energy that you need? Probably a non-stop energy for the, the hours of the day that you're working?

A Yes, absolutely. My, my day is fairly non-stop, uh, handling a number of different things, but, uh, yes, I actually exercise every single morning. I, basically the first thing I do when I wake up is I, I'm either out for a run or, or in the gym hitting the weights, and I try to do a pretty intense workout for 30 to 45 minutes. And then, uh, I do have a sort of zen period of 30 minutes before I actually start my workday. I'll, you know, take my shower, make coffee, uh, sit on, and just take a moment to reflect before letting the, the speed of the day kind of Come at you, and I think that really kind of grounds me and centers me and keeps me focused on the top priorities.

AI assessment note: “I actually exercise every single morning. I, basically the first thing I do”

Q for or, uh, owned and yet. I still have never felt like my ideas are right, or that I, I wonder or worry that they're not doing what I want people to do, or that they're not enjoying it the way I'm hoping they'll enjoy it. Do you go through that within your own design process? And if so, how do you minimize that fear that you're doing it wrong?

A I'm sure, um, you know, everyone throughout, you know, anything that you do, there's elements of, of self-doubt Uh, but what motivates me to kind of keep going and, and feel confidence that, uh, you know, what we're doing is right is really one through results that we've seen, but two through, uh, you know, studying a lot of other frameworks and, uh, everything that I've created on the motivation driven design side of things is, is rooted in, you know, uh, Research that came out of behavioral psychology, uh, or that came out of other, uh, UX design initiatives. And I've read dozens of books, um, on the topic. And as a result, I, I feel like the, the conclusions I've drawn from all of those are, are rooted in a lot of, uh, expert research that gives me confidence that it's at least in the right direction. Now, uh, the trick is applying all of that philosophy to a particular product. And thinking about how that, you know, product can leverage those same kinds of concepts. Uh, and all, you know, because all of this work is dealing with humans and how humans are going to react, it's, it is impossible to be a hundred percent certain that a particular feature or function will achieve the goals. Uh, but that's where, um, post implementation, we have measurement in, in place to ensure that, you know, We're tracking metrics and, and measuring what is successful and what's not. And, you …

AI assessment note: “what motivates me to kind of keep going and, and feel confidence”

Q that's how I think. I think about how to make something make money. I'm attuned to that. Um, and so I guess you're attuned to that in your own way. Um, I guess my curiosity here is how do you keep your team excited about it through that process? Even if the customers and the, and, and the end users are potentially. Um, excited about it later down the road.

A Honestly, it's, it's because my team and I show up every day, you know, we, we make software products, and so code is essentially our canvas, and, um, these kinds of brainstorms is our paintbrush, and, um, you know, we, we're genuinely excited about building products that are going to be impactful, and And there's, um, sort of a, a trust in the process and knowing that when you go through this and build something that really takes UM or user motivation into account, that it leads to better outcomes for the end product. And, uh, you know, it, Being in that world, showing up each day and having the opportunity to brainstorm and be creative about, you know, what could be included in a product is, is very exciting for us. And, um, and I think that my entire team is motivated by that.

AI assessment note: “we're genuinely excited about building products that are going to be impactful”

Q for the user, but for the people that are working on the deep psychological nuances of motivation to get the design the way you want it, because describing the process is difficult to do, but designing it and making it enjoyable so that the team wants to be there day in and day out for the days, weeks, months, you know, years of work. How do you make it fun?

A It's a really great question because actually, um, Making it fun is part of what motivates people in general. So, uh, it's, you know, that's part of the, one of the, uh, ways that we can make the actual product that we're doing, uh, more sticky for the users themselves. So we're looking at ways to make those products fun as well. But the process of going through this, it actually, the, the reason why it becomes fun is because of one of the elements of motivation, which is Uh, empowerment and creativity. And so, uh, when we look at motivating people, one of the elements that we're looking for is how can we embed opportunities for people to be creative, to make choices, uh, within a product or, or an application. And, uh, the reason that that's very motivating for people is because most people are, um, kind of Social explorer people. We like to build things. We like to create things. And, uh, when you create something, you, you have this intrinsic positive feeling, uh, and it creates this great affinity with what you're doing. And so, um, throughout the products that we make, we try to put in opportunities for the end user to be creative and to experience that That kind of positive affinity and there's ways to do it subtly and there's ways to do it, you know, in a, in a bigger way. Um, but what I've found is that the process of, you know, taking this data driven approach of kind …

AI assessment note: “the reason why it becomes fun is because of one of the elements of motivation”