The Irrational Mind | With Kristen Berman

Cal Thompson is the VP of Product Design & Research at Headspace, where they lead a team dedicated to creating user-centered designs that drive real-world impact. Their focus is to combine design practices with rigorous research to help users achieve their meditation goals. Before Headspace, Cal served as a Design Director at Fjord San Francisco. In this episode, we explore: What key metric Headspace measures for active use The small feature change that increased engagement The one trick they use for copy-editing What drives people to re-engage with Headspace How pricing (free vs. paid) impacts user engagement  This episode is packed with practical takeaways for PMs and anyone interested in the psychology of habit creation. Enjoy this episode? Rate it and leave a review. It really helps others find the podcast. Learn more about Kristen and Irrational Labs here.

Trying something new is hard at the macro level. Yelp reviews reduce that uncertainty that comes with new things. But how do they help businesses achieve organic and meaningful reviews? In this episode, host Kristen Berman is joined by Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, VP of Consumer Product at Yelp. He explains why Yelp prefers quality over quantity when it comes to reviews and how your Yelp review creates community and helps new businesses. They also talk about high-frequency low-risk experience while taking a look at some studies and other companies’ strategies, like Spotify’s approximate nearest neighbor search. Stay tuned and learn the many features that are promoting human connection at Yelp!Jump straight into:(01:17) - Engineering behind a review: Reminders, thank you notes and opportune timing to enhance more reviews.(07:42) - Why do people write reviews? The common denominators the most frequent Yelp contributors share.(13:19) - Promoting human connection: The best hacks to make first reviews flow organically and be longer.(16:57 - Understanding search processes’ verticals for different business categories in Yelp (and how they created the reorder button). (26:15) - The perks of being a responsive business owner (and how Yelp facilitates clever questions to be answered by more than one person).(32:41) - Looking for something wildly different than ice cream: On Yelp’s target diversification and the appearance of new kinds of experiences.Episode resourcesConnect with Akhil through LinkedInYelpThank you for listening to Science of Change podcast. Reach out to Kristen through LinkedIn and visit The Irrational Labs website for more information on behavioral science. This show is presented by SetSail and produced by Kristen Berman and Studio Pod Media. The executive producer is Rachael Roberts. All episodes are written by Kristen Berman and Ying Lin with experts, script editing by Jack viewer. Special thanks to Lydia Trupe for fact checking and citations. Music and editing provided by nodalab. 

You’ve probably heard of Asana or maybe you already use it in your workplace. In this episode, Paige Costello, Core Product Leader at Asana, joins the show to explain the features that help codify and amplify some of the key components that make work to actually work. We talk about interesting concepts such as deadline visibility, social loafing, long-term planning and authentic acts of recognition. Let's take a look at what work actually is and which are the most important (and sometimes hidden) gears that create productive work environments!Jump straight into:(01:42) - The coordination layer: Asana's role in helping teams plan and achieve their work together.(05:45) - A visual connection: How Asana’s accurate deadline display turns procrastination into motivation.(10:05) - Is social loafing a real thing? Team productivity, accountability systems, being evaluated and why public tasks are so effective to overcome social loafing.(15:28) - Traction, focus and engagement drive: The tools that make it easier to break down big projects into small tasks.(21:41) - A manager’s best friend: Asana’s insights to make long-term planning and goal tracking easier.(25:37) - Setting the norm: Templates, updates and other features that help Asana work for every team structure and user.(31:03) - The power of compliments: Enabling specific and authentic acts of appreciation and the future of collaborative work management.Episode resourcesConnect with Paige Costello through LinkedInAsanaThank you for listening to The Science of Change podcast. Reach out to Kristen through LinkedIn and visit The Irrational Labs website for more information on behavioral science. This show is presented by SetSail (follow on LinkedIn)and produced by Kristen Berman and Studio Pod Media. The executive producer is Rachel Roberts. All episodes are written by Jack Bueher. Music and editing provided by nodalab.

In the last few years, buy now pay later has become the hottest development in the digital payment space. The flexibility of this type of models can bring many benefits for companies that know how to implement them, but the irrational decisions that can arise should also be part of a company's responsibility. In this episode, our host Kristen Berman talks with Nupur Kantamneni, responsible for Consumer Product, one of three product pillars at Affirm. We delve into the behavioral strategies that provide such a flexible business model for Affirm, as well as mental models and the positive emotions that come with free stuff. Join us and discover how loans inside Affirm are radically different from other credit companies!Jump straight into:(01:09) - Exploring how Affirm is helping users to understand the way that carts, payment methods and terms work.(07:46) - The compromise effect: The truth about comparison, decisions to save money and picking the middle options.(11:32) - Establishing mental models: The science behind the successful onboarding experiences within Affirm’s savings accounts.(15:58) - Positive emotions that come with free stuff: Why the appeal of zero interest with full transparency and no hidden cost is simply irresistible.(18:48) - Affirm two ways to make revenue: Does the ‘buy now pay later’ model encourage people to spend more?(24:13) - The challenge to set up our own payments and the alignment of incentives that lets Affirm stand out.(29:33) The opportunity to move my payment date: What are Affirm's flexibility offers that other lenders do not provide?(35:06) Virtual debit cards and the types of consumer products that Affirm is trying to offer to users and why some work and others don’t.(39:24) - Choosing priorities and Affirm’s responsibility to improve the life of its users.Episode resourcesAffirmPredictably Irrational by Dan ArielyNupur Kantamneni LinkedinThank you for listening to The Science of Change podcast. Reach out to Kristen through LinkedIn and visit The Irrational Labs website for more information on behavioral science. This show is presented by SetSail (follow on LinkedIn) and produced by Kristen Berman and Studio Pod Media. The executive producer is Rachael Roberts. All episodes are written by Kristen Berman and Ying Lin with experts, and script editing by Jack viewer. Special thanks to Lydia Trupe for fact-checking and citations. Music and editing provided by nodalab.