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Starting With Microsteps: Interview With Data.ai’s former CPTO Yardley Pohl
Yardley shares her behavior change mantra with me: If you want to help users sleep better, eat well, or de-stress, you can’t start with the big goal. You have to break it down into smaller steps. Microsteps, she says, allow users to make a small movement in the right direction toward their big, bold, ambitious goals.
And with 20+ years in product management, she knows a thing or two about reaching goals. Yardley has led product innovation at Thrive Global, Apple, Meta, eBay and Zillow. She says the secret is to build products that users don’t just think they should use, but want to use.
She likens the average tech product to broccoli, asking: How can we help users feel like their broccoli is not just a healthy vegetable that they are supposed to eat, but a delicious, melt-in-your-mouth indulgence that they look forward to savoring? In this interview with Yardley, her commitment to using behavioral design for good comes through as she shares how she’s designed a range of reward systems to help users take each microstep toward their larger goals.
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I love doing pottery and baking bread! I find both activities to simulate my creativity and allow me to stay present in the…
