Who am I I don’t mean this in a deep and
existential sort of way I mean literally
if you wanted to know who I am and what
I am about what would you do in today’s
world you basically have three options
you could ask me hi how are you you
could ask someone else who is that
or you could Google me
perspective-taking
understanding who a person is and what
they’re about has taken on a completely
new dimension with the advent of digital
media that new dimension behavioral data
we now live in a world where what you do
online is as telling as what you do
offline and so much of life today
happens on connected devices like
tablets smart phones wearable smart
speakers and with advancements in data
technologies like tracking and analytics
and data storage we as a society now
have the ability to track virtually
everything and anything we do with or
through these connected devices and
that’s why today I’d like to talk about
what behavioral data is and how we can
use it to deepen our empathy for others
on one hand we have the information we
intentionally share this includes
personal information like your name and
birthday and hometown as well as
information about your likes and
interests and preferences then there’s
information you implicitly share these
are insights about yourself based on the
websites or apps you frequent the
transactions you make online or the
content you engage with this is what is
known as behavioral data it’s the
information produced based on what you
do online that combination of personal
information and behavioral data results
in an infinite number of data points
that today can now be aggregated
analyzed parsed and reframed to form a
picture of who a person is in fact every
company that you’re interacting with
through a connected device is using the
data they collect on you to form a
picture of who you are for example if we
go back to my initial question Who am I
and what am I about ask LinkedIn and
they’ll tell you that I’m a strategist
at a design and innovation company and
that I have a background in education
and Media Studies now ask Amazon and
they’ll tell you that I’m a person who
likes to read especially books about
design business technology and crazy
rich Asians now ask YouTube on the other
hand and they’ll tell you that I’m a
kpop fan who has an eclectic interest in
things like food skin care and mr.
Rogers whether I like it or not the
Internet is littered with digital
snapshots of who I am and what I am
about
and much like their analog counterparts
these snapshots offer an intimate
picture of Who I am at a given moment in
time a key difference however is that
these digital snapshots are just as much
about what I do as they are about what I
choose to present so I work in tech and
in the technology world behavioral data
is extremely valuable for decades tech
companies have tracked our every click
hovering input and use that data to form
a picture of who we are as users and
what we need or want something that tech
companies have appreciated for a very
long time and that we as consumers are
just beginning to experience ourselves
is that technology enhances our ability
to understand people through behavior
case in point
face book clap if you’ve checked your
advertising preferences in facebook
anybody well you might want to because I
did and apparently based on my online
behaviors Facebook has discerned that I
have an interest in fashion food and
tech and well they’re right fashion food
technology these are all topics of
interest to me and I quite like the fact
that as a result of these categories
they’ve associated with me
I receive recommendations that are more
relevant to me like it or not we live in
a world where we will increasingly come
to rely on behavioral data to understand
who a person is and what they need or
want for example in the near future
health care providers will use data on
patients daily activities or home
routines to help in personalized
treatment plans teachers will use data
on students summer reading progress to
help them plan for the upcoming school
year and who knows in the future when
we’re all wearing eye tracking devices
and connected heart rate monitors TEDx
organizers will use audience behavioral
data to help presenters like myself
planned the perfect TED talk it’ll be
amazing now a critical drawback of
behavioral data is that it can encourage
those that are relying on these
data-driven snapshots to make gross
inferences about a person let’s go back
to my Facebook example based on my
behavioral data Facebook has reduced me
down to a bunch of hashtags to a bunch
of keywords in fact Facebook is reducing
all of us down to hashtags based on our
online behaviors the problem with
hashtags is that without the proper
context they’re very one-dimensional and
these hashtags can be used to stereotype
us or put us into boxes that we never
checked the reality is as connected
devices become more ubiquitous and data
technologies like analytics and tracking
become more accessible to all of us will
soon become accustomed to tracking all
behaviors both offline and online and
increasingly we will all come to rely on
that behavior data that we collect to
understand who a person is and what they
are about so when that happens when
we’re all relying on behavioral data how
do we make sure that we don’t go down
the route a face
that we don’t inadvertently stereotype
people based on their behavioral data
the answer is to examine behavior in
context the beauty of behavioral data is
that it’s captured accurately its
objective and behavioral data can be
used can be correlated with situational
factors like time or location say for
example we tracked how often I
socialized within the past year now even
if I choose to present myself as
outgoing which I tend to do in a
professional context the data doesn’t
lie with exception of the holidays I’m
less professional go-getter and more
hibernating bear dormant in the winter
limitation of behavioral datum is that
it doesn’t offer insight into what’s
driving a person’s behavior and when you
see a really clear trend or clear
pattern in someone’s behavior it can be
easy to infer why you think a person is
behaving the way they do say for example
we looked at my activity or lack thereof
and I were to ask you what do you think
explains that trend why that dipped in
activity there what would your answer be
now I were you and clearly not me and I
had to guess my conclusion would be
whether I think Ana really doesn’t like
going out in the winter and she’d
possibly die in the Spokane winters well
if you thought that you wouldn’t be
wrong I don’t do very well with cold
this is Eddie something you don’t know
about me is that I lost my husband Eddie
about two and a half years ago now as
you might imagine that has had a
profound impact on how I go through life
you know seasonal changes and weather do
impact me but more so than that are
important dates
within my history with Eddie and these
dates in turn have had a huge pack on my
emotional resilience throughout the year
and my desire to engaged with the rest
of the world now I share this personal
backstory with you today to show you
that context matters and context isn’t
just the what and when of a person’s
behavior it’s also the why and if you
didn’t have that backstory and you only
have the data to rely on you can see
that it be quite easy to classify me as
a hashtag homebody or a hashtag
antisocial butterfly
you know behavior data can be a very
powerful tool it’s factual it empowers
evidence-based decision making and it
gives us something concrete that we can
all examine together a limitation of
behavioral date data though is that it
only provides you part of the story and
it encourages you to fill in the rest
you can think of behavioral data like
dots of information dots of data and
it’s only when you connect the dots when
you make a conscious effort to
understand the story behind the behavior
that you begin to develop a more
complete understanding more complete
picture of why a person behaves the way
they do one that doesn’t rely on your
assumptions or your surrogate
stereotypes so then when you get that
behavioral data how do you make sure
you’re connecting the dots that you’re
seeing the complete picture well in the
product design world where I come from
we developed something called behavioral
archetypes these are structured models
of end users or customers their behavior
based profiles of the people we are
designing for these behavior archetypes
help us to challenge our assumptions
they help us to develop a more complete
understanding of who a person is and
what motivates them and how they behave
with
any specific context this for example is
what a behavior archetype might look
like if you’re interested in
understanding Who I am and how I behave
as a person grappling with grief to
build something like this we begin by
talking to people we interview a
representative sample of end users the
step is really important because rather
than relying on our assumptions we
challenge ourselves to learn directly to
learn firsthand about who people are and
their stories we learn about their
aspirations and their goals
we learn about their needs and their
frustrations and we learn how they think
and feel and act within a given context
as an example a few years ago my
colleagues and I teamed up with Philips
Sonicare on their first ever Bluetooth
connected toothbrush it’s a power tooth
first that pairs with a mobile app and
and if you’ve ever I know is what why
would you need that whoa
well if you’ve ever tried to get a kid
to brush you’ll know that it is very
difficult it’s not easy and good luck
trying to get them to brush their whole
mouth and the prevailing assumption at
that time was that kids hate brushing so
what we needed to do was figure out how
do we make brushing your teeth fun for
kids now is only after extensive
research that included interviews with
kids as well as their parents and
in-home observations of kids during
their brushing routines that we
uncovered an important insight kids
actually don’t hate brushing their teeth
what they really hate is having to stop
whatever it is they were doing in order
to brush their teeth or they stopped
brushing as the start of something they
really didn’t want to do like getting
ready for bed or getting ready for
school
this insight about kids and they’re
brushing context helped us to see that
the key wasn’t make brushing fun it was
how do we give kids a greater sense of
control to help them feel empowered of
us in the situation this ultimately led
us to build a brushing experience in the
app that centered around an adorable
little furball creature named sparkly I
hope you’ll look it up he’s adorable and
sparkly has really short arms so sparkly
can’t brush its teeth and it’s only when
kids brush their teeth that they were
able to help sparkly clean its teeth
yeah it’s good for adults too not just
kids feel free to like I share this
example with you today to show you that
when you take the time to understand
people especially within their own
environments you develop a more complete
understanding of who they are of how
they feel and what they want and what
motivates them within a given situation
and these insights help you develop more
contextually rich profiles of the people
you’re trying to help this process of
developing behavior archetypes is a
great exercise and empathy building it
ensures that product designers aren’t
just lumping people into generic bucket
like Millennials and baby
or even worse making assumptions about
why a person behaves the way they do
this process of developing behavior
archetypes ensures that we are paying
close attention to people’s goals needs
and pain points not just the obvious
details and when we’re thinking about
multiple groups of people it helps us to
think about where do their goals and
needs overlap and were they different we
are living in a world where we will
increasingly come to rely on behavioral
data the key however is to examine
behavior in context to make sure that we
are getting to the story behind the
behavior that we are connecting the dots
the info archetypes aren’t just a tool
for product designers they’re an
approach to understanding people or
building profiles of people that anyone
can use to deepen your understanding my
hope is that as we move into this future
that we will look at the complete
picture will challenge ourselves to
avoid relying on our assumptions or
stereotypes I have news for you data is
coming you will we will all eventually
gain access to behavioral data on the
people we’re trying to help it might be
their social media data it might be data
on their daily activities when that
happens when you gain access to
behavioral data I hope that you will pay
attention to three things that I talked
about today behavior what do you notice
about people’s behaviors do you notice
any patterns when do they seem to
deviate from their patterns motivations
what’s driving their behavior what’s
making them act the way they do
what are their goals and what are their
aspirations and what’s getting in a way
of those goals and last but not least
context what are those situational
factors perhaps surrounding people or
physical environment what are those
factors that are influencing their
behavior when do they feel empowered
when do they feel less in control when
do they need your help now before I wrap
things up if I may return to my initial
question one last time Who am I and what
am I about well in this context appear
on this stage I am a person who is not
accustomed to being so open in front of
strangers definitely not a theater full
of them
but I was determined to do so today to
show you show you that when you take the
time to connect the dots when you pay
attention to people’s behaviors
motivations in context you deepen your
understanding of them you deepen your
empathy and you challenge yourself to
notice the multiple time dimensions of a
person and what they are about thank you
so much [Applause]
existential sort of way I mean literally
if you wanted to know who I am and what
I am about what would you do in today’s
world you basically have three options
you could ask me hi how are you you
could ask someone else who is that
or you could Google me
perspective-taking
understanding who a person is and what
they’re about has taken on a completely
new dimension with the advent of digital
media that new dimension behavioral data
we now live in a world where what you do
online is as telling as what you do
offline and so much of life today
happens on connected devices like
tablets smart phones wearable smart
speakers and with advancements in data
technologies like tracking and analytics
and data storage we as a society now
have the ability to track virtually
everything and anything we do with or
through these connected devices and
that’s why today I’d like to talk about
what behavioral data is and how we can
use it to deepen our empathy for others
on one hand we have the information we
intentionally share this includes
personal information like your name and
birthday and hometown as well as
information about your likes and
interests and preferences then there’s
information you implicitly share these
are insights about yourself based on the
websites or apps you frequent the
transactions you make online or the
content you engage with this is what is
known as behavioral data it’s the
information produced based on what you
do online that combination of personal
information and behavioral data results
in an infinite number of data points
that today can now be aggregated
analyzed parsed and reframed to form a
picture of who a person is in fact every
company that you’re interacting with
through a connected device is using the
data they collect on you to form a
picture of who you are for example if we
go back to my initial question Who am I
and what am I about ask LinkedIn and
they’ll tell you that I’m a strategist
at a design and innovation company and
that I have a background in education
and Media Studies now ask Amazon and
they’ll tell you that I’m a person who
likes to read especially books about
design business technology and crazy
rich Asians now ask YouTube on the other
hand and they’ll tell you that I’m a
kpop fan who has an eclectic interest in
things like food skin care and mr.
Rogers whether I like it or not the
Internet is littered with digital
snapshots of who I am and what I am
about
and much like their analog counterparts
these snapshots offer an intimate
picture of Who I am at a given moment in
time a key difference however is that
these digital snapshots are just as much
about what I do as they are about what I
choose to present so I work in tech and
in the technology world behavioral data
is extremely valuable for decades tech
companies have tracked our every click
hovering input and use that data to form
a picture of who we are as users and
what we need or want something that tech
companies have appreciated for a very
long time and that we as consumers are
just beginning to experience ourselves
is that technology enhances our ability
to understand people through behavior
case in point
face book clap if you’ve checked your
advertising preferences in facebook
anybody well you might want to because I
did and apparently based on my online
behaviors Facebook has discerned that I
have an interest in fashion food and
tech and well they’re right fashion food
technology these are all topics of
interest to me and I quite like the fact
that as a result of these categories
they’ve associated with me
I receive recommendations that are more
relevant to me like it or not we live in
a world where we will increasingly come
to rely on behavioral data to understand
who a person is and what they need or
want for example in the near future
health care providers will use data on
patients daily activities or home
routines to help in personalized
treatment plans teachers will use data
on students summer reading progress to
help them plan for the upcoming school
year and who knows in the future when
we’re all wearing eye tracking devices
and connected heart rate monitors TEDx
organizers will use audience behavioral
data to help presenters like myself
planned the perfect TED talk it’ll be
amazing now a critical drawback of
behavioral data is that it can encourage
those that are relying on these
data-driven snapshots to make gross
inferences about a person let’s go back
to my Facebook example based on my
behavioral data Facebook has reduced me
down to a bunch of hashtags to a bunch
of keywords in fact Facebook is reducing
all of us down to hashtags based on our
online behaviors the problem with
hashtags is that without the proper
context they’re very one-dimensional and
these hashtags can be used to stereotype
us or put us into boxes that we never
checked the reality is as connected
devices become more ubiquitous and data
technologies like analytics and tracking
become more accessible to all of us will
soon become accustomed to tracking all
behaviors both offline and online and
increasingly we will all come to rely on
that behavior data that we collect to
understand who a person is and what they
are about so when that happens when
we’re all relying on behavioral data how
do we make sure that we don’t go down
the route a face
that we don’t inadvertently stereotype
people based on their behavioral data
the answer is to examine behavior in
context the beauty of behavioral data is
that it’s captured accurately its
objective and behavioral data can be
used can be correlated with situational
factors like time or location say for
example we tracked how often I
socialized within the past year now even
if I choose to present myself as
outgoing which I tend to do in a
professional context the data doesn’t
lie with exception of the holidays I’m
less professional go-getter and more
hibernating bear dormant in the winter
limitation of behavioral datum is that
it doesn’t offer insight into what’s
driving a person’s behavior and when you
see a really clear trend or clear
pattern in someone’s behavior it can be
easy to infer why you think a person is
behaving the way they do say for example
we looked at my activity or lack thereof
and I were to ask you what do you think
explains that trend why that dipped in
activity there what would your answer be
now I were you and clearly not me and I
had to guess my conclusion would be
whether I think Ana really doesn’t like
going out in the winter and she’d
possibly die in the Spokane winters well
if you thought that you wouldn’t be
wrong I don’t do very well with cold
this is Eddie something you don’t know
about me is that I lost my husband Eddie
about two and a half years ago now as
you might imagine that has had a
profound impact on how I go through life
you know seasonal changes and weather do
impact me but more so than that are
important dates
within my history with Eddie and these
dates in turn have had a huge pack on my
emotional resilience throughout the year
and my desire to engaged with the rest
of the world now I share this personal
backstory with you today to show you
that context matters and context isn’t
just the what and when of a person’s
behavior it’s also the why and if you
didn’t have that backstory and you only
have the data to rely on you can see
that it be quite easy to classify me as
a hashtag homebody or a hashtag
antisocial butterfly
you know behavior data can be a very
powerful tool it’s factual it empowers
evidence-based decision making and it
gives us something concrete that we can
all examine together a limitation of
behavioral date data though is that it
only provides you part of the story and
it encourages you to fill in the rest
you can think of behavioral data like
dots of information dots of data and
it’s only when you connect the dots when
you make a conscious effort to
understand the story behind the behavior
that you begin to develop a more
complete understanding more complete
picture of why a person behaves the way
they do one that doesn’t rely on your
assumptions or your surrogate
stereotypes so then when you get that
behavioral data how do you make sure
you’re connecting the dots that you’re
seeing the complete picture well in the
product design world where I come from
we developed something called behavioral
archetypes these are structured models
of end users or customers their behavior
based profiles of the people we are
designing for these behavior archetypes
help us to challenge our assumptions
they help us to develop a more complete
understanding of who a person is and
what motivates them and how they behave
with
any specific context this for example is
what a behavior archetype might look
like if you’re interested in
understanding Who I am and how I behave
as a person grappling with grief to
build something like this we begin by
talking to people we interview a
representative sample of end users the
step is really important because rather
than relying on our assumptions we
challenge ourselves to learn directly to
learn firsthand about who people are and
their stories we learn about their
aspirations and their goals
we learn about their needs and their
frustrations and we learn how they think
and feel and act within a given context
as an example a few years ago my
colleagues and I teamed up with Philips
Sonicare on their first ever Bluetooth
connected toothbrush it’s a power tooth
first that pairs with a mobile app and
and if you’ve ever I know is what why
would you need that whoa
well if you’ve ever tried to get a kid
to brush you’ll know that it is very
difficult it’s not easy and good luck
trying to get them to brush their whole
mouth and the prevailing assumption at
that time was that kids hate brushing so
what we needed to do was figure out how
do we make brushing your teeth fun for
kids now is only after extensive
research that included interviews with
kids as well as their parents and
in-home observations of kids during
their brushing routines that we
uncovered an important insight kids
actually don’t hate brushing their teeth
what they really hate is having to stop
whatever it is they were doing in order
to brush their teeth or they stopped
brushing as the start of something they
really didn’t want to do like getting
ready for bed or getting ready for
school
this insight about kids and they’re
brushing context helped us to see that
the key wasn’t make brushing fun it was
how do we give kids a greater sense of
control to help them feel empowered of
us in the situation this ultimately led
us to build a brushing experience in the
app that centered around an adorable
little furball creature named sparkly I
hope you’ll look it up he’s adorable and
sparkly has really short arms so sparkly
can’t brush its teeth and it’s only when
kids brush their teeth that they were
able to help sparkly clean its teeth
yeah it’s good for adults too not just
kids feel free to like I share this
example with you today to show you that
when you take the time to understand
people especially within their own
environments you develop a more complete
understanding of who they are of how
they feel and what they want and what
motivates them within a given situation
and these insights help you develop more
contextually rich profiles of the people
you’re trying to help this process of
developing behavior archetypes is a
great exercise and empathy building it
ensures that product designers aren’t
just lumping people into generic bucket
like Millennials and baby
or even worse making assumptions about
why a person behaves the way they do
this process of developing behavior
archetypes ensures that we are paying
close attention to people’s goals needs
and pain points not just the obvious
details and when we’re thinking about
multiple groups of people it helps us to
think about where do their goals and
needs overlap and were they different we
are living in a world where we will
increasingly come to rely on behavioral
data the key however is to examine
behavior in context to make sure that we
are getting to the story behind the
behavior that we are connecting the dots
the info archetypes aren’t just a tool
for product designers they’re an
approach to understanding people or
building profiles of people that anyone
can use to deepen your understanding my
hope is that as we move into this future
that we will look at the complete
picture will challenge ourselves to
avoid relying on our assumptions or
stereotypes I have news for you data is
coming you will we will all eventually
gain access to behavioral data on the
people we’re trying to help it might be
their social media data it might be data
on their daily activities when that
happens when you gain access to
behavioral data I hope that you will pay
attention to three things that I talked
about today behavior what do you notice
about people’s behaviors do you notice
any patterns when do they seem to
deviate from their patterns motivations
what’s driving their behavior what’s
making them act the way they do
what are their goals and what are their
aspirations and what’s getting in a way
of those goals and last but not least
context what are those situational
factors perhaps surrounding people or
physical environment what are those
factors that are influencing their
behavior when do they feel empowered
when do they feel less in control when
do they need your help now before I wrap
things up if I may return to my initial
question one last time Who am I and what
am I about well in this context appear
on this stage I am a person who is not
accustomed to being so open in front of
strangers definitely not a theater full
of them
but I was determined to do so today to
show you show you that when you take the
time to connect the dots when you pay
attention to people’s behaviors
motivations in context you deepen your
understanding of them you deepen your
empathy and you challenge yourself to
notice the multiple time dimensions of a
person and what they are about thank you
so much [Applause]
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