INSIGHTS
Rock Weekly
July 25, 2011

the rock weekly – 7/25

It was a week of deep focus here at Rock Health with the usual smattering of amazing visitors. Our topics this week? How to listen to users, work within federal guidelines and design for behaviors and habits.

The Cooperistas kicked off the week with a research methods workshop featuring tactics to best collect useful feedback from users. After the FDA guidelines were released we had a round table (with some PBR) to discuss the implications on our team’s products with a few veterans of the approval process and our awesome legal team from Fenwick & West. Thursday was jam packed with rich content from two workshops and a habit design meet up.  Dr. Ida Sim, UCSF, exhibited the weaknesses in medical evidence used today and pointed to some future solutions that she is working on with openMhealth. We learned more about listening to our users from experienced founders Jae Chung, founder of goBalto, and Pete Koomen, co-founder and president of Optimizely. To top it all off, we opened our space to our friends at Habit Design for their monthly meet up, and picked up some great tips on designing to change behavior from the awesome Steph Habif.

Thanks to our mentors who took time from their busy schedules to meet with teams this week. In addition to our workshops, Rock Health welcomed: Rowan Chapman from Mohr Davidow Ventures, Michael Esquivel of Fenwick & West, Jae Chung of goBalto and Nike’s Brian Kirkbride.

We finished up our week cooking for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. Design My Meals cofounder Carla Bayot created an easy and healthy menu for the families affected by tough medical situations.

Events & Opportunities:

Brain Candy:

Quote of the Week:
“Design around behavior not around technology” –Steph Habif