Mentor advice: changing habits is not impossible

Get acquainted with Dr. Silja Voolma, the new mentor of the Connected Health Cluster on issues related to the identity, habits and motivation of customers or users. Her expertise has been called the ‘secret weapon of a successful design process’.

Where did you get the idea to mentor the health technology cluster?

My background is in health psychology and the use of behavioural science in the design of user-focused health tech.

I was a mentor for the cluster a few years ago, right after completing my doctorate at Cambridge University. During this time, I worked with companies such as Medikeep and Medihub. I very much enjoyed working with startups and now that I have grown my company in Asia and the US, I wanted to bring my knowledge back to Estonia and use it to the benefit of local startups.

Through my company Behavioral Design Global, I have offered user and market research services and consultation and training on product design based on psychology, behavioural science and design thinking. Mu customers include Estonian companies such as Jobbatical, European companies such as Wemby Nestegg Biotech and Habitual and, in Asia, I have worked with IMDA, the communication unit of the Government of Singapore. At the start of this year, I entered the US market and my first customer there was BambooHR.

Head of Design at Habitual Anton Wade referred to my psychology and behavioural science-based expertise as the ‘secret weapon of a successful design process’.

It seems that it is extremely complicated or nearly impossible to break habits. How can we then make this a reality in health-related areas?

Habits are not that hard to change. Certainly not impossible. What is hard to change is the identity of people, which forms the basis of our habits. If you focus on identity, habits change almost on their own. In the field of health, changing habits based on identity means making changes in the health behaviour and shopping habits of patients as well as in the health-related habits of undertakings.

Please share an example/story of your experience with the healthcare industry that could benefit cluster companies.

I recently worked with Habitual, a London-based startup that prevents and treats type II diabetes. Habitual offers a treatment course for patients with type II diabetes where they replace your meals and offer a science-based programme to change your behaviour. My role was to put together a theory on behavioural changes, a causal model and a communication strategy to help patients achieve sustained weight loss. I combined scientific methods for changing health behaviour in a science-based health communication programme.

The first cohort of patients lost 25% of their body weight and as of yet, three months after the programme, none of them have started to gain back the weight they lost. The patients are happy to have been able to not only shed the weight but also change their lifestyle with the help of the programme.

It is good to remember, especially when it concerns health startups, that there is an entire research field dedicated to long-term behavioural changes and using this science will bring better results for your customers as well as the company.

Since you come from a background in health psychology and behavioural science and also have experience with companies in a variety of sectors, what advice would you give to new (health) startups? For example, what is the one common mistake to avoid or learn from?

I would recommend that all new startup teams identify any bias they might have against their own future customers. People are open until you as an undertaking decide to box them in. This makes is difficult for the undertaking as well as the customers to see themselves as anything else.

I have come across several startups who assume their customers are this one specific type of people, thereby immediately hampering any growth potential their company might have.

Identifying bias helps undertakings be more open to new types of people who may be potential customers and help them establish what their customer identity is.