Ruckus Research – Which Tween Are You?

November 20, 2009

This week we’ve launched a new interactive piece of content at hopelab.org that showcases one of my favorite HopeLab projects. We call it Ruckus Research, and you can jump right into it here .  The name is a nod to our Ruckus Nation idea competition, which wrapped in 2008. The purpose of the follow-on Ruckus Research project was to get to know our target customers as we set out to develop new products to fight the tween-age trend toward sedentary behavior and the devastating health problems that often result, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, even cancer.

The basic idea behind Ruckus Research was simple – as one of our tween customers might say, “To move me, first you’ve got to understand me.” So with our friends at Daylight Design, we talked to kids across the country. We asked about their worlds, what challenged and excited them, and how they thought about physical activity in their everyday lives.

What we heard might surprise you or alarm you or make you smile. In the end, we discovered some patterns of behavior – “Busy Bees,” “Out and About” and “Missing Out” kids, for example – that are helping us target our work with projects like gDitty . It’s been so helpful to us, we created a booklet , shared our learnings at a few conferences , and have just launched Ruckus Research online.

So, click through, check it out, and let us know – which tween are you?

Tags:	gDitty, Ruckus Research
Posted In:	Customers, Physical Activity, Product Development, Research

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Be Courageous and Kind – In 140 Characters or Less

November 18, 2009

I’m Maurina Venturelli, a new member of the HopeLab team. On one of my first visits to HopeLab, a row of words framed and hung on a wall struck me with curiosity. The words read, “Begin anywhere,” Be courageous,” “Be kind.” After further conversation I learned that the words are reminders to HopeLabbers of how we aspire to be as an organization. I smiled. This made my heart feel good.

I am honored and excited to be a part of such a wonderful group. A large part of my role here at HopeLab will be to help spark conversation in social media about our culture and the work we do to improve the health and quality of life of young people.

A lot of my work will be done in 140 characters or less. 140 what a strange number. As many of you may already know, 140 is the number of characters that fit into a “tweet,” a post or status update on Twitter. Here are some of my favorites:

@ankitkhare “What do you mean, my birth certificate expired?”

@deadrooster “You know, I’d give my right-arm to be ambidextrous.”

@DarkoWonderland “Things to ponder. Like would a fly without wings be called a walk? And why does an alarm clock ‘go off’ when it begins ringing??? lol… =I “

So, that’s a peek into my head! I look forward to sharing more about HopeLab and my experiences here in the coming weeks.

Until then, begin anywhere. Be courageous. Be kind.

Tags:
Posted In:	HL Culture, Values

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