2010: A Year of Challenge & Delight

A special post from Pat Christen, HopeLab’s President & CEO

The year past was a roller-coaster ride, full of stomach-jolting ups and downs for many of us. For me, there were a number of special, positive moments at HopeLab that stand out: passing the milestone of 150,000 copies of Re-Mission distributed, the exciting progress in our research and development of gDitty, and an unexpected and moving visit to the White House and Oval Office to speak with President Obama about HopeLab as an innovative social enterprise at the launch of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.

Looking forward, 2010 promises to be another year of courageous experimentation at HopeLab.  I recently came across this delightful quote from chemist and former Harvard University president James Bryant Conant:

“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.”

In that spirit, we have a number of exciting plans for 2010 harnessing the power and appeal of technology to improve kids’ health as a way to further our mission.

For those of you who follow HopeLab, I’d like to offer a preview of the year ahead and invite you to watch our progress, ask us questions, and share your insights and expertise along the way!  Here’s some of what we have in store:

• Re-Mission: Our work in cancer continues with the development of Re-Mission 2. We will continue working closely with young cancer patients to gather their feedback on game design. In addition, we’re exploring innovative game development models that will maximize HopeLab’s iterative, evidence-based approach and the creative expertise of the gaming industry. Ultimately, we believe that our work will lead us to a “new and improved” version of Re-Mission that’s even more fun and engaging and that amplifies its positive health impact for young people with cancer. We hope to begin impact research on a new Re-Mission as early as 2011.

• gDitty:  Results from our 2009 pilot studies on our gDitty prototype showed that a combined activity meter and online incentives program can boost physical activity in middle-school aged kids by as much as 30%. These are exciting results, as all of us interested in health and health care continue to look for effective new approaches to altering sedentary behavior.  We see that products like DirectLife , Fitbit and Nike Plus are beginning to capture the attention of adults, but we think a device that measurably increases physical activity in tweens could be a game changer for kids and their parents. In 2010, we will be moving from prototype to impact research on an improved gDitty device and online experience.We’re also developing a new brand and visual identity for the product that we think will capture the fun and appeal of the experience for kids. All of these changes are deeply informed by feedback we hear directly from kids and their parents as we source their expertise at each stage of our development process.

In light of the very promising pilot study data, we’re also giving a lot of thought to how we effectively scale up and support distribution of the product. In the coming year we’ll also be looking at new corporate structures and partnerships that will allow us to deliver on our bottom-line interest — maximizing impact.

• Our team:  I’m proud of the innovative and authentic culture the interdisciplinary HopeLab team has built over the last several years. We intend to continue cultivating an environment where we can do our best work and live by our values. In particular, we’ll focus on enhancing engagement, productivity and innovation. We’ll also spend a lot of time listening to and learning from kids, learning from our mistakes and having fun! We laugh a lot at a HopeLab.

As we throw ourselves into the work ahead, Richard Branson’s perspectives on starting new ventures ring true for us as well:

“We look for opportunities where we can offer something better, fresher and more valuable and we seize them. We often move into areas where the customer has received a poor deal…When we start a new venture, we base it on hard research and analysis. We put ourselves into the customer’s shoes to see what could make it better…We’ve got an engaging, edgy, vibrant, fun product. It may or may not work, but we’re going to give it our best shot.”

Only time (and quality research!) will tell if our innovative solutions will work.  But we too are going to give it our best shot!

To learn more about Pat, read her bio.