Behaviorial profiles are a handy way to keep humans front and center when you’re tackling big messy problems. Here, Daylight used nimble anthropology skills and behavioral profiles to help HopeLab think differently about motivating tween behavior.
Children age 11 to 14 (tweens) are an amazing bunch–at times they can feel like thoughtful, mature young adults and a moment later they’re giggly kids. It’s a fun, complex age that can’t be fully understood through online surveys or secondary research alone. That’s why nonprofit HopeLab partnered with Daylight to connect directly with tweens and better understand how to motivate them to be more physically active.
Field research across the country
Daylight traveled the country, visiting families in rural Georgia, sitting on the stoop with tweens on the south side of Chicago, spending time in farm homes in Iowa, and observing after school programs in Latino neighborhoods of California.
By observing these kids in their real lives we could begin to unpack what mattered to them — why someone sat on the bleachers instead of participating in gym, what made some girls opt out of gym if it was in the morning, what made it hard for some tweens to get out of the home after school.
Identifying patterns for thinking about tweens and physical activity
When you spend enough time observing and connecting, you can start to identify trends. Here research in the field combined with an intense synthesis process helped us categorize tweens in new ways based on their behaviors and mindset towards physical activity.
From the midwest to south, from urban to rural, we saw similar patterns for why some kids were opting out of activity. We also saw consistent reasons why certain tweens who wanted to be more active were still missing out. Other behavioral patterns emerged around those who were saved by support. These patterns, among others, came together to form a powerful framework for understanding how tweens think about physical activity.
A powerful new tool to connect with tweens and, ultimately, have greater impact on the obesity challenge.
This framework and its different behavioral clusters gave HopeLab a new way to empathize with tweens and understand segments of their market. They could now target the types of tweens that need help most and they had tools and learnings to help motivate each specific group. By designing programs targeted at specific profiles, HopeLab can have the greatest impact on the obesity challenge with the resources they have available. Working with Daylight, HopeLab is already piloting a program that’s had great initial success in changing tween habits. HopeLab is also spreading the word. Since they’ve found these behavioral tools to be so helpful in their work, they’ve published some of the key findings so others can benefit from the learnings as well.
Behaviorial profiles are a handy way to keep humans front and center when you’re tackling big messy problems. Here, Daylight used nimble anthropology skills and behavioral profiles to help HopeLab think differently about motivating tween behavior.
Children age 11 to 14 (tweens) are an amazing bunch–at times they can feel like thoughtful, mature young adults and a moment later they’re giggly kids. It’s a fun, complex age that can’t be fully understood through online surveys or secondary research alone. That’s why nonprofit HopeLab partnered with Daylight to connect directly with tweens and better understand how to motivate them to be more physically active.
Field research across the country
Daylight traveled the country, visiting families in rural Georgia, sitting on the stoop with tweens on the south side of Chicago, spending time in farm homes in Iowa, and observing after school programs in Latino neighborhoods of California.
By observing these kids in their real lives we could begin to unpack what mattered to them — why someone sat on the bleachers instead of participating in gym, what made some girls opt out of gym if it was in the morning, what made it hard for some tweens to get out of the home after school.
Identifying patterns for thinking about tweens and physical activity
When you spend enough time observing and connecting, you can start to identify trends. Here research in the field combined with an intense synthesis process helped us categorize tweens in new ways based on their behaviors and mindset towards physical activity.
From the midwest to south, from urban to rural, we saw similar patterns for why some kids were opting out of activity. We also saw consistent reasons why certain tweens who wanted to be more active were still missing out. Other behavioral patterns emerged around those who were saved by support. These patterns, among others, came together to form a powerful framework for understanding how tweens think about physical activity.
A powerful new tool to connect with tweens and, ultimately, have greater impact on the obesity challenge.
This framework and its different behavioral clusters gave HopeLab a new way to empathize with tweens and understand segments of their market. They could now target the types of tweens that need help most and they had tools and learnings to help motivate each specific group. By designing programs targeted at specific profiles, HopeLab can have the greatest impact on the obesity challenge with the resources they have available. Working with Daylight, HopeLab is already piloting a program that’s had great initial success in changing tween habits. HopeLab is also spreading the word. Since they’ve found these behavioral tools to be so helpful in their work, they’ve published some of the key findings so others can benefit from the learnings as well.