Lessons from Headspace

What does a normal day look like for you? Mine can stress me out.

Days begin with a blaring alarm clock, and I open my eyes to see that the sun hasn’t even risen. I immediately grab my phone and see all the messages I’ve missed. I carve out some time for friends and “strategic thinking,” but over and over it feels like I live my life chasing responsibility after responsibility and task after task, and I ask myself “can I just get more sleep?”

But lately, something has changed.

Lately, I find myself opening Headspace to seek out Andy Puddicombe’s friendly voice saying, “welcome back.”

Headspace is a medication guide that lives in your pocket, and it’s transforming my life because it asks me to do something I so want to do, but no one else is asking of me. It’s asking me to slow down and let go.

Meditation isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not something western society welcomes into your life. We’re supposed to be about discipline and speed and doing it all effortlessly all while feeling that we’re running out of time, there’s so much on our plate, and we’ll never measure up. Headspace has done something amazing. It’s given people like me — someone voted “Most Serious” in kindergarten — the permission to be imperfect. It provides a vocabulary to the insecurities and the chaos we feel running around in our head and shows us concrete opportunities to make life just a little bit easier. And I think it is this key to what has made Headspace so successful: it meets us where we’re at.

We are people of to-do lists and strategic goals, and Headspace is too. Just open it up. It begins with a list of the “Basics” letting us know it ok to be new here and a progress bar that’s just begging to be completed. From there, the library is opened up to us, and we can start becoming better at whatever we need in life. Each time, we are presented with a smorgasbord of options, and each one is broken down into manageable and achievable packets that we know we can make time for even on a busy day.

In many ways, Headspace reminds me that Product is as much data and A/B testing as it is about people and listening to them. It’s about understanding someone, being honest about what they need, and humbly meeting them where they’re at. It’s about building a product that makes a user think “I can do this!” and rewarding them for the wins they have along the way.

“Breath In…”

“Breath out…”

Related posts:

When unsure where to start, count a small precursor to your goal. Measure whether you won or lost and see what happens. Progress comes in what you measure. In a future offering, I’ll host a bootcamp…

Social Media websites are a great way to find people to connect with. These websites make it easy to find people with the same interests as you and we tend to flock to those who are like us. Social…

All stocks listed on the equity market are not traded on their intrinsic value but instead either greater or lesser to it. But, with some basic knowledge of financial concepts and fundamentals…