Speaking of good articles in Wired … last week I really enjoyed this piece on the power of feedback loops.  The concept isn’t new but he offers some fun examples of new products built around the idea of loops.  I may try out the Zeo headband for sleep tracking.  And given our work on SugaredSpoon, I was interested in his discussion on medication noncompliance and the opportunity for feedback loops there.

I also appreciated this conceptual overview of the key stages in a feedback loop:

A feedback loop involves four distinct stages. First comes the data: A behavior must be measured, captured, and stored. This is the evidence stage. Second, the information must be relayed to the individual, not in the raw-data form in which it was captured but in a context that makes it emotionally resonant. This is the relevance stage. But even compelling information is useless if we don’t know what to make of it, so we need a third stage: consequence. The information must illuminate one or more paths ahead. And finally, the fourth stage: action. There must be a clear moment when the individual can recalibrate a behavior, make a choice, and act. Then that action is measured, and the feedback loop can run once more, every action stimulating new behaviors that inch us closer to our goals.

Read the article here.