October 8, 2022 • 34 mins
There's a new love in my life and his name is Bob. Happy Bob, that is! Have you heard of the Happy Bob App? In today's episode you'll hear from the app's creator and a fellow type one parent, Jutta. For the sake of her son, she made it her mission to make diabetes management more enjoyable for both the T1D and their caregivers.
In all honesty, I was pretty hesitant to download the Happy Bob App at first...
I just could stand the thought of having one more app or program beeping at me and notifying me of my daughter's blood sugar level. HOWEVER, I AM SO VERY GLAD I DID! I can genuinely say that the Happy Bob App has done nothing but HELP when it comes to diabetes management. It makes me laugh and smile even on the tough and frustrating days. Plus, it makes me feel good about all the hard work I'm putting into diabetes management. I could go on and on about what I love about it but, really, you just need to take a listen to this episode and download the app to see for yourself. Enjoy!
WHERE TO FIND HAPPY BOB AND HOW TO GET IN TOUCH
Website and where to download the Happy Bob App: https://happybob.app/
Jutta's email: jutta@happybob.app
Email to offer feedback on the app: hello@happybob.app
Happy Bob on Instagram: @happybob_app
Happy Bob on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happybobapp/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Katie (00:00):
This is episode 87 of the sugar mamas podcast.
(00:03):
And today my guest is UTA.
The creator of the happy Bob Youguys, if you do not have the
happy Bob app on your phone,you've got to get it.
It is so fun.
It's so funny and it makesmanaging diabetes enjoyable.
I'm not kidding.
I won't give too much awaybecause UTA is going to tell us
(00:23):
all about happy, Bob.
But definitely check out theshow notes because I will leave
links to all the places whereyou can find out more about
happy Bob and download it today.
All right.
Let's get started.
You're listening to the sugarmamas podcast, a show designed
for moms and caregivers of typeone diabetics here.
(00:46):
You'll find a community oflike-minded people who are
striving daily to keep theirkids safe, happy, and healthy in
the ever-changing world of typeone.
I'm your host and fellow T one Dmom, Katie Roseboro.
Before we get started.
I need you to know that nothingyou hear on the sugar mamas
podcast should be consideredmedical advice.
(01:09):
Please be safe, be smart, andalways consult your physician
before making changes to the wayyou manage type one diabetes.
Thanks.
Hey everybody.
I am here with UTA today and UUtah.
I'm gonna let you introduceyourself.
So tell the listeners who youare and what your connection to
(01:30):
Type one diabetes.
Jutta (01:32):
Yes.
Hi, So my name is Tmo.
I'm the founder.
The Happy Pop app.
My, uh, my background is ingaming and in consumer tech.
I got into diabetes tech spacewhen my oldest son got diagnosed
with type one diabetes when hewas six years old.
And that sort of like, uh,opened the whole world of, uh,
diabetes management to, to meand to my son and to our family.
(01:53):
And, and ever since I've been,uh, well, like everyone with
diabetes knows, it's sort oflike a, a family member of ours.
So that's how I, I got intoworking with the happy.
Katie (02:04):
How, How old is your son now,
Jutta (02:05):
Uh, he's 14 now, so, it's been, it's been eight years
Katie (02:09):
Yeah.
So at what point in time in hisdiabetes journey did you kind of
have the idea?
For the Happy Bob app.
Jutta (02:16):
Yeah, it's, uh, I, I think it was, um, sort of after
we had been living with thecondition for, um, maybe, uh, a
few years and.
Well, I kind of like started tothink about that from the day
one cuz it was such anoverwhelming experience.
The amount of data and theexisting apps and, and tools and
(02:36):
everything that comes withdiabetes.
And then you're just assumedthat everyone turns into this
like data scientist right fromthe get go.
You get diabetes and then youare supposed to understand
everything that comes with that.
So it was like a veryoverwhelming experience.
But then I actually was onmaternity leave.
And then suddenly I had a bitmore time to think about
(02:56):
diabetes management.
And also my oldest son since Iwas more at home.
And I really started to thinkabout like the, the experiences
we had at school that I knew hewas going through some hard
times.
Uh, just the alarms going offduring the school days and you,
you need to go there and chasethe, uh, The insulin, insulin
pumps and, and so many otherthings.
And kind of like, I reallystarted to feel what he was
(03:18):
going through at a differentlevel.
And that sort of led to, tothinking how this could be
improved and what if this lookeddifferent?
What, what could it look like?
And it started, started as asort of like a side hobby, just
to kind of play with the dataand think about the different
ways the diabetes managementcould look like, especially from
a user patient perspective.
Katie (03:39):
yeah, I recently downloaded Happy Bob.
It's been a couple months now,maybe two months that I've had
it on my phone and I can.
Um, and we're gonna talk moreabout what exactly it does and
offers, but I can say itdefinitely has made my, uh,
diabetes management experiencemore enjoyable.
Um, just because my lovelanguage is sarcasm and humor
and happy Bob is always makingme laugh with the little
(04:01):
messages that, he is sending methroughout the day.
Some are good and encouragingand some are like, you need to
get it together because thingshave fallen apart.
but, but tell listeners in yourown words, you know, what is
Happy.
Jutta (04:13):
So Happy.
Bob is an app that connects withthe, uh, diabetes devices the
person with diabetes is wearing.
So, uh, the first and foremostimportant device is the Content
Glucose Monitor.
So we connect with the realtimediabetes data coming from the
Dexcom CGM at the moment, and weturn those, uh, Readings the
values that come from the dcomCGM into stars, The users can
(04:34):
collect, and whenever they'rekeeping their glucose in range,
they're earning these stars.
And with the stars you can reachyour daily Star goal.
We also have different moods inthe, in the app, so you can set
the tone of, uh, voice you wantfor your diabetes data.
So you'll be receiving differentalarms and notifications
throughout the day if yourglucose is high or low or going
high or low.
(04:54):
And also when you're just doingvery.
with the tone of boys from themood you have selected.
So it kind of, what we want todo there is just to make that
experience a bit more enjoyableand more fun.
So when you need to payattention to your values, it's,
it's actually an enjoyableexperience.
then we also have groups featurethat allows users to create
their own groups with their ownprints, with type one diabetes
(05:15):
or with anyone who's using atext CGM so that they can follow
each other and, and.
Kind of like be encouraged toknow that they are not the only
ones living with the, with theCondit.
Katie (05:25):
I love that there's kind of.
Option to have that built inaccountability among friends,
you know, among like people thatyou know and you trust and you
feel safe with.
and I also think it, you know,it could create like a little
bit of a friendly competitionbetween friends, which isn't
necessarily a bad thing, youknow, when you're kind of.
Seeing everyone else's datathroughout the day, you know, I
(05:46):
would, I would, I would hopethat it would, you know,
motivate you to like, Well, atleast me, I'm pretty
competitive.
So I feel like that's how Iwould take it.
I'd be like, Well, I have to be,you know, Jessica over here
who's you know, she's been doingbetter than me the past three
days, so I need to, I need tostep up my game.
So there's nothing
Jutta (06:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
That that's what we kind oflike, are aiming that it would
be this sort of like niceencouraging experience but at
the same time understanding thatthere should be absolutely no
pressure cuz there are so manythings you cannot do.
Like you can do everythingperfectly and still Europe, like
data can be whatever.
So it's uh, it's kind of likefine line.
Keep that sort of likeencouraging and motivating and,
(06:21):
and yet like, uh, not to addany, any pressure on the, on the
people with diabetes, so
Katie (06:27):
I would think I would do a pretty good job of putting the
pressure on myself alone.
I, I probably wouldn't need thehelp
Jutta (06:32):
Yeah.
Katie (06:33):
Of other people.
but I wanted to, cuz you talkedabout the stars and I really
love the star system cuz youknow, anybody can pull up their
Dexcom Clarity app and see like,you know, what your average has
been over the past week or, or30 days or 90 days.
Um, and you know, you have thatdata, those percentages and
standard deviation and time andrange and all that.
(06:53):
But you know, the stars arejust, It's like you're earning
stars.
So you're working towards a goaleach and every day.
And you can set that like inthe, um, you can set your
target.
You can set your target prettylow, like 30 stars is just Okay,
good.
Is a hundred stars.
Um, great is 200 excellent is300 and amazing.
It's 400 stars.
and it's not, it's for, let'ssee, it says you can earn a star
(07:15):
every five minutes.
and then when you keep yourglucose, In the dark blue area,
you get two times the amount ofstars.
The other day it's like you got,it was something like over 400
stars and I'm like, there is noway that we got 400 And so I
went back and I read the fineprint and I'm like, Oh, because
I kept it in the dark blue areafor like this amount of time.
I got two times the amount ofstars.
(07:36):
So it's just fun.
It's just a fun way to look atyour, your Dexcom data, your
kids Dexcom
Jutta (07:41):
Yeah, and it's, it's interesting, we've heard from
uh, quite a few men who use theapp just for the stars.
So they like to get the DailyStar report and that's how they
know how they did the previousday.
So instead of looking at thetiming range, they just like
tell themselves if they.
We're doing okay the previousday or another, and that's sort
of like a, that they thrive toget a bit more stars today than
(08:04):
they did yesterday.
And I guess it sometimes canfeel a bit easier than just
constantly looking at your BGand, and the kind of values.
And that's sort of like twomedical approach in some ways.
Katie (08:15):
Yeah.
I, I, I like it.
It's, it's a lot more enjoyableto see my star count than it is
to see my, you know, percentageof time and range.
Both are important, but thestars are a little bit more fun.
Would you mind telling listenersa little bit about the different
personalities or the differentmoods that you can set in the
Happy Bob app?
Jutta (08:32):
Yes.
So we have the happy mode, andthat is the kind of friendly
tone of Happy Book, the veryencouraging and, and, and
supportive, uh, companion, uh,that's safe for anyone to use.
So you, you, whether you're achild or a adult who you can
always turn on the, uh, theHappy Book, uh, mode, the happy
mode.
Then we have a snarky book,which was the original first,
(08:53):
uh, additional mode we had inthe app.
And that was, um, I have tomention, My dear, fellow, T one
d mom here, who, who actuallyheard her kid downloaded the
Happy Book app and they startedto use the app and then they
reached out to us and said,Well, the app is really great
and we love the, uh, earningstars feature, but we really
think the tone of voice is too,uh, boring.
(09:14):
And, and so we asked, Well,what?
What should the app say instead?
And they said, Well, thereshould be kind of like more
sarcastic tone.
And they came up with the snarkyBob idea.
And ever since this was back in,2019 and they started to work
with the snarky, uh, snarkysayings.
And that became like verypopular.
And ever since we've had theSnarky Bob, which is sort of
(09:35):
like the, uh, the, moresarcastic version of Happy Go, a
lot of our users love that.
Then, um, ever since we've, uh,Other moods as well.
So we have frosty for theholiday season.
We have pumpkins, uh, Robert aspumpkins for the, uh, Halloween
season.
we have dad book that is allabout dad jokes and then, what
else?
We have cinnamon that is allabout movie quotes and it all
(09:57):
comes kind of like come togetherwith the, um, diabetes data
communicating.
Certain way with the tone ofvoice of that character.
And it, it makes some veryfunny, uh, messages.
And, and what we've heard fromour users is that they are just
more likely to check their datawhen it's delivered with a fun
message.
And that makes all thedifference because like everyone
knows that the more you interactwith your data, the better the,
(10:20):
uh, the outcome.
Katie (10:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then, wait, what's Karen?
Is she kind of just annoying,like.
Jutta (10:26):
Karen.
So she's the nosy neighbor.
She's the, uh, well yeah, the,the Karen type.
So she's also for the people whodon't get offended easily, but a
lot of people find thathilarious because they know the
Karen type, someone who's alwayskind of like a very obnoxious.
Email who knows it all and wantsto tell you that she knows it
all and how much better shewould be doing in diabetes
(10:47):
management if she had diabetes.
Katie (10:50):
that's funny.
My, um, I have three kids.
My oldest is about to be 12, andthen my youngest is eight.
And, um, even my eight year oldknows like what a Karen is, and
every now and then he'll belike, or all of my kids, but it
always cracks me up when it'sthe youngest one.
But he's like, Mom, don't besuch a Karen.
You're being, you're being aKaren mom.
like, sorry.
Jutta (11:09):
and now we're, and and it's funny because it, the
current exist like everywhere.
We're just like in the processof translating the snarky mode
into German and Yeah, well,there are currents, but in, in,
in Germany it's gonna be calledHeal the Guard, same person.
It's type.
Katie (11:24):
That's so funny.
Well, how many, I didn't realizethat it would come in different
languages.
What other languages does theapp come in?
Jutta (11:30):
Yeah, so we have, uh, English, Swedish, German,
French, Finnish, Portuguese, andwe're now working on Spanish as
well.
So that will be out, uh,relatively soon.
And then we're, we've kind oflike started to work on the
Japanese translations, but uh,the app is not out in Japan yet.
So, but the kind of mostimportant thing is just that
(11:51):
everyone knows that like,diabetes data can be really hard
and it's so much better if youcan just like get it the
information in your own locallanguage.
So that's why we really want.
Bring the app to everyone intheir local languages.
Uh, currently we're live.
Um, the app is available in theUS only, but we're gonna be
launching it in Europe soon.
So we used to, we used to havethe app available in, in, in
(12:14):
other countries outside of theUS as well.
So we already have quite a lotof users who are sort of like
expecting us to launch with the,uh, free launch in, in, in
countries.
And we just want to make sure wesupport their languages as well,
cuz uh, oftentimes the users arealso parents who have kids with
diabetes, so we.
Want to make sure the, the kidscan understand what the app is,
(12:34):
is.
Katie (12:35):
Yeah, that's really exciting and I Great.
I love that you're just reachingsuch a wide audience.
I feel like that would be alittle tricky with translation.
I'm assuming you have people onyour team that like are fluent
in.
Mul, you know, multiplelanguages so they can make sure,
Cuz a lot of what Happy Bob saysis, um, kind of like sometimes
it's slang, you know, or it'slike a saying that would only
(12:55):
make sense maybe in English.
So I feel like having totranslate to another language
would be tricky at times.
How does that work?
Jutta (13:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we, that's why it's, um, themost important thing is to work
with the local people who havediabetes or know people with
diabetes.
And everyone, like all of ourtranslations have been done by
people from that country livingwith.
Type one diabetes, either havingit themselves or, or their kids
having di type one diabetes.
And that's how we know we cangive the, um, communication
(13:24):
authentic and something thatworks in their local language.
And there's, I don't thinkthere's any way we could kind of
like outsource that kind oftranslation to, to anyone else
because you really need to knowwhat are the expressions, what
is, what works and what doesn't.
And we, we sort of like realizedthat at some point when.
The, uh, snarky book was usedoutside of the US in some other
countries, and people would getreally offended because they
(13:47):
wouldn't find it necessarilyfunny, but more sort of like,
just really insulting.
And that humor is, uh, verycultural as well.
So we need to be careful when wecome up with the translations
and, and we're kind of, Reallytrying to pay attention so that
obviously we never want tooffend anyone with the, with the
kind of, uh, messages andlanguages we have.
(14:08):
It's just like interesting thatsome people find it very funny
and others don't so,
Katie (14:14):
yeah.
yeah, I can see where if you ifit gets lost in translation, it
might be, might be moreoffensive than, uh, helpful.
Uh, especially with maybe likethe snarky bob move or, you
know, mood that's already kindof leans more towards the
sarcastic side.
Jutta (14:28):
Yeah.
Katie (14:28):
let's see.
I wanted to ask you, Oh, how doyou, how do you come up with all
these sayings?
I mean, who submits the sayings?
Where do you guys come up withthese?
Jutta (14:37):
so uh, ever since we started to work with Samantha,
who was the, uh, the, uh, T oneD mom who reached out to us
after her, her daughter startedto use the Happy App.
And we became friends and westarted to work together.
And she's this amazing writerwho's been working as a writer,
all of her, her life, and nowliving with type one diabetes,
(14:57):
in, in their family.
So she, she became our writerand she's been working on the,
on the messages and writing thatamazing content and we're just
like, very happy we found herbecause I think she's doing
amazing job there.
And then in, in other countries,we work with other local
languages because oftentimes youcannot really translate.
Messages, but it's more sort oflike, uh, really rewriting
(15:18):
knowing the culture and whatworks in a, in a, in a country
in order to come up with the,with the right ways to say it.
For example, in Finland, we'vebeen working with a, with a
rapper who's, who's really goodin writing, who's been writing
the snarky bob content in finishin a totally different way so
that the kind of charactercomes, comes alive.
Katie (15:37):
That's great.
That's great.
I love that.
And there are a ton of sayings.
I mean, I, I mean, maybe you,can you tell me a number, like
just for one of the moods, likehow many sayings does it have?
Because I feel like I haven'tseen too many repetitions
Jutta (15:51):
yeah, I, I, it's, um, we, well altogether we have, uh, I
think we have thousands ofmessages together for all the
moods, but for snarky, hundreds.
Definitely.
But, um, as snarky is the onewe've been sort of like working
on since, uh, 2019 already,
Katie (16:11):
Is he, Is your son a snarky personality?
Jutta (16:13):
He's really not.
But the, uh, it, he kind of likethe humor.
His humor is a bit different,but it always makes him laugh.
And that is kind of like that,that's what we're after.
And I, and I think that is thekind of, uh, so it really works
and, and, and he loves themessages and it's kind of like
not something he would come upwith himself, but then he enjoys
it a lot.
(16:34):
And I guess it's kind of like alanguage question as well, but
he really enjoys that
Katie (16:38):
Yeah, I'm, I think I'm gonna have to test that one out.
Um, I wanted to, when you pullup the app, you kind of see a
little bit like a cgm, you know,Dex Pro Graph type of thing.
But instead of dots, it's starsand, but Happy Bob also has a
face, like there's a face to theapp and, you know, if you're in
range, he's usually making ahappy face at you, at least in
(16:59):
the Happy Bob, uh, mood.
And then if you're, if you'relow, it's usually some sort of
like anxious or worried.
And then if you're high, it's,you know, it's like a same kind
of same thing, like concerned orannoyed or something like that.
Um, and his face changes colorstoo, based on kind of where
you're falling in the, in therange that you've set.
Do you mind if I read just acouple of the phrases?
Jutta (17:22):
That would be amazing.
Katie (17:24):
Okay.
I just wanna give people anexample of, I, I sometimes when
they make me laugh, I take ascreenshot.
Okay.
Yesterday Sarah was, high.
It was a bad afternoon for us.
It was, and then it was one ofthose afternoons where I'm like,
Well, I literally have no ideawhat happened, but here we are.
Um, her glucose was 221 and itsays a diabetes poem.
You're high the end That's thenotification I got.
(17:47):
and then, let's see.
This was on a really good day.
Her glucose was like anywherefrom like 99 to like one 13, but
he said I wouldn't change athing.
And then he said, You'reeverything right now.
And then he said, Is anon-diabetic wearing your cgm or
are you just killing it?
and then he said, Your, your UNis awesome.
So fun things like that.
(18:07):
Let's see.
Hold on.
I have a couple more.
This one cracked me up.
It was, her glucose was 83, andit says, Did you finally get
your hands on some cinnamon?
Hashtag cured.
That one made me laugh a lot.
Yeah, so they're just, they'rejust funny.
And, and even when, oh, here'sone, when she was really low,
her, she was 52.
That's not great.
Right.
Um, and it says, Olive aboardthe hot mess express.
(18:27):
So you.
Obviously there's nothing funny,Well, there is, this makes it
funny is what I'm trying to say.
Like, nobody loves to be 52 or220.
Like those aren't numbers thatwe're aiming for on a daily
basis.
But this, um, you know, Ialways, I always tell people
it's a diabetes mom.
If I'm not laughing, I'm crying.
So I really appreciate that.
(18:47):
This helps me to laugh, um, inthe difficult moments Then, you
know, maybe result to dissolvinginto a puddle of tears instead.
Jutta (18:55):
Yeah, I, I experienced that once when my son was very
low and I got one of the newmessages I had not seen before
myself.
And it was really funny and Istarted to laugh and it was very
kind of like bizarre feeling,cuz I was actually very, very
worried cuz he was so low.
But then I started to, uh, likealmost laugh and, and smiling,
uh, and feeling good at the sametime.
(19:17):
And then there's this sort oflike guilty feeling at the same
time, because I cannot find thislike hilarious when my son's
low, low.
But it's sort of like stillhelped me to cope with the
situation because I mean, it'slike when someone in your family
has diabetes, especially if it'sa child, you're constantly
worried.
It's kind of like the the numberone feeling you have as.
(19:37):
Parent, at least I have thatyou're worried if everything's
gonna go okay.
If it's, Yeah.
Well, you know what it's like,so it, it is kind of like that
mixed emotions that you suddenlyfeel a bit better, even though
the situation definitely isn'tgood.
Katie (19:51):
Mm-hmm.
absolutely.
It finds a way to make thedifficult moments, tolerable and
even humorous.
Yeah, I, that's kind of my, uh,defense mechanism anyway.
My coping mechanism is humor.
Uh, that's my go-to, which, youknow, I try to share that on
social media with my listeners,and I think most people find it
funny.
There are.
A few people that probably arepretty offended by it, but, um,
(20:12):
I I think the majority of peopleenjoy it.
Um, let's see.
Oh, I was wondering, it soundslike Samantha, you're a writer,
does an amazing job.
I have you ever let peoplesubmit sayings?
Like, have you ever opened it upto maybe like a Happy Bob
contest or, I was just curious.
Jutta (20:28):
Yes, we did once and we actually used to have, uh, this
feature in the app where peoplecould send us, uh, their
messages and, um, we kind oflike had very high hosts because
so many people told us that theywould really want to kind of
deliver something and they hadgood ideas.
And then we did receive quite alot of messages, but then
surprisingly it's I guess it'skind of like it's art in itself
(20:51):
good writing, so just havingthese like independent messages
without kind of like thinkingthrough the context wouldn't
necessarily work that well.
Whereas when Samantha's beenworking on this, she has this
sort of like, and we also havesome other people who've been
working on writing.
So, but some of that has thisvery sort of like holistic view
on kind of like she knows thekind of, The kind of big picture
(21:12):
of what's, what goes where andwhatnot.
And that sort of like, lettersituation that we had quite a
lot of messages that were beingsent to us, but they wouldn't
like really work on their own.
So we actually, we just removethat feature.
But that being said if there arepeople who are writers and
interested in, in possib, ofcourse we'd love to work with
them.
So it's kind of like, uh, if,so, if anyone of your listeners
(21:34):
is, is kind of like consideringherself or himself as a writer,
I would be interested in, in, inpottering with us on, on, on the
kind of, uh, writing.
Writing happy web messages andwe have a lot of like very
interesting content and newfeatures coming up, and we're
always looking for the kind ofbright tone of voice and the
right way to communicate.
So we'd love to work with,native English writers who know
(21:55):
diabetes.
Katie (21:55):
Okay, well that's good to know.
I will definitely put a link,obviously to the Happy Bob app
and the show notes and, maybejust a link to, if you're okay
with it, how somebody could getin touch with you, if they were
interested in something likethat
Jutta (22:07):
Yes, absolutely.
Katie (22:09):
great ideas.
I wanted you to, um, so there isa, there's a paid version and
there's a free version.
And the paid version is likewhere you can unlock all the,
the different moods andpersonalities that happy Bob
comes in, but What else do youwant listeners to know about the
app?
Jutta (22:24):
what I want the listeners to know about the app, I, I, I
think what I want the listenersto know about the app is that it
exists is a way to, uh, have anew way to connect with their
diabetes data.
It's, uh, it's also reallyinteresting, especially for the
US listeners who are usingiPhone and who might choose the
in pen.
That you can actually connectthe app with your insulin data
(22:45):
from the Apple Health.
So if you use the in pen, youcan just, uh, write your, uh,
insulin data directly to AppleHealth.
And then Happy Book App willread the insulin dosing data
from Apple Health and show thatin the app.
And that's like a wonderful wayto see your realtime, easily
intake and your CGM data in oneview.
What's also, uh, worth ofmentioning, and we have some
(23:08):
users who have been using thisapp and they, uh, their feedback
has been amazing.
Just like so handy that you cansee everything in one view.
So you see in the, uh, glucosegraft, you see, uh, all your
insulin doses, uh, with the,with the StarCraft.
So there's a circle and you cantap on the circle that's on a,
on a start that shows how manyunits of insulin, whether it's a
short acting or, or longingyou'd be taking.
(23:30):
At what time?
What was your glucose value?
And then you also have the samedata on your stats.
You can also log into dashboard.
So the desktop online tool wehave for, uh, diabetes data
where you can also see all yourCTM data and your exercise data.
And your, insulin data, all in,all in one view.
So that's super handy.
We also just very recently,actually last week launch, uh,
(23:53):
with the iOS 16, uh, the, um,uh, lock screen widgets, which
allow users who are using iPhoneto see their, um, if they start
using the lock screen widgets,they can see their real time
glucose data, the stars theyhave collected so far.
Their timing range that day, andtheir star StarCraft, meaning
(24:14):
their glucose craft trade line,if they want to use that as a
widget.
And that's super handy becausethen you can just like, I look
at your phone and even if it's,uh, in the, even if it's log,
we'll still see your real timedata.
So that is the feature we'reextremely, uh, interesting.
I know a lot of people who have,who, who use Jcom haven't yet
(24:35):
had the kind of, uh, or havehaven't wanted to update to iOS
16 due to.
There is reasons, but forexample, if, um, you have a
child who uses d Happy Book withthe DCOM data, and even if they
were using iOS 15 and you as aparent, uh, uh, had already
upgraded to iOS 16, you coulduse the Happy Book app with this
log screen, which is, they aresuper, super handy.
(24:58):
At least the feedback from ourusers so far is that they really
make huge, uh, impact in thekind of like, Provide this easy
way to check their glucosevalues throughout the day.
And then obviously we have theuh, Apple Watch app that a lot
of our users love to use aswell, so just would encourage
people to try that out as well.
Katie (25:16):
Yeah, I think I need to give that a try.
Sarah wears an Apple watch andshe, right now she just has like
the Dexcom number on the screen,um, along with a few other
things, but I need to see aboutputting the happy Bob on there
and, I mean, if she can see hernumber either way, whether it's
Happy Bob or the Dexcom, Iwould, I think Happy Bob.
Would we away more?
Enjoyable way to, uh, glancedown and look at your number
(25:38):
throughout the day?
Um, yeah, I would, I'm gonna bereally honest, I was kind of
hesitant to download it becauseI was, I was just kind of like,
ugh, I already have so many waysof like seeing my daughter's
glucose data.
You know, I have the, the followapp and I have sugar mate and
you know, I have my watch on,which is alerting me.
So I felt like, do I reallywant, this other thing that's
notifying me about what hernumber is?
(26:00):
Uh, and I can say, Like it in noway has added to the stress of
diabetes management.
It has, only made it moreenjoyable.
So it's, it hasn't been, youknow, getting the notifications
from Happy Bob on my phone havenot been, you know, again, they
haven't added to the stress ofdiabetes management.
They've really only helped tojust make it more enjoyable and
(26:22):
bring a little humor to thetable.
And it, I've, I've really,really lo loved it and I say
that genuinely, so.
Thank you.
Jutta (26:29):
Well, well, thank you.
It here.
And um, I mean obviously sincewe're like constantly, we have a
small in-house development teamand we're constantly working on
the app, so we would love tohear what would you change, what
would you add?
Do you have any, any ideas?
Because that's, that's the waywe take the app forward.
So we try to listen to thefeedback.
we're currently working on somenew features, which we think are
(26:51):
gonna be, uh, very valuable tothe users.
But I would just love to hear ifyou have any thoughts, like what
would you add or change.
Any kind of like, anything youcould give us as new as a
Katie (27:01):
I don't even, like, half the time, I don't even pull up
the Dexcom Follow app anymore.
I just, when I get a Happy Bobnotification, I just click on
that and see what he has to sayand you know what his face looks
like and just Right now she'sone, she just say lunch, so
she's 1 59 with a diagonal arrowup and it says creeping up, but
still looking great.
thanks.
Happy Bob I know you can relateto this, like, as a diabetes
(27:25):
parent, you put so much workinto trying to keep your kid,
you know, safe, happy, andhealthy, and keep their numbers
in range.
And sometimes you feel like,Nobody sees you, you know what I
mean?
Like even your kid, like has noidea what is going on behind the
scenes, you know, especially ifthey're younger and managing
things.
And so it's kind of nice, eventhough it's a virtual,
(27:47):
personality, it's kind of niceto have somebody telling you,
you're doing a, a good jobthroughout the day, you know,
Jutta (27:51):
Yeah, and you know, that was one of the kind of very sort
of like, One of the main reasonswith the whole app, because so
many times you're doing, likeevery one of us living with
diabetes, we're doing a hugeamount of work, especially the
people who obviously who haveit.
And then that always goesunnoticed.
Like no one pays attention toall the effort you're making and
then you.
You visit the end ofChronologist office.
(28:12):
So you speak with like, uh, yourhealthcare team and it's all
around like what's your A1C andyour time in range and how many
times you've missed your goals.
And even though like we have themost amazing care team, like.
Really, really amazing.
But it's oftentimes it's aroundthe kind of times when you could
have done better.
So we really wanted to createthe experience around the kind
of, uh, noticing that all thetimes when you're are doing
(28:35):
good, cuz there are so manytimes like, it it like if you
stay two hours in range orobviously already, like that's a
success.
So we kind of like wanted tocelebrate that and that was one
of the kind of, uh, ideas we.
In the, in the kind ofdevelopment phase, just so they
wouldn't be, Cuz I noticed as aparent that I would just like
constantly be kind of likenagging my son, I mean, and now
(28:57):
when he's 14, he's constantlyforgetting to bowls at school
and when he's out with friendsas eating snacks.
And it's kind of a, a lot ofthis very negative kind of like
feedback look around, likethings you didn't do.
And yet he is doing so manythings all the time, every day.
And that takes a huge effort.
So like I'm also thinking thatsince I cannot be always the
(29:19):
supportive parent, maybe an appcan be the supportive, uh,
companion in that sense as well.
Katie (29:24):
No, I, I really think it, it, at least for me, it, it's,
it's really helpful for.
Moments when nobody else seesthat you're doing a good job,
but, but happy Bob sees thatyou're you're doing a good job.
He'll let you know.
well, I was, I'm just curious,It sounded like, obviously this
started as just kind of an ideain your head and then you
started working on it.
So I'm, I'm imagining that itwent from like a kind of a,
(29:45):
almost as a hobby to, is it yourfull-time job?
Jutta (29:49):
Yeah, it's, uh, it's a full-time job now, and we have
a, we have a small, uh, smallteam working on this, obviously.
when we started, we first did,uh, quite a few prototypes, just
like a, a side approach.
Again, kind of like.
Just testing different conceptsand different designs.
I, I think, I think we had threedifferent versions.
Just like first I was using thatwith my son's data and, and then
(30:10):
we had some other people testingthe app and it was kind of like
at some point then we had todecide, well, this is kind of
like starting to take so much ofour time.
Is this, either we need toreally focus on this or we're
not gonna be doing this at all.
And then that's when we sort oflike decided.
Move, uh, full speed with that.
And, uh, by that time we alreadyhad like very promising feedback
from, uh, from the users.
(30:31):
And obviously now when we areFDA class two exempt device,
there's a lot of regulation weneed to take into account.
There are like the cybersecurity issues, it's a, we're
applying for a medical device,uh, status in Europe.
So there are a lot of kind oflike things that You don't think
about when you start to work onsomething like this, that, that
take a huge amount of workinternally just to make sure
(30:53):
that the data is secure.
We have the backend end serviceand everything set up in a way
that it's, uh, as, as, as stableas, and, and, and reliable and
secure as, as it needs to be.
that, that's oftentimes kind oflike, easy to forget that that
work.
actually takes a huge amount ofeverything we do with the app
management at the moment.
Just making sure it, it's, it,it runs smooth and secure and,
(31:15):
and, and meets all theregulatory requirements.
Katie (31:18):
And then that's only like the tip of the iceberg too, cuz
then there's social media sideof it that you have to manage
and there's customer service andthere's, I'm sure there's just
all sorts of stuff that goesinto it that people just have no
idea.
I didn't even think about thewhole regulatory situation with
the FDA and it being, you know,medical information.
I didn't, that didn't even crossmy mind.
But, Yeah.
(31:38):
very good point.
So,
Jutta (31:40):
Yeah.
And, and is the, like, the partI love the most is, uh, talking
with the user.
So whenever we get emails frompeople who are using the app or
they have a kind of like,whatever, Question or concern.
That's like the best part that,that's kind of like the reason
why I do this, and then the kindof like, uh, downside is that we
also need to take care of thatkind of like more boring stuff,
(32:01):
the regulatory stuff, which is,Yeah, that's a very, that's a
big amount of, uh, work, thedocumentation and everything
that comes with that, that, butthe best part is always when we
get to speak with the, with theusers.
Katie (32:13):
Well, I, I love it.
I think you've done a great job.
Thank you very much for bringingthis to the type one community
and, um, share my funny commentsas they come on social media and
spread the word.
And, just thank you.
Thank you again.
Jutta (32:26):
Well, I'm just, I would love to hear from our users, So
as I, as I said, uh, if anyonehas ideas regarding the messages
we should have in the app orwant ideas how to improve,
please reach out to us.
Uh, follow us on so social mediaor just send an email to, uh,
hello@happybob.app.
That would be the kind of bestway to fridge the whole team,
uh, through a very secure way.
(32:48):
But I can also be arranged bymy, by my personal email
address, so you@happypop.app.
Katie (32:54):
Awesome.
Thanks.
I will, I will leave that all inthe show notes, the social media
links and email addresses andand whatnot.
Okay.
Well thank you so much Uta.
I appreciate your time and thankyou for coming on and telling
listeners all about.
Happy Bob.
Jutta (33:06):
Thank you so much for having me thank you.
Let's, let's be in touch.
Katie (33:09):
definitely.
All right.
Bye.
All right.
That is it for our episodetoday.
Again, make sure you downloadthe happy Bob app.
They have a free version and apaid premium version.
I think I'm going to have tosign up for the premium version
because I definitely want tocheck out snarky, Bob and Karen.
Again, check out the links inthe show notes to where you can
(33:32):
find more information abouthappy Bob and how to download
it.
Thank you so very much forlistening.
If you're interested insupporting the show.
Check out.
Our link in the show notes tobuy me a coffee, buy me a coffee
is a no.
Strings attached way for you tosupport this podcast.
Every donation given goes to.
(33:52):
Funding the things.
That are required to make thispodcast come to life each and
every week.
Things like the web space Tohost the podcast website.
Recording software editingsoftware.
and a podcast hosting platform.
All right, that's it for thisweek, I will chat with you soon.
(34:12):
But until then stay calm andbolus on.
This is episode 87 of the sugar mamas podcast.
(00:03):
And today my guest is UTA.
The creator of the happy Bob Youguys, if you do not have the
happy Bob app on your phone,you've got to get it.
It is so fun.
It's so funny and it makesmanaging diabetes enjoyable.
I'm not kidding.
I won't give too much awaybecause UTA is going to tell us
(00:23):
all about happy, Bob.
But definitely check out theshow notes because I will leave
links to all the places whereyou can find out more about
happy Bob and download it today.
All right.
Let's get started.
You're listening to the sugarmamas podcast, a show designed
for moms and caregivers of typeone diabetics here.
(00:46):
You'll find a community oflike-minded people who are
striving daily to keep theirkids safe, happy, and healthy in
the ever-changing world of typeone.
I'm your host and fellow T one Dmom, Katie Roseboro.
Before we get started.
I need you to know that nothingyou hear on the sugar mamas
podcast should be consideredmedical advice.
(01:09):
Please be safe, be smart, andalways consult your physician
before making changes to the wayyou manage type one diabetes.
Thanks.
Hey everybody.
I am here with UTA today and UUtah.
I'm gonna let you introduceyourself.
So tell the listeners who youare and what your connection to
(01:30):
Type one diabetes.
Jutta (01:32):
Yes.
Hi, So my name is Tmo.
I'm the founder.
The Happy Pop app.
My, uh, my background is ingaming and in consumer tech.
I got into diabetes tech spacewhen my oldest son got diagnosed
with type one diabetes when hewas six years old.
And that sort of like, uh,opened the whole world of, uh,
diabetes management to, to meand to my son and to our family.
(01:53):
And, and ever since I've been,uh, well, like everyone with
diabetes knows, it's sort oflike a, a family member of ours.
So that's how I, I got intoworking with the happy.
Katie (02:04):
How, How old is your son now,
Jutta (02:05):
Uh, he's 14 now, so, it's been, it's been eight years
Katie (02:09):
Yeah.
So at what point in time in hisdiabetes journey did you kind of
have the idea?
For the Happy Bob app.
Jutta (02:16):
Yeah, it's, uh, I, I think it was, um, sort of after
we had been living with thecondition for, um, maybe, uh, a
few years and.
Well, I kind of like started tothink about that from the day
one cuz it was such anoverwhelming experience.
The amount of data and theexisting apps and, and tools and
(02:36):
everything that comes withdiabetes.
And then you're just assumedthat everyone turns into this
like data scientist right fromthe get go.
You get diabetes and then youare supposed to understand
everything that comes with that.
So it was like a veryoverwhelming experience.
But then I actually was onmaternity leave.
And then suddenly I had a bitmore time to think about
(02:56):
diabetes management.
And also my oldest son since Iwas more at home.
And I really started to thinkabout like the, the experiences
we had at school that I knew hewas going through some hard
times.
Uh, just the alarms going offduring the school days and you,
you need to go there and chasethe, uh, The insulin, insulin
pumps and, and so many otherthings.
And kind of like, I reallystarted to feel what he was
(03:18):
going through at a differentlevel.
And that sort of led to, tothinking how this could be
improved and what if this lookeddifferent?
What, what could it look like?
And it started, started as asort of like a side hobby, just
to kind of play with the dataand think about the different
ways the diabetes managementcould look like, especially from
a user patient perspective.
Katie (03:39):
yeah, I recently downloaded Happy Bob.
It's been a couple months now,maybe two months that I've had
it on my phone and I can.
Um, and we're gonna talk moreabout what exactly it does and
offers, but I can say itdefinitely has made my, uh,
diabetes management experiencemore enjoyable.
Um, just because my lovelanguage is sarcasm and humor
and happy Bob is always makingme laugh with the little
(04:01):
messages that, he is sending methroughout the day.
Some are good and encouragingand some are like, you need to
get it together because thingshave fallen apart.
but, but tell listeners in yourown words, you know, what is
Happy.
Jutta (04:13):
So Happy.
Bob is an app that connects withthe, uh, diabetes devices the
person with diabetes is wearing.
So, uh, the first and foremostimportant device is the Content
Glucose Monitor.
So we connect with the realtimediabetes data coming from the
Dexcom CGM at the moment, and weturn those, uh, Readings the
values that come from the dcomCGM into stars, The users can
(04:34):
collect, and whenever they'rekeeping their glucose in range,
they're earning these stars.
And with the stars you can reachyour daily Star goal.
We also have different moods inthe, in the app, so you can set
the tone of, uh, voice you wantfor your diabetes data.
So you'll be receiving differentalarms and notifications
throughout the day if yourglucose is high or low or going
high or low.
(04:54):
And also when you're just doingvery.
with the tone of boys from themood you have selected.
So it kind of, what we want todo there is just to make that
experience a bit more enjoyableand more fun.
So when you need to payattention to your values, it's,
it's actually an enjoyableexperience.
then we also have groups featurethat allows users to create
their own groups with their ownprints, with type one diabetes
(05:15):
or with anyone who's using atext CGM so that they can follow
each other and, and.
Kind of like be encouraged toknow that they are not the only
ones living with the, with theCondit.
Katie (05:25):
I love that there's kind of.
Option to have that built inaccountability among friends,
you know, among like people thatyou know and you trust and you
feel safe with.
and I also think it, you know,it could create like a little
bit of a friendly competitionbetween friends, which isn't
necessarily a bad thing, youknow, when you're kind of.
Seeing everyone else's datathroughout the day, you know, I
(05:46):
would, I would, I would hopethat it would, you know,
motivate you to like, Well, atleast me, I'm pretty
competitive.
So I feel like that's how Iwould take it.
I'd be like, Well, I have to be,you know, Jessica over here
who's you know, she's been doingbetter than me the past three
days, so I need to, I need tostep up my game.
So there's nothing
Jutta (06:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
That that's what we kind oflike, are aiming that it would
be this sort of like niceencouraging experience but at
the same time understanding thatthere should be absolutely no
pressure cuz there are so manythings you cannot do.
Like you can do everythingperfectly and still Europe, like
data can be whatever.
So it's uh, it's kind of likefine line.
Keep that sort of likeencouraging and motivating and,
(06:21):
and yet like, uh, not to addany, any pressure on the, on the
people with diabetes, so
Katie (06:27):
I would think I would do a pretty good job of putting the
pressure on myself alone.
I, I probably wouldn't need thehelp
Jutta (06:32):
Yeah.
Katie (06:33):
Of other people.
but I wanted to, cuz you talkedabout the stars and I really
love the star system cuz youknow, anybody can pull up their
Dexcom Clarity app and see like,you know, what your average has
been over the past week or, or30 days or 90 days.
Um, and you know, you have thatdata, those percentages and
standard deviation and time andrange and all that.
(06:53):
But you know, the stars arejust, It's like you're earning
stars.
So you're working towards a goaleach and every day.
And you can set that like inthe, um, you can set your
target.
You can set your target prettylow, like 30 stars is just Okay,
good.
Is a hundred stars.
Um, great is 200 excellent is300 and amazing.
It's 400 stars.
and it's not, it's for, let'ssee, it says you can earn a star
(07:15):
every five minutes.
and then when you keep yourglucose, In the dark blue area,
you get two times the amount ofstars.
The other day it's like you got,it was something like over 400
stars and I'm like, there is noway that we got 400 And so I
went back and I read the fineprint and I'm like, Oh, because
I kept it in the dark blue areafor like this amount of time.
I got two times the amount ofstars.
(07:36):
So it's just fun.
It's just a fun way to look atyour, your Dexcom data, your
kids Dexcom
Jutta (07:41):
Yeah, and it's, it's interesting, we've heard from
uh, quite a few men who use theapp just for the stars.
So they like to get the DailyStar report and that's how they
know how they did the previousday.
So instead of looking at thetiming range, they just like
tell themselves if they.
We're doing okay the previousday or another, and that's sort
of like a, that they thrive toget a bit more stars today than
(08:04):
they did yesterday.
And I guess it sometimes canfeel a bit easier than just
constantly looking at your BGand, and the kind of values.
And that's sort of like twomedical approach in some ways.
Katie (08:15):
Yeah.
I, I, I like it.
It's, it's a lot more enjoyableto see my star count than it is
to see my, you know, percentageof time and range.
Both are important, but thestars are a little bit more fun.
Would you mind telling listenersa little bit about the different
personalities or the differentmoods that you can set in the
Happy Bob app?
Jutta (08:32):
Yes.
So we have the happy mode, andthat is the kind of friendly
tone of Happy Book, the veryencouraging and, and, and
supportive, uh, companion, uh,that's safe for anyone to use.
So you, you, whether you're achild or a adult who you can
always turn on the, uh, theHappy Book, uh, mode, the happy
mode.
Then we have a snarky book,which was the original first,
(08:53):
uh, additional mode we had inthe app.
And that was, um, I have tomention, My dear, fellow, T one
d mom here, who, who actuallyheard her kid downloaded the
Happy Book app and they startedto use the app and then they
reached out to us and said,Well, the app is really great
and we love the, uh, earningstars feature, but we really
think the tone of voice is too,uh, boring.
(09:14):
And, and so we asked, Well,what?
What should the app say instead?
And they said, Well, thereshould be kind of like more
sarcastic tone.
And they came up with the snarkyBob idea.
And ever since this was back in,2019 and they started to work
with the snarky, uh, snarkysayings.
And that became like verypopular.
And ever since we've had theSnarky Bob, which is sort of
(09:35):
like the, uh, the, moresarcastic version of Happy Go, a
lot of our users love that.
Then, um, ever since we've, uh,Other moods as well.
So we have frosty for theholiday season.
We have pumpkins, uh, Robert aspumpkins for the, uh, Halloween
season.
we have dad book that is allabout dad jokes and then, what
else?
We have cinnamon that is allabout movie quotes and it all
(09:57):
comes kind of like come togetherwith the, um, diabetes data
communicating.
Certain way with the tone ofvoice of that character.
And it, it makes some veryfunny, uh, messages.
And, and what we've heard fromour users is that they are just
more likely to check their datawhen it's delivered with a fun
message.
And that makes all thedifference because like everyone
knows that the more you interactwith your data, the better the,
(10:20):
uh, the outcome.
Katie (10:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
And then, wait, what's Karen?
Is she kind of just annoying,like.
Jutta (10:26):
Karen.
So she's the nosy neighbor.
She's the, uh, well yeah, the,the Karen type.
So she's also for the people whodon't get offended easily, but a
lot of people find thathilarious because they know the
Karen type, someone who's alwayskind of like a very obnoxious.
Email who knows it all and wantsto tell you that she knows it
all and how much better shewould be doing in diabetes
(10:47):
management if she had diabetes.
Katie (10:50):
that's funny.
My, um, I have three kids.
My oldest is about to be 12, andthen my youngest is eight.
And, um, even my eight year oldknows like what a Karen is, and
every now and then he'll belike, or all of my kids, but it
always cracks me up when it'sthe youngest one.
But he's like, Mom, don't besuch a Karen.
You're being, you're being aKaren mom.
like, sorry.
Jutta (11:09):
and now we're, and and it's funny because it, the
current exist like everywhere.
We're just like in the processof translating the snarky mode
into German and Yeah, well,there are currents, but in, in,
in Germany it's gonna be calledHeal the Guard, same person.
It's type.
Katie (11:24):
That's so funny.
Well, how many, I didn't realizethat it would come in different
languages.
What other languages does theapp come in?
Jutta (11:30):
Yeah, so we have, uh, English, Swedish, German,
French, Finnish, Portuguese, andwe're now working on Spanish as
well.
So that will be out, uh,relatively soon.
And then we're, we've kind oflike started to work on the
Japanese translations, but uh,the app is not out in Japan yet.
So, but the kind of mostimportant thing is just that
(11:51):
everyone knows that like,diabetes data can be really hard
and it's so much better if youcan just like get it the
information in your own locallanguage.
So that's why we really want.
Bring the app to everyone intheir local languages.
Uh, currently we're live.
Um, the app is available in theUS only, but we're gonna be
launching it in Europe soon.
So we used to, we used to havethe app available in, in, in
(12:14):
other countries outside of theUS as well.
So we already have quite a lotof users who are sort of like
expecting us to launch with the,uh, free launch in, in, in
countries.
And we just want to make sure wesupport their languages as well,
cuz uh, oftentimes the users arealso parents who have kids with
diabetes, so we.
Want to make sure the, the kidscan understand what the app is,
(12:34):
is.
Katie (12:35):
Yeah, that's really exciting and I Great.
I love that you're just reachingsuch a wide audience.
I feel like that would be alittle tricky with translation.
I'm assuming you have people onyour team that like are fluent
in.
Mul, you know, multiplelanguages so they can make sure,
Cuz a lot of what Happy Bob saysis, um, kind of like sometimes
it's slang, you know, or it'slike a saying that would only
(12:55):
make sense maybe in English.
So I feel like having totranslate to another language
would be tricky at times.
How does that work?
Jutta (13:02):
Yeah, absolutely.
So we, that's why it's, um, themost important thing is to work
with the local people who havediabetes or know people with
diabetes.
And everyone, like all of ourtranslations have been done by
people from that country livingwith.
Type one diabetes, either havingit themselves or, or their kids
having di type one diabetes.
And that's how we know we cangive the, um, communication
(13:24):
authentic and something thatworks in their local language.
And there's, I don't thinkthere's any way we could kind of
like outsource that kind oftranslation to, to anyone else
because you really need to knowwhat are the expressions, what
is, what works and what doesn't.
And we, we sort of like realizedthat at some point when.
The, uh, snarky book was usedoutside of the US in some other
countries, and people would getreally offended because they
(13:47):
wouldn't find it necessarilyfunny, but more sort of like,
just really insulting.
And that humor is, uh, verycultural as well.
So we need to be careful when wecome up with the translations
and, and we're kind of, Reallytrying to pay attention so that
obviously we never want tooffend anyone with the, with the
kind of, uh, messages andlanguages we have.
(14:08):
It's just like interesting thatsome people find it very funny
and others don't so,
Katie (14:14):
yeah.
yeah, I can see where if you ifit gets lost in translation, it
might be, might be moreoffensive than, uh, helpful.
Uh, especially with maybe likethe snarky bob move or, you
know, mood that's already kindof leans more towards the
sarcastic side.
Jutta (14:28):
Yeah.
Katie (14:28):
let's see.
I wanted to ask you, Oh, how doyou, how do you come up with all
these sayings?
I mean, who submits the sayings?
Where do you guys come up withthese?
Jutta (14:37):
so uh, ever since we started to work with Samantha,
who was the, uh, the, uh, T oneD mom who reached out to us
after her, her daughter startedto use the Happy App.
And we became friends and westarted to work together.
And she's this amazing writerwho's been working as a writer,
all of her, her life, and nowliving with type one diabetes,
(14:57):
in, in their family.
So she, she became our writerand she's been working on the,
on the messages and writing thatamazing content and we're just
like, very happy we found herbecause I think she's doing
amazing job there.
And then in, in other countries,we work with other local
languages because oftentimes youcannot really translate.
Messages, but it's more sort oflike, uh, really rewriting
(15:18):
knowing the culture and whatworks in a, in a, in a country
in order to come up with the,with the right ways to say it.
For example, in Finland, we'vebeen working with a, with a
rapper who's, who's really goodin writing, who's been writing
the snarky bob content in finishin a totally different way so
that the kind of charactercomes, comes alive.
Katie (15:37):
That's great.
That's great.
I love that.
And there are a ton of sayings.
I mean, I, I mean, maybe you,can you tell me a number, like
just for one of the moods, likehow many sayings does it have?
Because I feel like I haven'tseen too many repetitions
Jutta (15:51):
yeah, I, I, it's, um, we, well altogether we have, uh, I
think we have thousands ofmessages together for all the
moods, but for snarky, hundreds.
Definitely.
But, um, as snarky is the onewe've been sort of like working
on since, uh, 2019 already,
Katie (16:11):
Is he, Is your son a snarky personality?
Jutta (16:13):
He's really not.
But the, uh, it, he kind of likethe humor.
His humor is a bit different,but it always makes him laugh.
And that is kind of like that,that's what we're after.
And I, and I think that is thekind of, uh, so it really works
and, and, and he loves themessages and it's kind of like
not something he would come upwith himself, but then he enjoys
it a lot.
(16:34):
And I guess it's kind of like alanguage question as well, but
he really enjoys that
Katie (16:38):
Yeah, I'm, I think I'm gonna have to test that one out.
Um, I wanted to, when you pullup the app, you kind of see a
little bit like a cgm, you know,Dex Pro Graph type of thing.
But instead of dots, it's starsand, but Happy Bob also has a
face, like there's a face to theapp and, you know, if you're in
range, he's usually making ahappy face at you, at least in
(16:59):
the Happy Bob, uh, mood.
And then if you're, if you'relow, it's usually some sort of
like anxious or worried.
And then if you're high, it's,you know, it's like a same kind
of same thing, like concerned orannoyed or something like that.
Um, and his face changes colorstoo, based on kind of where
you're falling in the, in therange that you've set.
Do you mind if I read just acouple of the phrases?
Jutta (17:22):
That would be amazing.
Katie (17:24):
Okay.
I just wanna give people anexample of, I, I sometimes when
they make me laugh, I take ascreenshot.
Okay.
Yesterday Sarah was, high.
It was a bad afternoon for us.
It was, and then it was one ofthose afternoons where I'm like,
Well, I literally have no ideawhat happened, but here we are.
Um, her glucose was 221 and itsays a diabetes poem.
You're high the end That's thenotification I got.
(17:47):
and then, let's see.
This was on a really good day.
Her glucose was like anywherefrom like 99 to like one 13, but
he said I wouldn't change athing.
And then he said, You'reeverything right now.
And then he said, Is anon-diabetic wearing your cgm or
are you just killing it?
and then he said, Your, your UNis awesome.
So fun things like that.
(18:07):
Let's see.
Hold on.
I have a couple more.
This one cracked me up.
It was, her glucose was 83, andit says, Did you finally get
your hands on some cinnamon?
Hashtag cured.
That one made me laugh a lot.
Yeah, so they're just, they'rejust funny.
And, and even when, oh, here'sone, when she was really low,
her, she was 52.
That's not great.
Right.
Um, and it says, Olive aboardthe hot mess express.
(18:27):
So you.
Obviously there's nothing funny,Well, there is, this makes it
funny is what I'm trying to say.
Like, nobody loves to be 52 or220.
Like those aren't numbers thatwe're aiming for on a daily
basis.
But this, um, you know, Ialways, I always tell people
it's a diabetes mom.
If I'm not laughing, I'm crying.
So I really appreciate that.
(18:47):
This helps me to laugh, um, inthe difficult moments Then, you
know, maybe result to dissolvinginto a puddle of tears instead.
Jutta (18:55):
Yeah, I, I experienced that once when my son was very
low and I got one of the newmessages I had not seen before
myself.
And it was really funny and Istarted to laugh and it was very
kind of like bizarre feeling,cuz I was actually very, very
worried cuz he was so low.
But then I started to, uh, likealmost laugh and, and smiling,
uh, and feeling good at the sametime.
(19:17):
And then there's this sort oflike guilty feeling at the same
time, because I cannot find thislike hilarious when my son's
low, low.
But it's sort of like stillhelped me to cope with the
situation because I mean, it'slike when someone in your family
has diabetes, especially if it'sa child, you're constantly
worried.
It's kind of like the the numberone feeling you have as.
(19:37):
Parent, at least I have thatyou're worried if everything's
gonna go okay.
If it's, Yeah.
Well, you know what it's like,so it, it is kind of like that
mixed emotions that you suddenlyfeel a bit better, even though
the situation definitely isn'tgood.
Katie (19:51):
Mm-hmm.
absolutely.
It finds a way to make thedifficult moments, tolerable and
even humorous.
Yeah, I, that's kind of my, uh,defense mechanism anyway.
My coping mechanism is humor.
Uh, that's my go-to, which, youknow, I try to share that on
social media with my listeners,and I think most people find it
funny.
There are.
A few people that probably arepretty offended by it, but, um,
(20:12):
I I think the majority of peopleenjoy it.
Um, let's see.
Oh, I was wondering, it soundslike Samantha, you're a writer,
does an amazing job.
I have you ever let peoplesubmit sayings?
Like, have you ever opened it upto maybe like a Happy Bob
contest or, I was just curious.
Jutta (20:28):
Yes, we did once and we actually used to have, uh, this
feature in the app where peoplecould send us, uh, their
messages and, um, we kind oflike had very high hosts because
so many people told us that theywould really want to kind of
deliver something and they hadgood ideas.
And then we did receive quite alot of messages, but then
surprisingly it's I guess it'skind of like it's art in itself
(20:51):
good writing, so just havingthese like independent messages
without kind of like thinkingthrough the context wouldn't
necessarily work that well.
Whereas when Samantha's beenworking on this, she has this
sort of like, and we also havesome other people who've been
working on writing.
So, but some of that has thisvery sort of like holistic view
on kind of like she knows thekind of, The kind of big picture
(21:12):
of what's, what goes where andwhatnot.
And that sort of like, lettersituation that we had quite a
lot of messages that were beingsent to us, but they wouldn't
like really work on their own.
So we actually, we just removethat feature.
But that being said if there arepeople who are writers and
interested in, in possib, ofcourse we'd love to work with
them.
So it's kind of like, uh, if,so, if anyone of your listeners
(21:34):
is, is kind of like consideringherself or himself as a writer,
I would be interested in, in, inpottering with us on, on, on the
kind of, uh, writing.
Writing happy web messages andwe have a lot of like very
interesting content and newfeatures coming up, and we're
always looking for the kind ofbright tone of voice and the
right way to communicate.
So we'd love to work with,native English writers who know
(21:55):
diabetes.
Katie (21:55):
Okay, well that's good to know.
I will definitely put a link,obviously to the Happy Bob app
and the show notes and, maybejust a link to, if you're okay
with it, how somebody could getin touch with you, if they were
interested in something likethat
Jutta (22:07):
Yes, absolutely.
Katie (22:09):
great ideas.
I wanted you to, um, so there isa, there's a paid version and
there's a free version.
And the paid version is likewhere you can unlock all the,
the different moods andpersonalities that happy Bob
comes in, but What else do youwant listeners to know about the
app?
Jutta (22:24):
what I want the listeners to know about the app, I, I, I
think what I want the listenersto know about the app is that it
exists is a way to, uh, have anew way to connect with their
diabetes data.
It's, uh, it's also reallyinteresting, especially for the
US listeners who are usingiPhone and who might choose the
in pen.
That you can actually connectthe app with your insulin data
(22:45):
from the Apple Health.
So if you use the in pen, youcan just, uh, write your, uh,
insulin data directly to AppleHealth.
And then Happy Book App willread the insulin dosing data
from Apple Health and show thatin the app.
And that's like a wonderful wayto see your realtime, easily
intake and your CGM data in oneview.
What's also, uh, worth ofmentioning, and we have some
(23:08):
users who have been using thisapp and they, uh, their feedback
has been amazing.
Just like so handy that you cansee everything in one view.
So you see in the, uh, glucosegraft, you see, uh, all your
insulin doses, uh, with the,with the StarCraft.
So there's a circle and you cantap on the circle that's on a,
on a start that shows how manyunits of insulin, whether it's a
short acting or, or longingyou'd be taking.
(23:30):
At what time?
What was your glucose value?
And then you also have the samedata on your stats.
You can also log into dashboard.
So the desktop online tool wehave for, uh, diabetes data
where you can also see all yourCTM data and your exercise data.
And your, insulin data, all in,all in one view.
So that's super handy.
We also just very recently,actually last week launch, uh,
(23:53):
with the iOS 16, uh, the, um,uh, lock screen widgets, which
allow users who are using iPhoneto see their, um, if they start
using the lock screen widgets,they can see their real time
glucose data, the stars theyhave collected so far.
Their timing range that day, andtheir star StarCraft, meaning
(24:14):
their glucose craft trade line,if they want to use that as a
widget.
And that's super handy becausethen you can just like, I look
at your phone and even if it's,uh, in the, even if it's log,
we'll still see your real timedata.
So that is the feature we'reextremely, uh, interesting.
I know a lot of people who have,who, who use Jcom haven't yet
(24:35):
had the kind of, uh, or havehaven't wanted to update to iOS
16 due to.
There is reasons, but forexample, if, um, you have a
child who uses d Happy Book withthe DCOM data, and even if they
were using iOS 15 and you as aparent, uh, uh, had already
upgraded to iOS 16, you coulduse the Happy Book app with this
log screen, which is, they aresuper, super handy.
(24:58):
At least the feedback from ourusers so far is that they really
make huge, uh, impact in thekind of like, Provide this easy
way to check their glucosevalues throughout the day.
And then obviously we have theuh, Apple Watch app that a lot
of our users love to use aswell, so just would encourage
people to try that out as well.
Katie (25:16):
Yeah, I think I need to give that a try.
Sarah wears an Apple watch andshe, right now she just has like
the Dexcom number on the screen,um, along with a few other
things, but I need to see aboutputting the happy Bob on there
and, I mean, if she can see hernumber either way, whether it's
Happy Bob or the Dexcom, Iwould, I think Happy Bob.
Would we away more?
Enjoyable way to, uh, glancedown and look at your number
(25:38):
throughout the day?
Um, yeah, I would, I'm gonna bereally honest, I was kind of
hesitant to download it becauseI was, I was just kind of like,
ugh, I already have so many waysof like seeing my daughter's
glucose data.
You know, I have the, the followapp and I have sugar mate and
you know, I have my watch on,which is alerting me.
So I felt like, do I reallywant, this other thing that's
notifying me about what hernumber is?
(26:00):
Uh, and I can say, Like it in noway has added to the stress of
diabetes management.
It has, only made it moreenjoyable.
So it's, it hasn't been, youknow, getting the notifications
from Happy Bob on my phone havenot been, you know, again, they
haven't added to the stress ofdiabetes management.
They've really only helped tojust make it more enjoyable and
(26:22):
bring a little humor to thetable.
And it, I've, I've really,really lo loved it and I say
that genuinely, so.
Thank you.
Jutta (26:29):
Well, well, thank you.
It here.
And um, I mean obviously sincewe're like constantly, we have a
small in-house development teamand we're constantly working on
the app, so we would love tohear what would you change, what
would you add?
Do you have any, any ideas?
Because that's, that's the waywe take the app forward.
So we try to listen to thefeedback.
we're currently working on somenew features, which we think are
(26:51):
gonna be, uh, very valuable tothe users.
But I would just love to hear ifyou have any thoughts, like what
would you add or change.
Any kind of like, anything youcould give us as new as a
Katie (27:01):
I don't even, like, half the time, I don't even pull up
the Dexcom Follow app anymore.
I just, when I get a Happy Bobnotification, I just click on
that and see what he has to sayand you know what his face looks
like and just Right now she'sone, she just say lunch, so
she's 1 59 with a diagonal arrowup and it says creeping up, but
still looking great.
thanks.
Happy Bob I know you can relateto this, like, as a diabetes
(27:25):
parent, you put so much workinto trying to keep your kid,
you know, safe, happy, andhealthy, and keep their numbers
in range.
And sometimes you feel like,Nobody sees you, you know what I
mean?
Like even your kid, like has noidea what is going on behind the
scenes, you know, especially ifthey're younger and managing
things.
And so it's kind of nice, eventhough it's a virtual,
(27:47):
personality, it's kind of niceto have somebody telling you,
you're doing a, a good jobthroughout the day, you know,
Jutta (27:51):
Yeah, and you know, that was one of the kind of very sort
of like, One of the main reasonswith the whole app, because so
many times you're doing, likeevery one of us living with
diabetes, we're doing a hugeamount of work, especially the
people who obviously who haveit.
And then that always goesunnoticed.
Like no one pays attention toall the effort you're making and
then you.
You visit the end ofChronologist office.
(28:12):
So you speak with like, uh, yourhealthcare team and it's all
around like what's your A1C andyour time in range and how many
times you've missed your goals.
And even though like we have themost amazing care team, like.
Really, really amazing.
But it's oftentimes it's aroundthe kind of times when you could
have done better.
So we really wanted to createthe experience around the kind
of, uh, noticing that all thetimes when you're are doing
(28:35):
good, cuz there are so manytimes like, it it like if you
stay two hours in range orobviously already, like that's a
success.
So we kind of like wanted tocelebrate that and that was one
of the kind of, uh, ideas we.
In the, in the kind ofdevelopment phase, just so they
wouldn't be, Cuz I noticed as aparent that I would just like
constantly be kind of likenagging my son, I mean, and now
(28:57):
when he's 14, he's constantlyforgetting to bowls at school
and when he's out with friendsas eating snacks.
And it's kind of a, a lot ofthis very negative kind of like
feedback look around, likethings you didn't do.
And yet he is doing so manythings all the time, every day.
And that takes a huge effort.
So like I'm also thinking thatsince I cannot be always the
(29:19):
supportive parent, maybe an appcan be the supportive, uh,
companion in that sense as well.
Katie (29:24):
No, I, I really think it, it, at least for me, it, it's,
it's really helpful for.
Moments when nobody else seesthat you're doing a good job,
but, but happy Bob sees thatyou're you're doing a good job.
He'll let you know.
well, I was, I'm just curious,It sounded like, obviously this
started as just kind of an ideain your head and then you
started working on it.
So I'm, I'm imagining that itwent from like a kind of a,
(29:45):
almost as a hobby to, is it yourfull-time job?
Jutta (29:49):
Yeah, it's, uh, it's a full-time job now, and we have
a, we have a small, uh, smallteam working on this, obviously.
when we started, we first did,uh, quite a few prototypes, just
like a, a side approach.
Again, kind of like.
Just testing different conceptsand different designs.
I, I think, I think we had threedifferent versions.
Just like first I was using thatwith my son's data and, and then
(30:10):
we had some other people testingthe app and it was kind of like
at some point then we had todecide, well, this is kind of
like starting to take so much ofour time.
Is this, either we need toreally focus on this or we're
not gonna be doing this at all.
And then that's when we sort oflike decided.
Move, uh, full speed with that.
And, uh, by that time we alreadyhad like very promising feedback
from, uh, from the users.
(30:31):
And obviously now when we areFDA class two exempt device,
there's a lot of regulation weneed to take into account.
There are like the cybersecurity issues, it's a, we're
applying for a medical device,uh, status in Europe.
So there are a lot of kind oflike things that You don't think
about when you start to work onsomething like this, that, that
take a huge amount of workinternally just to make sure
(30:53):
that the data is secure.
We have the backend end serviceand everything set up in a way
that it's, uh, as, as, as stableas, and, and, and reliable and
secure as, as it needs to be.
that, that's oftentimes kind oflike, easy to forget that that
work.
actually takes a huge amount ofeverything we do with the app
management at the moment.
Just making sure it, it's, it,it runs smooth and secure and,
(31:15):
and, and meets all theregulatory requirements.
Katie (31:18):
And then that's only like the tip of the iceberg too, cuz
then there's social media sideof it that you have to manage
and there's customer service andthere's, I'm sure there's just
all sorts of stuff that goesinto it that people just have no
idea.
I didn't even think about thewhole regulatory situation with
the FDA and it being, you know,medical information.
I didn't, that didn't even crossmy mind.
But, Yeah.
(31:38):
very good point.
So,
Jutta (31:40):
Yeah.
And, and is the, like, the partI love the most is, uh, talking
with the user.
So whenever we get emails frompeople who are using the app or
they have a kind of like,whatever, Question or concern.
That's like the best part that,that's kind of like the reason
why I do this, and then the kindof like, uh, downside is that we
also need to take care of thatkind of like more boring stuff,
(32:01):
the regulatory stuff, which is,Yeah, that's a very, that's a
big amount of, uh, work, thedocumentation and everything
that comes with that, that, butthe best part is always when we
get to speak with the, with theusers.
Katie (32:13):
Well, I, I love it.
I think you've done a great job.
Thank you very much for bringingthis to the type one community
and, um, share my funny commentsas they come on social media and
spread the word.
And, just thank you.
Thank you again.
Jutta (32:26):
Well, I'm just, I would love to hear from our users, So
as I, as I said, uh, if anyonehas ideas regarding the messages
we should have in the app orwant ideas how to improve,
please reach out to us.
Uh, follow us on so social mediaor just send an email to, uh,
hello@happybob.app.
That would be the kind of bestway to fridge the whole team,
uh, through a very secure way.
(32:48):
But I can also be arranged bymy, by my personal email
address, so you@happypop.app.
Katie (32:54):
Awesome.
Thanks.
I will, I will leave that all inthe show notes, the social media
links and email addresses andand whatnot.
Okay.
Well thank you so much Uta.
I appreciate your time and thankyou for coming on and telling
listeners all about.
Happy Bob.
Jutta (33:06):
Thank you so much for having me thank you.
Let's, let's be in touch.
Katie (33:09):
definitely.
All right.
Bye.
All right.
That is it for our episodetoday.
Again, make sure you downloadthe happy Bob app.
They have a free version and apaid premium version.
I think I'm going to have tosign up for the premium version
because I definitely want tocheck out snarky, Bob and Karen.
Again, check out the links inthe show notes to where you can
(33:32):
find more information abouthappy Bob and how to download
it.
Thank you so very much forlistening.
If you're interested insupporting the show.
Check out.
Our link in the show notes tobuy me a coffee, buy me a coffee
is a no.
Strings attached way for you tosupport this podcast.
Every donation given goes to.
(33:52):
Funding the things.
That are required to make thispodcast come to life each and
every week.
Things like the web space Tohost the podcast website.
Recording software editingsoftware.
and a podcast hosting platform.
All right, that's it for thisweek, I will chat with you soon.
(34:12):
But until then stay calm andbolus on.
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