#87 The Happy Bob App with Jutta

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/

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Follow the show on Instagram @sugarmamaspodcast
Come join the Facebook Group!
Visit the Sugar Mama's Podcast Website
Write a Review and help other type 1 families find the show!
Donate to the show through Buy Me a Coffee!*

*Buy me a Coffee is a no strings attached way to support the show! Every donation given, whether it is a one time gift or a monthly membership, goes to making this podcast come to life each and every week. It helps fund things like the physical and virtual equipment needed to produce a podcast such as a website (I use Podpage), a recording platform (I use Squadcast), a podcast hosting platform (I use Buzzsprout) and editing software ( I use Descript). I truly appreciate support from listeners like you so, from the very bottom of my insulin cartridge, thank you!

Transcript

Katie: 0:00

This is episode 87 of the sugar mamas podcast. And today my guest is UTA. The creator of the happy Bob You guys, 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 makes managing diabetes enjoyable. I'm not kidding. I won't give too much away because UTA is going to tell us all about happy, Bob. But definitely check out the show notes because I will leave links to all the places where you can find out more about happy Bob and download it today. All right. Let's get started. You're listening to the sugar mamas podcast, a show designed for moms and caregivers of type one diabetics here. You'll find a community of like-minded people who are striving daily to keep their kids safe, happy, and healthy in the ever-changing world of type one. I'm your host and fellow T one D mom, Katie Roseboro. Before we get started. I need you to know that nothing you hear on the sugar mamas podcast should be considered medical advice. Please be safe, be smart, and always consult your physician before making changes to the way you manage type one diabetes. Thanks. Hey everybody. I am here with UTA today and U Utah. I'm gonna let you introduce yourself. So tell the listeners who you are and what your connection to Type one diabetes.

Jutta: 1:32

Yes. Hi, So my name is Tmo. I'm the founder. The Happy Pop app. My, uh, my background is in gaming and in consumer tech. I got into diabetes tech space when my oldest son got diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was six years old. And that sort of like, uh, opened the whole world of, uh, diabetes management to, to me and to my son and to our family. And, and ever since I've been, uh, well, like everyone with diabetes knows, it's sort of like a, a family member of ours. So that's how I, I got into working with the happy.

Katie: 2:04

How, How old is your son now,

Jutta: 2:05

Uh, he's 14 now, so, it's been, it's been eight years

Katie: 2:09

Yeah. So at what point in time in his diabetes journey did you kind of have the idea? For the Happy Bob app.

Jutta: 2:16

Yeah, it's, uh, I, I think it was, um, sort of after we had been living with the condition for, um, maybe, uh, a few years and. Well, I kind of like started to think about that from the day one cuz it was such an overwhelming experience. The amount of data and the existing apps and, and tools and everything that comes with diabetes. And then you're just assumed that everyone turns into this like data scientist right from the get go. You get diabetes and then you are supposed to understand everything that comes with that. So it was like a very overwhelming experience. But then I actually was on maternity leave. And then suddenly I had a bit more time to think about diabetes management. And also my oldest son since I was more at home. And I really started to think about like the, the experiences we had at school that I knew he was going through some hard times. Uh, just the alarms going off during the school days and you, you need to go there and chase the, uh, The insulin, insulin pumps and, and so many other things. And kind of like, I really started to feel what he was going through at a different level. And that sort of led to, to thinking how this could be improved and what if this looked different? What, what could it look like? And it started, started as a sort of like a side hobby, just to kind of play with the data and think about the different ways the diabetes management could look like, especially from a user patient perspective.

Katie: 3:39

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 more about what exactly it does and offers, but I can say it definitely has made my, uh, diabetes management experience more enjoyable. Um, just because my love language is sarcasm and humor and happy Bob is always making me laugh with the little messages that, he is sending me throughout the day. Some are good and encouraging and some are like, you need to get it together because things have fallen apart. but, but tell listeners in your own words, you know, what is Happy.

Jutta: 4:13

So Happy. Bob is an app that connects with the, uh, diabetes devices the person with diabetes is wearing. So, uh, the first and foremost important device is the Content Glucose Monitor. So we connect with the realtime diabetes data coming from the Dexcom CGM at the moment, and we turn those, uh, Readings the values that come from the dcom CGM into stars, The users can collect, and whenever they're keeping their glucose in range, they're earning these stars. And with the stars you can reach your daily Star goal. We also have different moods in the, in the app, so you can set the tone of, uh, voice you want for your diabetes data. So you'll be receiving different alarms and notifications throughout the day if your glucose is high or low or going high or low. And also when you're just doing very. with the tone of boys from the mood you have selected. So it kind of, what we want to do there is just to make that experience a bit more enjoyable and more fun. So when you need to pay attention to your values, it's, it's actually an enjoyable experience. then we also have groups feature that allows users to create their own groups with their own prints, with type one diabetes or with anyone who's using a text CGM so that they can follow each other and, and. Kind of like be encouraged to know that they are not the only ones living with the, with the Condit.

Katie: 5:25

I love that there's kind of. Option to have that built in accountability among friends, you know, among like people that you 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 competition between friends, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, you know, when you're kind of. Seeing everyone else's data throughout the day, you know, I would, I would, I would hope that it would, you know, motivate you to like, Well, at least me, I'm pretty competitive. So I feel like that's how I would take it. I'd be like, Well, I have to be, you know, Jessica over here who's you know, she's been doing better than me the past three days, so I need to, I need to step up my game. So there's nothing

Jutta: 6:00

Yeah, absolutely. That that's what we kind of like, are aiming that it would be this sort of like nice encouraging experience but at the same time understanding that there should be absolutely no pressure cuz there are so many things you cannot do. Like you can do everything perfectly and still Europe, like data can be whatever. So it's uh, it's kind of like fine line. Keep that sort of like encouraging and motivating and, and yet like, uh, not to add any, any pressure on the, on the people with diabetes, so

Katie: 6:27

I would think I would do a pretty good job of putting the pressure on myself alone. I, I probably wouldn't need the help

Jutta: 6:32

Yeah.

Katie: 6:33

Of other people. but I wanted to, cuz you talked about the stars and I really love the star system cuz you know, anybody can pull up their Dexcom Clarity app and see like, you know, what your average has been over the past week or, or 30 days or 90 days. Um, and you know, you have that data, those percentages and standard deviation and time and range and all that. But you know, the stars are just, It's like you're earning stars. So you're working towards a goal each and every day. And you can set that like in the, um, you can set your target. You can set your target pretty low, like 30 stars is just Okay, good. Is a hundred stars. Um, great is 200 excellent is 300 and amazing. It's 400 stars. and it's not, it's for, let's see, it says you can earn a star every five minutes. and then when you keep your glucose, In the dark blue area, you get two times the amount of stars. The other day it's like you got, it was something like over 400 stars and I'm like, there is no way that we got 400 And so I went back and I read the fine print and I'm like, Oh, because I kept it in the dark blue area for like this amount of time. I got two times the amount of stars. So it's just fun. It's just a fun way to look at your, your Dexcom data, your kids Dexcom

Jutta: 7:41

Yeah, and it's, it's interesting, we've heard from uh, quite a few men who use the app just for the stars. So they like to get the Daily Star report and that's how they know how they did the previous day. So instead of looking at the timing range, they just like tell themselves if they. We're doing okay the previous day or another, and that's sort of like a, that they thrive to get a bit more stars today than they did yesterday. And I guess it sometimes can feel a bit easier than just constantly looking at your BG and, and the kind of values. And that's sort of like two medical approach in some ways.

Katie: 8:15

Yeah. I, I, I like it. It's, it's a lot more enjoyable to see my star count than it is to see my, you know, percentage of time and range. Both are important, but the stars are a little bit more fun. Would you mind telling listeners a little bit about the different personalities or the different moods that you can set in the Happy Bob app?

Jutta: 8:32

Yes. So we have the happy mode, and that is the kind of friendly tone of Happy Book, the very encouraging and, and, and supportive, uh, companion, uh, that's safe for anyone to use. So you, you, whether you're a child or a adult who you can always turn on the, uh, the Happy Book, uh, mode, the happy mode. Then we have a snarky book, which was the original first, uh, additional mode we had in the app. And that was, um, I have to mention, My dear, fellow, T one d mom here, who, who actually heard her kid downloaded the Happy Book app and they started to use the app and then they reached out to us and said, Well, the app is really great and we love the, uh, earning stars feature, but we really think the tone of voice is too, uh, boring. And, and so we asked, Well, what? What should the app say instead? And they said, Well, there should be kind of like more sarcastic tone. And they came up with the snarky Bob idea. And ever since this was back in, 2019 and they started to work with the snarky, uh, snarky sayings. And that became like very popular. And ever since we've had the Snarky Bob, which is sort of like the, uh, the, more sarcastic 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 the holiday season. We have pumpkins, uh, Robert as pumpkins for the, uh, Halloween season. we have dad book that is all about dad jokes and then, what else? We have cinnamon that is all about movie quotes and it all comes kind of like come together with the, um, diabetes data communicating. Certain way with the tone of voice of that character. And it, it makes some very funny, uh, messages. And, and what we've heard from our users is that they are just more likely to check their data when it's delivered with a fun message. And that makes all the difference because like everyone knows that the more you interact with your data, the better the, 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 who don't get offended easily, but a lot of people find that hilarious because they know the Karen type, someone who's always kind of like a very obnoxious. Email who knows it all and wants to tell you that she knows it all and how much better she would be doing in diabetes management if she had diabetes.

Katie: 10:50

that's funny. My, um, I have three kids. My oldest is about to be 12, and then my youngest is eight. And, um, even my eight year old knows like what a Karen is, and every now and then he'll be like, or all of my kids, but it always cracks me up when it's the youngest one. But he's like, Mom, don't be such a Karen. You're being, you're being a Karen 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 process of translating the snarky mode into German and Yeah, well, there are currents, but in, in, in Germany it's gonna be called Heal the Guard, same person. It's type.

Katie: 11:24

That's so funny. Well, how many, I didn't realize that it would come in different languages. What other languages does the app come in?

Jutta: 11:30

Yeah, so we have, uh, English, Swedish, German, French, Finnish, Portuguese, and we're now working on Spanish as well. So that will be out, uh, relatively soon. And then we're, we've kind of like started to work on the Japanese translations, but uh, the app is not out in Japan yet. So, but the kind of most important thing is just that everyone knows that like, diabetes data can be really hard and it's so much better if you can just like get it the information in your own local language. So that's why we really want. Bring the app to everyone in their local languages. Uh, currently we're live. Um, the app is available in the US only, but we're gonna be launching it in Europe soon. So we used to, we used to have the app available in, in, in other countries outside of the US as well. So we already have quite a lot of 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 we support their languages as well, cuz uh, oftentimes the users are also parents who have kids with diabetes, so we. Want to make sure the, the kids can understand what the app is, is.

Katie: 12:35

Yeah, that's really exciting and I Great. I love that you're just reaching such a wide audience. I feel like that would be a little tricky with translation. I'm assuming you have people on your team that like are fluent in. Mul, you know, multiple languages so they can make sure, Cuz a lot of what Happy Bob says is, um, kind of like sometimes it's slang, you know, or it's like a saying that would only make sense maybe in English. So I feel like having to translate 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, the most important thing is to work with the local people who have diabetes or know people with diabetes. And everyone, like all of our translations have been done by people from that country living with. Type one diabetes, either having it themselves or, or their kids having di type one diabetes. And that's how we know we can give the, um, communication authentic and something that works in their local language. And there's, I don't think there's any way we could kind of like outsource that kind of translation to, to anyone else because you really need to know what are the expressions, what is, what works and what doesn't. And we, we sort of like realized that at some point when. The, uh, snarky book was used outside of the US in some other countries, and people would get really offended because they wouldn't find it necessarily funny, but more sort of like, just really insulting. And that humor is, uh, very cultural as well. So we need to be careful when we come up with the translations and, and we're kind of, Really trying to pay attention so that obviously we never want to offend anyone with the, with the kind of, uh, messages and languages we have. It's just like interesting that some people find it very funny and others don't so,

Katie: 14:14

yeah. yeah, I can see where if you if it gets lost in translation, it might be, might be more offensive than, uh, helpful. Uh, especially with maybe like the snarky bob move or, you know, mood that's already kind of leans more towards the sarcastic side.

Jutta: 14:28

Yeah.

Katie: 14:28

let's see. I wanted to ask you, Oh, how do you, how do you come up with all these sayings? I mean, who submits the sayings? Where do you guys come up with these?

Jutta: 14:37

so uh, ever since we started to work with Samantha, who was the, uh, the, uh, T one D mom who reached out to us after her, her daughter started to use the Happy App. And we became friends and we started to work together. And she's this amazing writer who's been working as a writer, all of her, her life, and now living with type one diabetes, in, in their family. So she, she became our writer and she's been working on the, on the messages and writing that amazing content and we're just like, very happy we found her because I think she's doing amazing job there. And then in, in other countries, we work with other local languages because oftentimes you cannot really translate. Messages, but it's more sort of like, uh, really rewriting knowing the culture and what works 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've been working with a, with a rapper who's, who's really good in writing, who's been writing the snarky bob content in finish in a totally different way so that the kind of character comes, 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, like how many sayings does it have? Because I feel like I haven't seen too many repetitions

Jutta: 15:51

yeah, I, I, it's, um, we, well altogether we have, uh, I think we have thousands of messages together for all the moods, but for snarky, hundreds. Definitely. But, um, as snarky is the one we'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 like the 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 the kind of, uh, so it really works and, and, and he loves the messages and it's kind of like not something he would come up with himself, but then he enjoys it a lot. And I guess it's kind of like a language 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 pull up 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 stars and, but Happy Bob also has a face, like there's a face to the app and, you know, if you're in range, he's usually making a happy face at you, at least in the Happy Bob, uh, mood. And then if you're, if you're low, 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 or annoyed or something like that. Um, and his face changes colors too, based on kind of where you're falling in the, in the range that you've set. Do you mind if I read just a couple of the phrases?

Jutta: 17:22

That would be amazing.

Katie: 17:24

Okay. I just wanna give people an example of, I, I sometimes when they make me laugh, I take a screenshot. Okay. Yesterday Sarah was, high. It was a bad afternoon for us. It was, and then it was one of those afternoons where I'm like, Well, I literally have no idea what happened, but here we are. Um, her glucose was 221 and it says a diabetes poem. You're high the end That's the notification I got. and then, let's see. This was on a really good day. Her glucose was like anywhere from like 99 to like one 13, but he said I wouldn't change a thing. And then he said, You're everything right now. And then he said, Is a non-diabetic wearing your cgm or are you just killing it? and then he said, Your, your UN is awesome. So fun things like that. Let's see. Hold on. I have a couple more. This one cracked me up. It was, her glucose was 83, and it 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're just funny. And, and even when, oh, here's one, when she was really low, her, she was 52. That's not great. Right. Um, and it says, Olive aboard the hot mess express. 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 or 220. Like those aren't numbers that we're aiming for on a daily basis. But this, um, you know, I always, I always tell people it's a diabetes mom. If I'm not laughing, I'm crying. So I really appreciate that. This helps me to laugh, um, in the difficult moments Then, you know, maybe result to dissolving into 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 new messages I had not seen before myself. And it was really funny and I started 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, like almost laugh and, and smiling, uh, and feeling good at the same time. And then there's this sort of like guilty feeling at the same time, because I cannot find this like hilarious when my son's low, low. But it's sort of like still helped me to cope with the situation because I mean, it's like when someone in your family has diabetes, especially if it's a child, you're constantly worried. It's kind of like the the number one feeling you have as. Parent, at least I have that you'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 suddenly feel a bit better, even though the situation definitely isn't good.

Katie: 19:51

Mm-hmm. absolutely. It finds a way to make the difficult 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, you know, 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 are pretty offended by it, but, um, I I think the majority of people enjoy it. Um, let's see. Oh, I was wondering, it sounds like Samantha, you're a writer, does an amazing job. I have you ever let people submit sayings? Like, have you ever opened it up to 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 people could send us, uh, their messages and, um, we kind of like had very high hosts because so many people told us that they would really want to kind of deliver something and they had good ideas. And then we did receive quite a lot of messages, but then surprisingly it's I guess it's kind of like it's art in itself good writing, so just having these like independent messages without kind of like thinking through the context wouldn't necessarily work that well. Whereas when Samantha's been working on this, she has this sort of like, and we also have some other people who've been working on writing. So, but some of that has this very sort of like holistic view on kind of like she knows the kind of, The kind of big picture of what's, what goes where and whatnot. And that sort of like, letter situation that we had quite a lot of messages that were being sent to us, but they wouldn't like really work on their own. So we actually, we just remove that feature. But that being said if there are people who are writers and interested in, in possib, of course we'd love to work with them. So it's kind of like, uh, if, so, if anyone of your listeners is, is kind of like considering herself or himself as a writer, I would be interested in, in, in pottering with us on, on, on the kind of, uh, writing. Writing happy web messages and we have a lot of like very interesting content and new features coming up, and we're always looking for the kind of bright tone of voice and the right way to communicate. So we'd love to work with, native English writers who know 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, maybe just a link to, if you're okay with it, how somebody could get in touch with you, if they were interested in something like that

Jutta: 22:07

Yes, absolutely.

Katie: 22:09

great ideas. I wanted you to, um, so there is a, there's a paid version and there's a free version. And the paid version is like where you can unlock all the, the different moods and personalities that happy Bob comes in, but What else do you want 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 listeners to know about the app is that it exists is a way to, uh, have a new way to connect with their diabetes data. It's, uh, it's also really interesting, especially for the US listeners who are using iPhone and who might choose the in pen. That you can actually connect the app with your insulin data from the Apple Health. So if you use the in pen, you can just, uh, write your, uh, insulin data directly to Apple Health. And then Happy Book App will read the insulin dosing data from Apple Health and show that in the app. And that's like a wonderful way to see your realtime, easily intake and your CGM data in one view. What's also, uh, worth of mentioning, and we have some users who have been using this app and they, uh, their feedback has been amazing. Just like so handy that you can see everything in one view. So you see in the, uh, glucose graft, you see, uh, all your insulin doses, uh, with the, with the StarCraft. So there's a circle and you can tap on the circle that's on a, on a start that shows how many units of insulin, whether it's a short acting or, or longing you'd be taking. At what time? What was your glucose value? And then you also have the same data on your stats. You can also log into dashboard. So the desktop online tool we have for, uh, diabetes data where you can also see all your CTM 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, with the iOS 16, uh, the, um, uh, lock screen widgets, which allow users who are using iPhone to see their, um, if they start using the lock screen widgets, they can see their real time glucose data, the stars they have collected so far. Their timing range that day, and their star StarCraft, meaning their glucose craft trade line, if they want to use that as a widget. And that's super handy because then 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 time data. So that is the feature we're extremely, uh, interesting. I know a lot of people who have, who, who use Jcom haven't yet had the kind of, uh, or have haven't wanted to update to iOS 16 due to. There is reasons, but for example, if, um, you have a child who uses d Happy Book with the DCOM data, and even if they were using iOS 15 and you as a parent, uh, uh, had already upgraded to iOS 16, you could use the Happy Book app with this log screen, which is, they are super, super handy. At least the feedback from our users so far is that they really make huge, uh, impact in the kind of like, Provide this easy way to check their glucose values throughout the day. And then obviously we have the uh, Apple Watch app that a lot of our users love to use as well, 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 and she, right now she just has like the Dexcom number on the screen, um, along with a few other things, but I need to see about putting the happy Bob on there and, I mean, if she can see her number either way, whether it's Happy Bob or the Dexcom, I would, I think Happy Bob. Would we away more? Enjoyable way to, uh, glance down and look at your number throughout the day? Um, yeah, I would, I'm gonna be really honest, I was kind of hesitant to download it because I was, I was just kind of like, ugh, I already have so many ways of like seeing my daughter's glucose data. You know, I have the, the follow app and I have sugar mate and you know, I have my watch on, which is alerting me. So I felt like, do I really want, this other thing that's notifying me about what her number is? Uh, and I can say, Like it in no way has added to the stress of diabetes management. It has, only made it more enjoyable. So it's, it hasn't been, you know, getting the notifications from Happy Bob on my phone have not been, you know, again, they haven't added to the stress of diabetes management. They've really only helped to just make it more enjoyable and bring a little humor to the table. 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 since we're like constantly, we have a small in-house development team and we're constantly working on the app, so we would love to hear what would you change, what would you add? Do you have any, any ideas? Because that's, that's the way we take the app forward. So we try to listen to the feedback. we're currently working on some new features, which we think are gonna be, uh, very valuable to the users. But I would just love to hear if you have any thoughts, like what would you add or change. Any kind of like, anything you could 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 Bob notification, I just click on that and see what he has to say and you know what his face looks like and just Right now she's one, she just say lunch, so she's 1 59 with a diagonal arrow up and it says creeping up, but still looking great. thanks. Happy Bob I know you can relate to this, like, as a diabetes parent, you put so much work into trying to keep your kid, you know, safe, happy, and healthy, 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 no idea what is going on behind the scenes, you know, especially if they're younger and managing things. And so it's kind of nice, even though it's a virtual, personality, it's kind of nice to have somebody telling you, you're doing a, a good job throughout 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 reasons with the whole app, because so many times you're doing, like every one of us living with diabetes, we're doing a huge amount of work, especially the people who obviously who have it. And then that always goes unnoticed. Like no one pays attention to all the effort you're making and then you. You visit the end of Chronologist office. So you speak with like, uh, your healthcare team and it's all around like what's your A1C and your time in range and how many times you've missed your goals. And even though like we have the most amazing care team, like. Really, really amazing. But it's oftentimes it's around the kind of times when you could have done better. So we really wanted to create the experience around the kind of, uh, noticing that all the times when you're are doing good, cuz there are so many times like, it it like if you stay two hours in range or obviously already, like that's a success. So we kind of like wanted to celebrate that and that was one of the kind of, uh, ideas we. In the, in the kind of development phase, just so they wouldn't be, Cuz I noticed as a parent that I would just like constantly be kind of like nagging my son, I mean, and now when he's 14, he's constantly forgetting to bowls at school and when he's out with friends as eating snacks. And it's kind of a, a lot of this very negative kind of like feedback look around, like things you didn't do. And yet he is doing so many things all the time, every day. And that takes a huge effort. So like I'm also thinking that since I cannot be always the supportive parent, maybe an app can 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 sees that you're doing a good job, but, but happy Bob sees that you'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 idea in your head and then you started working on it. So I'm, I'm imagining that it went from like a kind of a, almost as a hobby to, is it your full-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, small team 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 concepts and different designs. I, I think, I think we had three different versions. Just like first I was using that with my son's data and, and then we had some other people testing the app and it was kind of like at some point then we had to decide, well, this is kind of like starting to take so much of our time. Is this, either we need to really focus on this or we're not gonna be doing this at all. And then that's when we sort of like decided. Move, uh, full speed with that. And, uh, by that time we already had like very promising feedback from, uh, from the users. And obviously now when we are FDA class two exempt device, there's a lot of regulation we need to take into account. There are like the cyber security issues, it's a, we're applying for a medical device, uh, status in Europe. So there are a lot of kind of like things that You don't think about when you start to work on something like this, that, that take a huge amount of work internally just to make sure that the data is secure. We have the backend end service and everything set up in a way that it's, uh, as, as, as stable as, and, and, and reliable and secure as, as it needs to be. that, that's oftentimes kind of like, easy to forget that that work. actually takes a huge amount of everything we do with the app management at the moment. Just making sure it, it's, it, it runs smooth and secure and, and, and meets all the regulatory requirements.

Katie: 31:18

And then that's only like the tip of the iceberg too, cuz then there's social media side of it that you have to manage and there's customer service and there's, I'm sure there's just all sorts of stuff that goes into it that people just have no idea. I didn't even think about the whole regulatory situation with the FDA and it being, you know, medical information. I didn't, that didn't even cross my mind. But, Yeah. very good point. So,

Jutta: 31:40

Yeah. And, and is the, like, the part I love the most is, uh, talking with the user. So whenever we get emails from people 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 kind of like, uh, downside is that we also need to take care of that kind of like more boring stuff, the regulatory stuff, which is, Yeah, that's a very, that's a big amount of, uh, work, the documentation and everything that comes with that, that, but the best part is always when we get to speak with the, with the users.

Katie: 32:13

Well, I, I love it. I think you've done a great job. Thank you very much for bringing this to the type one community and, um, share my funny comments as 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 anyone has ideas regarding the messages we should have in the app or want ideas how to improve, please reach out to us. Uh, follow us on so social media or just send an email to, uh, hello@happybob.app. That would be the kind of best way to fridge the whole team, uh, through a very secure way. But I can also be arranged by my, by my personal email address, so you@happypop.app.

Katie: 32:54

Awesome. Thanks. I will, I will leave that all in the show notes, the social media links and email addresses and and whatnot. Okay. Well thank you so much Uta. I appreciate your time and thank you 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 episode today. Again, make sure you download the happy Bob app. They have a free version and a paid premium version. I think I'm going to have to sign up for the premium version because I definitely want to check out snarky, Bob and Karen. Again, check out the links in the show notes to where you can find more information about happy Bob and how to download it. Thank you so very much for listening. If you're interested in supporting the show. Check out. Our link in the show notes to buy me a coffee, buy me a coffee is a no. Strings attached way for you to support this podcast. Every donation given goes to. Funding the things. That are required to make this podcast come to life each and every week. Things like the web space To host the podcast website. Recording software editing software. and a podcast hosting platform. All right, that's it for this week, I will chat with you soon. But until then stay calm and bolus on.