BJ Fogg

Researcher & Teacher

1997 - Current

I've been affiliated with Stanford for over 20 years as a researcher and a teacher. I started teaching my own courses there in 1997. Soon after I founded the "Persuasive Technology Lab," which would bring together 5 to 8 Stanford students to study human behavior with me. Each year I create a new course to teach at Stanford. The theme always is human behavior, but the application area changes. One year my course was about influencing behavior to create peace; another year we focused on connecting people to nature. Most recently I taught a course about strengthening close personal relationships. I love that Stanford gives me a lot of flexibility.

Founder & Director, Behavior Design Lab

1997

I lead research and design at my Stanford lab. This includes 5 to 8 Stanford students and (sometimes) a small set of industry innovators. Before 2011, my lab was called the "Persuasive Technology Lab." In 2010 our focus changed away from technology toward health habits and behavior change more generally. Because our research focused changed, we renamed the lab to the "Behavior Design Lab" in early 2011

Author of "Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do" (2002)

2002

Applied research on habits, then writing "Tiny Habits" (2020) -- a New York Times Best Seller

2011

Founder & Director

2010

I teach innovators about Behavior Design in a two-day format. I call this "Boot Camp" because it's hands-on and intensive. I limit each Boot Camp to 12 people. This is my favorite format for teaching because it's personal, fun, and practical. If I had more free time, I'd do more Boot Camps.

Owner

2006

The training and licensing I do for industry happens via this LLC.

Speaker for Conferences and Events

1999

I like speaking at conferences and other events. I work hard to share fresh content in a compelling way. My areas of expertise include-- 1. How Human Behavior Works 2. Habit Formation 3. Persuasive Technology 4. Innovation Methods 5. Health Behavior

U.S. Director of Research & Innovation

1999 - 2002

Casio hired me to lead research and innovation in the U.S., reporting back to their headquarters in Tokyo. During the three years there, I hired over 25 people and built teams that did user research, product design, and internet business strategy. For example, we designed and launched a web-based content-delivery service for mobile devices (long before the iPhone), which we handed off to Casio in Japan. In addition to the above, I was in charge of helping Silicon Valley companies meet Casio Japan, and vice versa. Casio Headquarters showed their confidence in my work by giving me some unusual projects, like the following: 1. Tutoring and mentoring the founder's son while he lived in Silicon Valley for a year. 2. Meeting with Michael Jackson and his entourage at Neverland Ranch to talk about potentials collaborations (this was at Michael's request). 3. Founding a venture capital fund for seed-level investing, giving Casio a stake in new ventures.

Founder & Chairman

2000 - 2001

At Casio's request I founded a seed-stage venture capital company. I developed the plan, recruited talent, and directed the project until we had our core team in place, office space in Mountain View, and $9 million in our fund. This all took place right before the bust. After things turned south in Silicon Valley, we decided to return the remaining fund -- over $8 million -- to our investors and we closed up shop. This was a difficult decision, but it turned out to be the right one. I learned a lot about venture capital thanks to this project.