Reaktor Mannerheimintie 2 00100, Helsinki Finland

tel: +358 9 4152 0200 www.reaktor.com info@reaktor.com

Learnings from a company-wide Fitbit experimentJuuso Parkkinen (@ouzor)

Data Scientist and AI Designer at Reaktor (@ReaktorNow)

Quantified Employee 2017

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Company-wide Fitbit experimentFitbit Charge HR wristbands given to all willing Reaktorians in October 2015.

Goals:

•Increase employee well-being

•Learn about the devices and data

•Learn about occupational healthcare sector in general

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Mostly positive feelingsTwo out of three employees felt that the tracker had a positive effect on their daily activity:

•Walking more, and using stairs instead of elevators

•More exercise

More than half felt that the tracker had a positive effect on their sleeping habits:

•Going to bed early, avoiding coffee

•Reading a book before going to sleep

•Reducing alcohol consumption

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Issues with hardwareReasons to abandon the device:

•Too bulky

•Skin irritation

•Poor battery

Notable amount of the devices also broke down!

Fitbit Charge HR among the highest return rates in verkkokauppa.com (source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/verkkokauppa-com-ala-nyt-ainakaan-naita-osta-6602282)

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… and softwareSyncing was a real problem in the beginning, as it took very long and got interrupted often.

Also the user interface was not that good, but both UI and syncing improved over time.

Step and floor counts were deemed unreliable by many. Biking totally messes up both!

Heart rate values reasonably accurate during rest, but not so during exercise with elevated heart rate.

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Conclusions (mixed feelings)Many short-term benefits on health and well-being

- but will they last on the long term?

Several issues cause people to abandon the device

•syncing, breaking down

•inaccurate measurements, bad UI

Use cases not clear! Read more: https://www.reaktor.com/blog/what-did-we-learn-from-using-fitbits-for-a-year/

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Peculiar dataSudden drop of resting heart rate in March 2016.

This is the value that most users follow on a daily basis!

Reliable resting heart rate measurement and reporting might be very valuable.

Unfortunately, Fitbit’s RHR algorithm is a complete black box.

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Algorithm change?

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Who cares?Changes in the algorithm may mislead users in the exercise habits.

Other problems

•Long-term statistical analysis

•Using the data for other purposes, such as insurance

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I want to know how my data is being processed!MyData 2017 Call for Proposals open:

http://mydata2017.org/programme/call-for-proposals/

Track: Ethical Processing of MyData - Practical tools and solutions for transparency, accountability and fairness in processing of MyData

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