Research
The proof behind the nudge.
Journey is built on published behavioral science and measured on real students across a full year. Here is what moved, what did not, and the science it all stands on.
State-of-the-art nudging.
Every nudge Journey sends rests on decades of behavioral science. Not vibes. Peer-reviewed frameworks, applied to student life.
Open findings
We publish what we have proven and what we have not. The full study, small-sample caveats and an honest product-market-fit read included, is one click away.
Rigorously measured
Grounded in a real first-year cohort over a full year, with the same survey run in the fall and again in the spring. The same students, the same questions.
The study · From Default to Author
What a year of Journey moved.
A nine-month deployment at the University of New Haven. A decade of optimization had not moved the retention number. This did.
74%
Weekly engagement
A student replied or acted, in a typical week. Campus email lands near 7%.
72 → 85
Wellbeing score
Composite 0 to 100, intake to year-end. An 18% rise.
50 → 6
High-risk students
High-risk first-years fell from 50 to 6 in a single year.
14 → 71%
Sense of authorship
Students who said the nudges helped them act on their own goals, fall to spring.
We keep the criticism in.
Students told us what did not land, and it stays in the study. A system that mirrors your values can mirror your distortions too. We would rather show that than hide it.
Honest about fit.
Real movement across the year, but not yet a product students would miss if it vanished. We publish that number as plainly as the good ones.
The people behind it
Meet the doctors and researchers behind Journey.
A behavioral-science advisory board and a small research team who insist the numbers be real.
Built Journey to help students take the small actions they already want to take, before small problems become big ones.
Lead author of From Default to Author and the architect of Journey’s nudge framework. Studies how the structure of a choice, not the lecture, moves behavior.
Grounds Journey’s pulse checks and coaching in the science of how people actually change.
Studies how ventures scale responsibly and measure real impact. Keeps Journey’s claims honest and its outcomes defensible.
Studies what makes a message earn a reply. Helped shape the voice that gets a majority of students to write back.
Certified coach who shapes the coaching voice behind every nudge, so support feels human, not automated.
Designs the moments where a student says yes. One tap from intention to a booked appointment.
Read the full study, or see it run on your campus.
From Default to Author is public, caveats and all. And we are happy to walk your team through every number.