Ann
Crady Weiss
CEO at Hatch
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
Fri May 15 - 2:10 PM EDT/New York (See in local time)
Add to Calendar
05/15/2026 2:10 PM
05/15/2026 02:30 PM
America/New_York
#WTGC2026
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
#WTGC2026
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
https://www.womentech.net/ringcentral
https://www.womentech.net/ringcentral
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
"Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change"
Don’t miss out and join visionaries, innovators, and thought leaders from all over the world at the Women in Tech Global Conference.
Vote by Sharing
Unite 100 000 Women in Tech to Drive Change with Purpose and Impact.
Do you want to see this session? Help increase the sharing count and the session visibility. Sessions with +10 votes will be available to career ticket holders.
Please note that it might take some time until your share & vote is reflected.
Session: Designing Tech That People Trust: What Building a Sleep Company Taught Me About Behavior Change
Many technology products aim to change behavior — but unintentionally create pressure, guilt, or performance anxiety that drives users away. In this talk, Hatch co-founder and CEO Ann Crady Weiss shares what building a sleep company taught her about designing technology that people actually trust and stick with.Sleep is one of the few human behaviors that cannot be optimized through force or willpower. Through Hatch’s evolution, Ann learned that products succeed when they create permission, emotional safety, and consistency — not more “shoulds.” She’ll unpack how this philosophy shaped Hatch’s approach to product design, user experience, and leadership, and how founders across industries can apply these lessons to build more humane, durable technology.
Key Takeaways
- Why behavior change fails when products rely on pressure, metrics, or shame
- How to build products that support consistency without demanding perfection
- Leadership lessons from running a company that values rest alongside ambition
- How humane design becomes a long-term competitive advantage
Bio
Ann is the CEO and co-founder at Hatch, creator of a suite of products designed to help everyone — from babies to adults — get great sleep. Hatch products have helped over 5 million families get a good night's rest by helping them fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up refreshed. TIME Magazine recently lauded their latest product, Hatch Restore, as one of the "100 Best Inventions of 2020."Ann is also a partner at True Ventures. She has deep experience as an entrepreneur, having founded and run two companies, both funded by the firm. Her experience to date spans early-stage consumer, mobile, and IOT companies. Her passion is working with early stage founders who have a clear vision and quiet confidence.
Ann previously founded and ran Maya’s Mom, a social network that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. She was an executive in the search and marketplace division of Yahoo and also served as the senior vice president of consumer experience for BabyCenter. Ann received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego and a law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown Law Center. When she’s not working at True or Hatch, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three children. She aspires to exercise more and reads fiction to relax her mind.
