Learnings from toilet training my cat
Can you teach an old cat new tricks? Can you teach a cat, at all?
Anyone who’s tried to teach a cat to do anything can sympathize with the sentiment that cats just do things on their own time, and I get it. I’m currently on a mission to teach my cat to do his deeds in the toilet.
And let me tell you it’s not easy. It just requires a bit of behavior analytic know-how to make it happen, as Dr. Charlie Catania politely reminded me the first time I met his cat.
And to prove that point, here’s just a small (non-exhaustive) list of all of the elements that have gone into this toilet-training package, pulled together from the deep recesses of my memory to those few lessons on toilet training in grad school as well as whatever I could remember from my friend Brandon’s own research (with humans, of course):
- Reinforcer assessments + treat preference assessments
- Lots of differential reinforcement
- Pairing toilet with preferred stimuli
- Frequent trips to “sit” on the toilet
- Manipulating motivating operations to increase motivation to toilet
- Graded exposure to holes of increasing size in litter box
- Removing alternative locations + opportunities to toilet
- And lots of aids like training kits, litter, litter enhancers, etc.
Sounds like you need expert-level knowledge to train your cat, no big deal.
So you’re training your cat, what’s the takeaway here?
There’s lots to take in from this experience that can apply to product design or UX, if you step back and look at first principles.
Imagine you’re launching a pretty complex tool. Product-market fit is there, but the tool itself is pretty difficult for a user to learn to use. The learning curve is steep and onboarding can be a bit clunky. Think of data analytic tools and other specialized software for specialized industries.
The same basic elements required to teach a cat to use the toilet are needed when thinking about teaching a user to learn to use a new software. It’s all instructional design.
Here are a few lessons from the experience so far. To apply these learnings to product design or UX, just change out “cat” for “user” :)
Be Patient: Behavior takes time to shape, and if cats like to do things on their own time, it’s our job to figure out what that pacing is. See my article on The Rhythm of User Engagement for more on this.
Don’t Celebrate too Early: More often than not, it takes multiple opportunities to see any lasting behavior change. Meaning, the first time the cat uses the toilet successfully does not mean this is ingrained behavior.
Give that kitty a couple chances to succeed.
Be Persistent: If a strategy doesn’t work, try something else. Just keep in mind, the process can be a frustrating one for the cat as well, so don’t accelerate the difficulty too quickly and actually take it back a step to make things easier if things go awry.
In the realm of behavior change, flexibility and adaptability are key, for the cat and even moreso the trainer (or product designer).
The Cat is Always Right: The cat is the ultimate arbiter of success. If mistakes happen, see it as an opportunity for reflection. Rather than focusing on why the cat made a mistake, instead consider what you did to allow for the mistake occur.
Flipping this framing helps you focus on what you have control over and what can be changed to prevent future mistakes.
In the realm of UX design and behavior change, changing a cat’s behavior or changing a user’s habits can be equally as daunting, frustrating, and messy.
We started this adventure in early November and while I wouldn’t say he’s fully toilet trained, he’s miles ahead from where we started. The journey itself has been a testament to the universality of the principles guiding behavior change.
So, can you teach an old cat new tricks? Perhaps not without some hiccups, but with patience, persistence, and an unwavering commitment to understanding the user —or, the cat — anything is within the realm of possibility.
All ideas my own, written with AI assistance.