Allison Yost, PhD

I am SVP of Product Strategy at BetterUp, working at the intersection of behavioral science, technology, coaching, and human development. The work is about the conditions that help people grow: what organizations can create at scale, and what it takes for any of it to reach a particular person on an ordinary Tuesday.

I came to it through research. I have a doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology, a master’s in applied statistics and psychometrics, and nearly two decades spent studying human behavior, motivation, leadership, and well-being. The deeper I went, the more those questions converged. The highest-performing leaders and teams are rarely just better at execution. They are more grounded, more self-aware, more aligned with what they actually value, and better able to choose clearly under pressure.

I have also led from inside, in roles where consequential decisions and the hidden weight of carrying more than people can see were part of ordinary weeks. That is the part that keeps the research honest.

The questions I keep returning to: how leaders shape the environment other people have to work inside, what responsibility for your own reactions actually looks like, and how a person builds a life that work serves rather than consumes.