Ages ago, we raised funding and built the first behavior change, social network. What was once looked at as a strange, new idea, has now become so common I can’t even count the number of behavior change apps available. At the time we still had some people saying, “You’ll never get people on the internet every single day!”
Goal tribe was very open-ended, allowing you to set up any goal, any series of steps, or any new habit. You could enlist allies to hold you accountable, encourage you, and celebrate your victories. I focused on designing for your daily workflow: to remind you to take action, to know exactly what to do, to know which allies needed support and encouragement, and which new users needed a welcoming message.
I think the single biggest mistake was focusing on catching you when you failed, rather than encouraging you when you were successful. The fields of behavioral design, behavioral economics, and game thinking, were very young fields, and not well known.
It’s fun to look back and see all the many, many things we’ve learned since then.
