Simple
Role
External consultant
Timeline
April — May 2024
Intro
I was invited to Simple to develop strategies for the organic growth of its user base within the app. Simple is an app focused on interval weight loss, with its primary audience located in the USA, consisting of users aged 30 to 55. My task was to create and implement effective methods for attracting new users, taking into account the characteristics of the target audience and their needs in the field of weight loss.
Research
I conducted an analysis of potential features that could significantly increase organic user growth. During the research, I expanded beyond fitness apps and studied general behavioral models of companies across various industries.
Through my investigations, I concluded that one possible path for app development could involve the implementation of gamification mechanics. The integration of gamification tools is prevalent in areas such as language learning apps, dating apps, and even banking applications.
ICE scoring table
At the outset, I created a table based on my experience and knowledge from both design and development perspectives, as well as cross-team collaboration. For instance, I understand that establishing a comprehensive internal currency system with physical rewards is a labor-intensive and costly process, requiring contractor involvement, logistical organization, and other resources. Taking these factors into account, I decided to focus on improving the digital aspect of the Simple brand.
Contemplating the digital component of the brand, I identified numerous opportunities to enhance organic growth within the app. I pinpointed several key directions that could contribute to this, and I chose the social aspect.
Public profile
The first step in socialization is the user profile. This is where users can personalize their experience, share moments from their lives, and interact with others. It’s important to keep in mind that the profile should be flexible enough for users to express their individuality but not overloaded with excessive settings that might deter new users. Thus, finding a balance between the number of settings and their ease of use was crucial.
I proposed providing users with the ability to add a brief biography where they can tell about themselves. This could include general information such as age, location, interests, and their experience with the app. Additionally, users could create posts to share useful information or personal insights, achievements, or thoughts.
I also suggested setting options for the public display of results, statistics, and achievements that users can earn by completing various tasks and challenges. This will help users feel comfortable and confident while using the app. Currently, achievements in the app are not visible at all and lack a clear flow for sharing. The functionality of challenges will be discussed separately as it’s an important part requiring special attention.
Moreover, enabling a subscriber feature can significantly increase user engagement and attract influencer attention. Influencers joining the app can continue their activities and motivate their followers to use the app more frequently. They can also attract new users through recommendations or from their social networks.
Posts
Posts serve as a clear mechanic that connects people within the app and encourages them to share life moments and achievements with friends and other social circles. This, in turn, contributes to the creation of an active and supportive community within the app.
As lightweight triggers, I suggested posts with earned rewards and weekly results. However, it’s important not to display weight values, as many people are hesitant to share this information. Instead, the focus could be on other aspects of progress. This motivates users to continue and inspires others to actively participate.
Overall, the mechanic of posts provides a vast array of potential triggers that can prompt users to share their goal achievement process, making it more engaging and socially significant.
Focus on sharings
As I mentioned earlier, achievements and results currently lack a clear sharing flow and do not encourage users to share them. To enhance this aspect of the application, I suggested focusing on rewards and performance metrics to stimulate users to share their successes. Introducing pop-up notifications that inform users of their achievements and encourage them to share them could be a viable solution.
Sharing sensitive results
Currently, users avoid sharing their results because of the indication of weight, which is sensitive information. This reduces the activity of sharing achievements. To make users feel comfortable, I suggested hiding weight and focusing on other metrics. Users can share the number of active days in the app, number of tasks or Challenges completed, progress in improving physical performance.
Followers
Another vital aspect of socialization is the followers mechanic. People naturally want to invite acquaintances to view unique content about them. This desire can be effectively leveraged for organic user base growth. Providing users with the ability to easily import their contacts from their address book or social networks will greatly simplify the process of finding friends and acquaintances in the application. Encouraging users to actively interact with their followers through comments, likes, and posts, as well as group activities and challenges, will help create a lively and active community within the application.
Feed
During the design process, I concluded that it might be organically fitting to place a feed of posts from friends in the “Home” section, right after the daily plan, as commonly seen in social applications.
Social interaction elements such as likes and comments stimulate user activity and can attract more attention to the content within the application. This will not only enhance the user experience but also help foster an active and supportive user community.
Simple challenges
I proposed introducing two challenge mechanics: from Simple and between friends.
Simple challenges would be challenges created by the content team, which can be posted in the Explore tab. Participating in them would reward the end user and give them the feeling of being guided through a weight loss journey. Additionally, challenges create opportunities for users to come together, share experiences, and support each other in achieving common goals.
Friends challenges
Friend Challenges are challenges organized by users and intended to be completed together with close friends.
A user can invite a friend to any of the challenges they are currently participating in. This allows users to support and motivate each other on their journey towards achieving their goals.
Users can create challenges with customized metrics that best align with their goals and strategies, or they can use pre-set ones. To mark the completion of a day, participants can use the "Mark Day Complete" button.
Out of Bounds ideas on how to increase organic growth
What if make fasting interactive?
Taking inspiration from Yu-Kai Chou’s octalysis framework, I contemplated how to gamify the goal achievement process and engage users in this journey. While tasks are essential, they serve more as components of the main path. Therefore, an idea struck me: why not turn the user’s journey into a literal “adventure”?
I proposed shaping the user’s path as a map, guiding them towards their goal. To make completing each stage more interactive, I suggested allowing users to grow trees on a global map as they progress towards their goal.
This concept not only enhances the process with interactivity and excitement but also reinforces habits and motivates users on their journey towards becoming a better version of themselves.
Simple Club
Another method I propose for audience engagement is the “Simple Club,” where membership would offer benefits to the user. Upon subscription, each user would receive not only the app but also personal perks. Within the Simple Club framework, I suggested several privileges, such as discounts on healthy menu items at partner restaurants or the opportunity to attend offline Simple events. These events could include community gatherings, workouts, seminars, or other activities aimed at fostering interaction and support among participants.
Additionally, I proposed implementing a points system. Simple Points could be earned for maintaining streaks or completing challenges, which could then be redeemed for physical or digital items, such as branded merchandise or badge rewards. This approach aims to enhance user engagement by incentivizing streak maintenance and challenge completion, thus fostering a stronger connection between users and the app.
Healthy nearby restaurants
In addition to the Simple Club, I suggested partnering with restaurant chains that would offer Simple users discounts on healthy menu items. To increase outreach, proposing a branded sticker-label from Simple to restaurants could be beneficial. This would make it easier for app users to follow a healthy lifestyle and make more informed choices when dining out. Thus, partnering with restaurants fosters mutually beneficial relationships, attracting new customers to both the app and the establishments.
Food delivery collabs
In my search for mechanisms for organic growth, I discovered companies that deliver meal kit boxes to make the cooking process quicker and easier. These services are quite popular and open to partnerships, making them a good fit for Simple. By offering discounts to its users, Simple could seamlessly integrate into this process. Partnering with such companies would foster mutually beneficial relationships and strengthen Simple’s position in the healthy lifestyle market.
