Remember this:

• Variable Reward is the third phase of the Hook Model, and there are three types of variable rewards:
  • Rewards of the tribe is the search for social rewards fueled by connecteness with other people. Examples:
    • Facebook: Everytime we connect we get endless variable content created by our network. Every time we write some content we expect variable reward in the form of Like, comments by other people.
    • Stackoverflow: Why would people do work that seems like a boring writing documentation process for free? They use variable reward in the form of votes of responses and answers, earn badges, adquire status, this process is variable based on the quality of the answer/question.
    • League of Legends: The creators fuel good behaviour by using Honor Points that can be won in recognition of activities in the game.
  • Rewards of the hunt is the search for material resources and information. The need to acquire physical objects, such as food and other supplies that aid our survival, is part of our brain’s operating systems. Examples:
    • Twitter: The timeline is a variable mix of sometimes useful information and sometimes pointless. This keeps us hunting for more information. It is as easy as scrolling down.
    • Pinterest: Similar to Twitter but with a visual twist, users don’t know what they’ll find and the hunting down for more is magnified but showing some more information just above-the-fold.
  • Rewards of the self of the search for intrinsic rewards of mastery, competence and completion. We are driven to conquer obstacles, even just for the satisfaction of doing so, even if we sometimes don’t enjoy the rewards that we make. Examples:
    • World of Warcraft leverages this, users can master skills to pursue quests, leveling up, unlocking special powers.
    • Email some companies try to use the reward of mastering your email, tidy up, no unread emails, tagging things as unwanted, controlling the spam.
    • Codecademy: making learning to code fun and rewarding, there is always a element of unknown when completing a task. As their competency levels increase, so does their mastery levels, entering in a reward feedback loop.
• When our autonomy is threatened, we feel contrained by our lack of choices and often rebel against doing a new behavior. Psychologists refer to this as reactance. Maintining a sense of user autonomy is a requirement for repeat engagement. (Even if we variate the reward, he always need to show that the user is in control. Look at page 119 for examples.)
• Variable rewards must satisfy users’ needs while leaving them wanting to reengage with the product: When building variable reward it needs to make sense as part of the user journey.
• Experiences with finite variability become increasingly predictable with use and lose their appeal over time. Experiences that maintain user interest by sustaining variability with use exhibit infinite variability.

Do this now:

• Speak with five of your customers in an open-ended interview to identify what they find enjoyable or encouraging about using your product. Are there any moments of delight or surprise? Is there anything they find particularly satisfying about using the product? (Will do this, for now the ideal from Finding Early Adopters interview). Complete the workout and without having to do anything it synchronises with the app. It matches the planned workout with the completed workout. Like the way to see videos of the exercises and also the possibility to print the workouts and weeks.

• Review the steps your customer takes to use your service habitually.
  • Navigate to the site, take a look at the week, navigate to a given workout of a given day.
  • Click button to synchronize from Strava, see the completed workout, compare with the plan, see the workout go green, write how difficult it was, write comments about how it went.
• What reward alleviates the user’s pain? Is the reward fulfilling, yet leaves the user wanting more? I’m very weak here.
• Brainstorm three ways your product might heighten users’ search for variable rewards using:
  • rewards of the tribe: sharing fitness improvements, comenting on workouts, sharing tests, sharing the phase of the training, encouragin others going through hard training phase,… (Maybe I don’t want to copy the typical stuff that Strava has, or maybe yes but with differences that make sense to the app).
  • rewards of the hunt: everytime a training phase is finished, info about the goal achieved is unlocked. Everytime a week is completed, the next week is unlocked, it could be an intense week or a recovery week. Variable and changing workouts are created with changing exercises in swim, run, bike, gym. Another idea could be that when the week is about to start and we know what capabilities are to be practiced everyday, we give them a choice of 2-3 workouts that they can choose from to do in that day, they can drag and drop (the different workouts that we give as choice are similar in time/abilities they practice/load. Another idea is every week published new workouts, same way as FMP does with records everyweek, we sell it as “they will appear for you to choose once you unlock the ability required”.
  • rewards of the self: as you progress through the training you change the training level (invent a name here), you unlock phsyological abilities. Over time you see your fitness level going up, you master more complicated workouts. The app shows your race-readiness.