Often, we know what we *should do, and what we *shouldn't.
Sometimes all we need is an excuse (someone, something) to make the right choice.
The most valuable part of the decision-making process may be cutting things out, when we discriminate or "put a hit" on the 'bad' options.
Learning in progress with Get Up and Move...
Andrey's stroke of simple brilliance during a planning session = we tend to learn what we want GUAM to be by first determining what we do NOT want it to be.
1. We do not want it to be a quantification site.
2. We do not want it to be a generic pledge/promise site.
3. We do not want it to be a health site.
4. We do not want it to be a game.
5. We do not want it to be all talk, no action.
Amazingly, this helped us figure out what we do want Get Up and Move to be when it grows up (although, like a teenager, it's probably gonna change its outfit repeatedly and suffer from a few really bad haircuts):
1. We do want it to help you quantify your achievements. But we don't want to demotivate people to whom seeing achievement numbers or leaderboards feels like getting poison ivy in the private parts. Action: API planned.
2. We do not want it to be about 'just any' promise.' You can already use it for this now, if you like. Because after all, health is about so much more than what is done to you at the doctors office, what happens to you at the hospital. It's about good living, and reciprocal nurturing. Action: Analyze what actions people find most valuable, and design for those. Continue to keep 'completing' a challenge at the core of our philosophy, while continuing to make it easier to 'motivate' without completing an action by including comment, media, and other nifty stuff.
3. We want health to be the side effect of designing a really kick-ass action platform that helps you git er done by aggregating support from across your existing social graphs. Action: Continue moving folks from intent to action. Continue testing the best way to get you a surplus of support from friends and family, stat. Want a phone call? We're on that like the snowy white casing on the new iPhone 4G.
4. We want using Get Up and Move to feel like a commitment to yourself and someone else. This isn't a game. You don't have to find some rare snowy egret egg, become a drag queen or motocross racer or 6 foot blue yeti. You don't have to go on quests, grow leaves, or kill off daemonic choices. You're smarter than that anyway, and you'd probably rather be watching True Blood than become a Level 7 Blue Footed Bed Jumper. Action: We won't social-gamerize you, or try to trick you into better behavior. We will, however, try to use smart game design and behavioral economics to figure out how to make this fun without being spammy or gimmicky.
It's crazy to believe there are still only two of us, and one programmer, and we're already on V6.0, code named "Awesome." This was about building what we want, mixing it with some of what you need, and then tossing it all back to see how smooth it goes down.
Speaking of which, we left you alone too long without letting you know how we're doing - as a team, as a company, as a platform.
We won't make that mistake again. We don't want to move with you, we NEED to. Expect some very nifty news from us, and more frequent love letters, dear readers.
And in case you hadn't noticed, Version 6 of Get Up and Move Me is live and hot out of the oven.
Groups, comments, upload a video, emails, and you can 'fly solo' too. We'll have a nifty update on all the new stuff Monday, with tech deets from Andrey to boot.
Here's to a long, happy lifespan - for you and for us. Now I'm gonna go do that "put my feet up for 1 hour" challenge. Who's with me?!
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