Lift 2.0 Preview
Everything we’ve learned about unlocking human potential
Folks—
We are very close to releasing a radical overhaul of Lift that represents everything we’ve learned about unlocking human potential and is a huge step forward in our ambition to build the ultimate goal platform.
Some of our favorite old features are being replaced, so brace yourselves! But, as usual, the science and our experiments have produced very compelling directions.
Let me highlight three things that Lift 2.0 does that Lift 1.0 couldn’t. These are the directions that I’m most hopeful for and most proud of.
#1. Goals Beyond Habits
Lift 2.0 adds the concept of step-by-step coaching, which allows you to tackle even bigger goals because you’ll have a coach inside of Lift guiding you.
Here are three new types of goals that are now possible alongside your existing habit goals.
Fitness training. A typical step might look like “3 sets of ten pushups” or “run 10 miles.”
Health plans, for example adopting a new diet. A typical step might say, “Eat a Slow-Carb breakfast,” and then go on to suggest some acceptable and tasty options for breakfast.
Guided instruction, for example meditation or learning to play guitar. A typical step might say “Listen to 6 minutes of meditation while focusing on posture.”
These new goals forced us to define the core of Lift. We’re about the power of a single step. We provide the coaching, prompting, tracking and community support for every step that you’re going to need if you want to reach your own potential. No matter what your goal may be, habits or marathons, we’re here to help.
#2. Finish Lines
Every goal in Lift 2.0 has a finish line.
Every goal, even the habits, has a set number of steps. What you do when you reach the end is up to you. Sometimes you’ll want to stop and try for something harder. For other goals, such as habits, you’ll want to continue for another cycle.
Having an end date gives you something to shoot for and removes the treadmill effect that was a defining experience of Lift 1.0.
You’ll notice on my profile below that I’ve completed the No Sweets for 21 Days goal three times. In Lift 1.0, I was a spotty participant in the No Sweets habit, never managing more than 4 days per week. But in Lift 2.0, I’ve completed the much more clearly defined 21-day goal perfectly several times in a row.
#3. Community Tips & Answers
Every step of every goal in Lift now has a discussion area for sharing tips and answers.
This new discussion area replaces our old activity feeds. This was a hard decision—those feeds created an enormous sense of generosity in the Lift community. A bit more than half of all props sent through Lift are sent between strangers. Those strangers were fellow goal seekers who were cheering on the people they saw in each goal’s activity feeds.
But, this is an example where we had to do some math around effectiveness. Giving a prop to a stranger does more for the prop-giver than it does for the prop receiver. The impact of a prop from a stranger has been minimal whenever we’ve measured it.
We’re hopeful that our most supportive prop-givers can translate that generosity into leaving tips, answering questions, and curating the tips and answers of other people.
Whereas the impact of a single prop is ephemeral, the impact of a tip or answer is a permanent boost to the state of knowledge for goals and human potential.
A few notes on change
As a user, I love this upcoming version of Lift so hard. Every part of it has made me more successful. But I also want to note that Lift 2.0 reflects significant change and that we’ve deleted some popular elements. Let me call the most extreme changes:
- We’ve effectively eliminated propping by strangers. We’d prefer that support and accountability comes from people you know or have met through Lift.
- We’ve emphasized milestones. But we’re 100% supportive of long term tracking. That duality is a bit subtle.
- We’ve simplified some stats. All of your history and graphs are still available in your profile. The frequency per week graph did disappear from your step screen. We’re working on a better, simpler visualization. (That graph was a nightmare in usability tests).
Overall, we’re super excited about what all of these changes add up to. For example, they were prerequisites for being able to tackle the state of health knowledge via our Quantified Diet project. That’s just our January project. We’re still bringing in more, and stronger, coaching every day, so that we can present the state of the art on achieving your potential in every area of life.
