Weight Watchers Challenges & Badges

Members were creating their own challenges on WW’s in-app social media platform, signaling an unmet need.

We launched a system of challenges & badges that tackle the biggest setbacks that members face on WW. Within the first 7 weeks of challenges being live, there were 1.5 Million opt-ins, and 35% of members successfully completed a challenge.

Members needed accountability & motivation.

Members were creating their own challenges on WW’s in-app social media platform. This signaled that there was an unmet need for gamified experiences to keep users engaged.  

In tandem, WW had a badging system, but it didn't transcend across the entire member journey. Members would receive badges for tracking their first vegetable, but wouldn’t get any recognition for 100 days of tracking or a 15-pound weight loss. Members were frustrated with the lack of recognition for their efforts.

Problems to Solve

Members needed an extra layer of accountability and motivation to help them overcome plateaus and setbacks in their weight loss journey.

Creating a system of challenges that rewards users with badges, rather than Wins, would save the business millions of dollars and make users more likely to lose weight and autorebill.

Impact

WW’s rewards program, WellnessWins, was costing WW 8.2MM/year. The business was eager to explore non-monetary ways to reward and celebrate members.

KPIs:
• Increase % of members tracking key program behaviors
• Engagement with challenges
• Challenge opt-in and completion rates

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Sticky join CTA, leave CTA below the fold

To encourage members to join, the “start” CTAs are sticky. After joining, a leave CTA becomes present below the fold.

Challenge badges rather than imagery for extensibility

I user tested designs with imagery, but found that users were easily confused (members thought the Weekend Challenge was about breakfast because there was a photo of waffles). Images are also less extensible than badges.

I decided to display the badge that members will earn from completing the challenge as the main focal point of the UI. This also helps members make the connection that challenges and badges are related to each other.

Tied to personality = live in profile

Because badges give a sense of ownership, and are tied to someone’s identity, I determined that they should live in profile.

Badges are hidden to others, but shareable to Connect

Weight loss is a personal journey, so I decided that badges should be hidden when viewing someone else’s profile, but shareable to Connect (WW's internal social media platform). This gives members flexibility and choice, and respects their privacy.

Outcome

1.5 million challenge opt-ins in the first 7 weeks of the feature being live
35% of members successfully complete a challenge
22% of members go on to complete more challenges

Reflection

We designed a complex system of badges that we wanted to launch with, but ultimately only launched challenge badges to start. We couldn’t reach a consensus with leadership on which cumulative badges were most valuable to users. Our decision to wait to launch cumulative badges was disappointing, but made sense.

Creating a system of challenges & badges in WW to help members overcome plateaus and setbacks in their weight loss journey.

My role

Team

Timeline