Omar Jalalzada: Designing Kin to Help People Hold Themselves Accountable

Omar Jalalzada is part of the next wave of designers-turned-founders thanks to starting Kin. Image courtesy of Jalalzada.

Omar Jalalzada was going through a strange period of life–mental health struggles, trying to get his bearings correct–when he went down the research rabbit hole on habits. Coincidentally, his friend Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, was also thinking about habits, as was Amitt Mahajan (co-creator of FarmVille) and Damien Kan (co-founder of Shogun).

In true start-up fashion, what began as a habit tracker that automatically shared status updates in a chat between these friends evolved into Kin, a social wellness app to achieve your goals more efficiently and a support system to hold you accountable. 

“The fundamental point that we are addressing is that habits are great, but doing them consistently is insanely hard,” says Jalalzada, who launched Kin after leading product design at Alto Pharmacy and Coatue Management. 

As New Year resolutions begin to wane this time of year, we checked in with Jalalzada to learn about how Kin is designed to support sustainable habits, why they moved from a peer-to-peer to an open social network, and what he’s learned about building a business.

Kin’s four founders have transformed their personal habit tracker into a social network. Image: Courtesy of Kin.

How did you turn a Whatsapp chat between friends into Kin? 

We built out a simple habit tracker app with a chat and started inviting people in our networks. We learned that user-to-user engagement was the leading indicator for users to stick with their habits. But most of our users who downloaded the app didn't have friends to hold them accountable, so they kept asking for features to find others working on similar habits.

We weren't interested in building a habit tracker–we're focused on the motivation side. We realized we needed to go from a peer-to-peer sharing model to an open social network. You can now find anyone within Kin and connect with them and build habits together. 

The motivation and accountability aspect is where we double down. There are three layers of accountability: self accountability, friend accountability and social accountability. (Self accountability is for the type of people that all they need is a calendar or a tracker, and they can motivate themselves as long as they can see their progress.) We're experimenting with different flavors and combinations of these three to motivate our users to complete their habits and stick to their goals.

“We learned that user-to-user engagement was the leading indicator for users to stick with their habits. But most of our users who downloaded the app didn't have friends to hold them accountable, so they kept asking for features to find others working on similar habits.”

What have you learned about habits and how people get them to stick?

Our entire lives are made up of habits, some we’re conscious of but most of it happens unconsciously. Our productivity, mental health or physical wellbeing are all the outcome of our daily habits. Yet most of us struggle to utilize habits as a tool to create the change we want in our lives.

Changing our habits is a process instead of a one-time effort. BJ Fogg famously said “If the habit you designed is not sticking, it’s a design flaw—not a personal flaw.” Remove any hint of judgment. It’s like a science experiment. A sense of exploration and discovery is a prerequisite to success, not just an added bonus.

In order to make habits stick, start small by making it very easy, pair it with an existing routine, track your progress and create some form of accountability. You can do all this very easily with Kin today. For example, if you want to go to the gym, make a habit of putting on your shoes every day. Little things make a big difference over time.

How have you applied these learnings to how you’ve designed Kin?

First we focus on simplicity. If we overwhelm you, it's not going to work. When you read the science of habit formation, every point of friction is a moment for that habit to drop. We’ve created the double tap mentality where nothing in the app should take you more than a double tap. 

Then we surround you with a support system by connecting you with others working on similar habits to keep you motivated. Or you can invite friends and create a group to hold each other accountable. These types of social interactions are small dopamine hits that encourage you to complete your daily habits.

Where have you made a big bet? And how has it panned out?

It was a big shift to create a social network for habits. We looked at data and saw that when people talked to each other, all of a sudden their retention rates were way higher. We created more ways for people to connect with each other, even if they weren’t friends. 

That was a big departure from our original thesis, and even the architecture of what we're building. At first we thought no one would care about strangers. Why would you care about what strangers think of your habits? 

But we have debunked that now and learned that people want to connect with others who are working on the same habit. When someone joins, we connect them with three people who welcome them into the community. That leads to camaraderie and a feeling of belonging. Those emotional reactions that we have as inherently social beings are insanely powerful on our psyche and achieving our goals.

“In order to make habits stick, start small. Little things make a big difference over time.”

Who are your competitors, and how are you differentiated from them? 

I think about the people who like Strava. It has a social ecosystem for motivation and recognition for athletes. We focus on the overall wellbeing and look at our human needs more holistically. Kin helps you to build the best version of yourself. You can create a habit to improve many aspects of your life. You can create a reading habit, a meditation habit, a running habit, or a habit to contact loved ones, all in one dashboard. The holistic take on our wellbeing paints a better picture of our humanity and it is harder to build. If you specialize you have an easier path to market. But for us, one of our values to promote is a balanced life and compassionate life. 

The other pillar for us is the accountability aspect. Other apps might index more on data collection to create detailed metrics of your activity but we’re more concerned about keeping you motivated and consistent. We just started to experiment with bringing on accountability coaches as an additional offering to help those who need it the most.

What have you learned about building a business, while building a business?

The problem-solving framework you use as a designer helps with the decisions you make with building a company. You develop hypotheses based on qualitative and quantitative insights, test them in real-world scenarios, measure your outcomes, and apply those learnings to the next decision.

As a start-up founder you’re constantly balancing product market fit, strategy, growth, monetization and vision at the same time. As designers, we’re trained to zoom in and out of thing quickly and able to switch context. That skill becomes critical in building a company  

Lastly, it’s about getting comfortable with the unknown. One day you feel like you’re on top of the world, and the next day you feel like you’ve crashed and burned. These fluctuations are pressure points that create personal growth, but also stress and anxiety. Practicing mindfulness in these scenarios becomes a vital asset in continuously making good decisions. 

How would you like to see Kin grow and evolve?

We’re in this for the long haul and we still have a lot to learn. As we grow, I want to make sure we don’t lose our core identity to stay nimble, talk to users daily, test and experiment our ideas. 

We have the opportunity to build a central hub for all your wellness activities that directly improve your life. Your Kin profile can become your digital wellness identity and community. Similar to how Instagram is for your experiences or Twitter for your thoughts.

At Kin, we exist to help people build their best selves. I’m very proud of the community we’ve built so far. Witnessing the individual growth within it and compassion users show towards each other is humbling and energizing. The community makes all the hard days worthwhile. Because it's like, What am I doing at the end of the day? Is this worth it? When you have a clear and obvious “yes” for that question, it makes those things easier.

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