Yesterday’s post was about “reward velocity”, with the point being that good program design looks for smaller, incremental opportunities to reward and engage with the program participants. Those events keep the program visible in the work and life flow of the individual.

But I think the word “engage” got lost in the translation.

I know that, because I got emails from my 2 email subscribers (😉) telling me that increasing the reward velocity simply creates reward addiction and no program should be designed in a way that focuses so directly on only “rewards.”

I agree.

For me, rewards speak to multiple types of reward – point-based – and psychological-based. Meaning, I can either drop a few points in your account when you do a behavior – or I can thank you via a message and recognize you for that effort on the platform. Those are both reward events. Only one has what we might call a tangible award attached to it.

There is a danger – and truthfully – what I would call program design malpractice – when the ONLY way you drive attention is via the tangle rewards of points (or the nuclear option – cash).

That wasn’t my intention.

Think broader about what is a reward event. It’s not always tangible.

More activity, more engagement, more results.

Billy Idol was right.