A recurring theme in my projects over the last ten years has been in figuring out how big players in an ecosystem can help their customers grow which, in turn, will grow the revenues of the big player. In 2019, as the use of the Hooked Model reached its zenith and worries about screen time soared, Google asked Made by Many to help understand how app developers could grow their user base in a sustainable way. The problem was that many growth tactics, like the hooked model, achieve short term growth, but users drop off again as they feel their attention is hijacked by the app.

For this project we carried out in-home interviews with app and game users in South Korea (I missed this trip while on paternity leave) and the UK, and conducted a literature review to understand the psychology of app use.

I led our team through sensemaking, culminating in two insight briefings on app use and game use, and a 'how-to' guide for app developers to grow their apps sustainably. This content was translated into an online course by Google's developer evangelist team.