This is Ben. He is in his forties, and overweight. He has tried many times to loose weight in order to be healthier. However, Ben’s friends are also overweight and want to go to the bar instead of the gym. It is the same with his colleges.
When Ben was younger, he used to go running with his friend Steve, and he also used to play football. He misses having people around him that keeps him motivated to stay active, and the friendly competition that comes with it.
One day, Ben wants to make a change and decides to take a walk every day. His gets a fitbit, and wants to get the prescribed 10 000 steps in daily. He downloads Carrot, types in his goal, and finds a group of people who has the same goal as he does. The group has made a race; walking 300 000 steps in 30 days. Ben joins the group and bets the £1 the group has set up. Even if it is just £1, Ben doesn’t want to be one of the ones that looses his money in the end. He’d rather have the satisfaction of sharing the money from the people how didn’t achieve the goal the group had set up.
Every day, Ben picks up his phone and sees what the other group members are doing. The data from his fitbit is uploaded to the group timeline automatically. On days when he feels tired he gets motivated by seeing how the other members are taking their steps, because he doesn’t want to fall behind. He also makes friends with he other members. Him and Allen always gives each other a hard time if either of them doesn’t get their 10 000 per day that they need to achieve the goal.
At the end of the 30 days, Ben has walked 306 358 steps, and Carrot concludes that he has lived up the the goal the group set up. He now gets his £1 back, plus his share of the money from the group members that did not achieve the goal. Ben feels rewarded and he wants to stay in contact with the other group members. Therefore, he sets out a new goal: to go for a 1 mile run, twice a week. he creates a new race and all members of the group joins him. He also invites some of his friends from work to join.
Carrot created the community, accountability and incentive Ben needed to reach his goals.