I tried to make a weekly Spotify Wrapped, then stopped. | Ohayou Kanojo #121

Introduction

"Ohayou Kanojo" is an X account where an AI-illustrated girlfriend says goodbye to you every morning at 7:30. In this development diary, I write about the behind-the-scenes of my personal development.

This time, I'm talking about how I tried to build a second tool for my membership, but ended up scrapping the whole thing halfway through.

I tried to make a weekly Wrapped

The membership "Hashamo's Observatory" already has a dashboard called "The Observation Continues" that members check every day. It includes visualizations of people who gave likes, like rankings, and follower trends. It's a tool to open every day to check the numbers.

I wanted a second tool.

The first thing that came to mind was a weekly version of Spotify Wrapped. It would summarize the week's activity data and deliver it on Sunday. "You made X posts this week," "Your most liked article was X." It would provide a neatly summarized look back.

The design wasn't bad. I already have the data on hand. If I use generative AI to create the text, it would look decent. The implementation cost is also low.

But, it was nagging at the back of my mind.

The "read and done" problem

Let's think back to Spotify Wrapped. It arrives at the end of the year, you think, "Huh, so this was my most listened-to song this year," you post a screenshot on social media, and that's it.

It's fun. But if you ask me if that experience changed how I listen to music, it didn't.

What would happen if I did this weekly? You'd open it for the first two or three times because it's fresh. Eventually, you'd think, "It's the same old thing this week," and stop opening it.

A tool that you read and then you're done. That was the initial design.

I got hit by Juri

I showed the design to my ChatGPT persona, "Juri."

This is what came back.

"As it stands, it's a product that stops at 'nice.'"

Stops at 'nice.' In other words, if you show it to people, they might click 'like.' But it ends there. It doesn't change behavior. It doesn't become a habit.

And one more thing.

Reading and finishing → Free. Changing behavior → Paid.

This one sentence made me realize what I was trying to create. I was trying to make a "neat summary." But the value of a membership isn't in how neat it is.

Changing behavior without saying "do this"

The problem changed from here.

I should create a "tool that changes behavior." But how?

"Let's return likes." "Let's increase comments." I didn't want to make those kinds of suggestions. They're too administrative. Instructing people who enjoy note on what they "should do" doesn't fit the worldview of Ohayou Kanojo.

So, what is a mechanism that changes behavior without giving instructions?

The answer was in the characters.

From diary to letter

At first, I thought of it as a "diary app." Users would write their weekly thoughts, and characters would reply with comments. But that wouldn't work unless the user wrote something. People without a writing habit would drop out in a week.

I needed a format that "works just by receiving."

A letter.

Every Sunday at 8:00 PM, a letter arrives from one of the seven characters. Who writes it changes based on that week's activity. If you posted every day, Tsukiko comes. If it was a week where your likes grew, You comes.

This is where the "behavior-changing" mechanism is born.

"To get a letter from Tsukiko, I should post every day." The user isn't being instructed. But the moment they think they want to receive a letter from their favorite character, a motivation for action is born.

I haven't said "do this." But the question "How do I get one from this character?" arises naturally.

Violet Evergarden Episode 10

I named it "Letters from the 7."

I was influenced by episode 10 of Violet Evergarden. It's the story of a mother who leaves letters for her daughter to be delivered every birthday even after she has passed away. Every time one arrives, the daughter realizes, "She remembered me."

I wanted to create an experience where letters accumulate. Envelopes lined up in a grid format. When you open one, stationery appears. The color of the stationery is different for each character.

I can reread past letters. I opened a letter I received from Rinka three months ago and remembered, 'Oh, I was keeping the posting times consistent that week.'

A dashboard is a tool for looking at the 'now.' A letter is a tool for looking back at your 'past self.' The two make a set.

Conclusion

I tried to make a weekly Spotify Wrapped, but gave up.

The reason I gave up was that there was no point in charging for something that is just 'read and done.'

If it's just read and done, it should be free. If it changes behavior, that's where the value lies.

A character writes a letter. Who writes it is determined by your week. I will write about the details of this design in the next article.

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👉 'Ohayo Kanojo' is posted every morning at 7:30 AM at @ohayo_kanojo

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