The 'Power to Continue' Is Not About Willpower, But Design: Learning Customer Value in Habit Formation from Kokuyo's 'Adult Motivation Pen'

[Series] Efficiency Alone Doesn't Sell: Learning Human-Centric Customer Value from Hit Products [Part 2]

■ Introduction: The Wall Between 'Being Able To' and 'Being Able To Continue'

Acquiring certifications, language learning, and reskilling.

Educational materials have never been more abundant. If you subscribe to a video course, you can watch expert explanations at your convenience. Using generative AI, you can get support for everything from explaining difficult terms to creating study plans and generating practice problems.

This is not an era where people don't know how to learn.

Yet, many people cannot continue their studies.

The problem is not access to knowledge, but whether you can sit at your desk today and get through the first five minutes.

In the second part of this series, we will look at Kokuyo's IoT stationery, the 'Adult Motivation Pen'.

What this product provides is not the learning content itself. It does not teach you how to solve certification exam questions, nor does it memorize knowledge for you.

It records the time you spend moving the pen, makes your efforts visible, and creates a trigger to pick up the pen again.

In other words, what they are selling is not the 'ability to learn,' but rather an environment for sustaining learning behavior.

■ It Is Not a Lack of Ability That Stops Adult Learning

The 'Adult Motivation Pen' is a product that adapts the habit-forming mechanism cultivated in the 'Homework Motivation Pen' for children, released in 2019, for adult certification studies and reskilling.

In a survey conducted by Kokuyo in April 2024 targeting 10,197 people between the ages of 18 and 65, 26% of respondents had engaged in certification studies within the past year. Among those learners, 71% had experienced failure, and 'maintaining motivation' was cited as the biggest challenge during study. Note that this survey was an internet survey conducted by Kokuyo and should not be considered official statistics representative of the entire Japanese adult population.

What becomes clear from this is not the problem that 'there are no people who want to learn.'

There are people who start learning.

They buy materials. They sign up for courses. They open reference books and work enthusiastically for the first few days.

However, work gets busy. They come home late. They get sick. They become unable to study on the days they planned.

Once the habit is broken, small failures of 'I couldn't do it today' pile up, and the psychological burden of opening the materials increases. It is not that they lack ability; it is that they lose the trigger to restart.

Therefore, a prescription that simply says 'strengthen your own willpower' is not enough.

It is necessary to create a system that allows you to return to action, assuming that your willpower will waver.

■ Turning Pen Movement into a 'Record of Effort'

The 'Adult Motivation Pen' is used by attaching an approximately 8-gram small device to commercially available writing instruments or stylus pens.

A built-in accelerometer measures the movement of the pen and records engagement in learning as 'motivation power.' The accumulated data can be checked via the color of an LED and is transferred to a smartphone via Bluetooth after learning. In the dedicated app, you can check your progress in graphs and calendars on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

What is important here is not test scores or passing/failing certifications, but that it records the very act of moving the pen itself.

The results of learning do not appear immediately.

Even if you study for 30 minutes today, it is hard to feel that your ability has improved significantly by the next day. Because there is a time lag between effort and results, you begin to doubt along the way, asking, 'Is this study meaningful?'

Therefore, before the final results appear,

you make the intermediate progress visible.

This is not just a record.

It is a mechanism that converts results that only appear in the future into small, present-day feelings of accomplishment.

■ Don't Wait for 'Motivation,' Make the Reason to Start Small

The app includes gamification elements such as messages based on learning trends, board game-style stages, and items to customize avatars.

Avatars move forward and earn items according to the amount the pen is moved. Furthermore, there is a mechanism to encounter other users' avatars within the board game and be exposed to their 'reasons for studying' or 'study tips.' It is designed to aim for a community with a 'just-right sense of distance' where you feel you are not alone, without forcing direct interaction.

The important thing is not that game rewards replace the purpose of learning.

A big goal like 'passing a certification' is too far away to make you pick up a pen on a night when you return home tired.

Therefore,

you add small, immediate reasons to keep going.

If the hurdle to starting a study session is lowered, an action started with the intention of lasting 5 minutes can continue for 20 or 30 minutes.

What is needed is not to generate great motivation every single day.

It is to reduce the motivation required to start an action.is.

■ What became a hit was not 'adult childishness'

'It is childish for adults to be praised by an avatar.'

One could certainly evaluate it that way.

However, that perspective fails to capture the customer value of this product.

Adult life involves many roles beyond learning, such as work, housework, childcare, and caregiving. Continuing self-directed learning, where no one gives instructions, no deadlines are set, and it takes a long time to see results, is not easy.

It is not that people 'cannot move unless they are praised.'

Rather, there is a lack of appropriate feedback for activities where goals are distant and daily efforts are difficult to see.

The 'Adult Motivation Pen' surpassed 10,000 units sold in August 2025, through pre-sales and general sales starting in May of the same year. This figure represents the achievement of the initially projected annual sales volume in effectively about five months. In a Kokuyo survey conducted about three months after the general release targeting 414 users, the overall satisfaction rate was 85%. Users reported that their study time increased, they began picking up the pen even for short periods, and the presence of other users served as encouragement. While this is a purchaser survey by the manufacturer and the effects cannot be generalized, it can at least be read that a certain number of users valued the visualization of effort and small rewards as support for continuity.

The product ranked 23rd in the 'Nikkei Trendy 2025 Hit Products Best 30' and was selected as the grand prize winner in the stationery category for industry-specific projects. Kokuyo explains that what was evaluated was the concept of accompanying adults in their solitary learning and the functionality that realizes it.

This is not a hit that indicates adult regression.

It is a hit that indicates the limitations of service design that has relied solely on human willpower.is.

■ The value of being recognized by people, not just digital

In 2025, Kokuyo collaborated with Benesse to conduct a campaign where 'Aka-pen Sensei' (Red Pen Teachers) provided handwritten messages praising and encouraging users' efforts based on data recorded by the 'Adult Motivation Pen.' This was a limited project for users who met the eligibility criteria and applied, and is not a standard feature of the product.

This project is not about competing over whether digital or humans are superior.

The device records the effort.

The app organizes the continuity status.

Humans look at those records and give meaning to the individual's efforts.

Even with the same words of 'well done,' the way they are received differs between a template message and words written by someone who has actually seen your efforts.

Not every user wants to be encouraged by a human. Even so, a design that layers human approval onto efficient digital support as needed has the potential to be applied to other services as well.

■ What products should support is 'continuation,' not 'motivation'

Many products and services are based on the assumption that customers have strong willpower.

E-learning assumes that students will choose courses, make plans, and continue watching on their own.

Health management apps assume that users will enter records every day.

Sales support systems assume that representatives will always register information after a business meeting ends.

However, if customers stop using a service before they derive value from it, no matter how high-functioning it is, it will not lead to results.

Therefore, apart from functional development, 'design for continuation' is necessary.

Reduce the burden of getting started

Instead of requiring an hour of study from the beginning, create an entry point where one can start with 'just five minutes' or 'just one question.'

Make the progress of efforts visible

Even before results appear, allow users to confirm their progress through usage frequency, consecutive days, completed steps, and so on.

Provide a response immediately after an action

Instead of just end-of-month reports, provide small, easy-to-understand feedback immediately after an action is taken.

Make it possible for those who have stopped to return

Instead of blaming them for breaking a streak, provide a path to resume from today.

Show the presence of others at an appropriate distance

Instead of forcing competition, make it possible for users to feel that there are others working toward the same goal.

This is not a design that makes customers dependent on the service.

It is about creating a scaffold to support actions until the customer reaches the goal they originally intended to achieve.

■ Do not make gamification the goal

However, simply increasing records or rewards is not enough.

When raising scores becomes the goal, the actual results and behavioral indicators diverge.

Even if you increase study time, you cannot pass an exam if you do not understand the content. If you start moving the pen just to maintain a streak, the numbers may increase, but the customer value does not.

Therefore, support for continuity must be designed in the following three stages.

The 'Adult Motivation Pen' primarily measures the first two stages.

To determine whether knowledge has been retained or if one is closer to obtaining a qualification, other indicators such as mock exam results and level of understanding are also necessary.

Visualizing effort is important.

However, one must also confirm whether the effort made visible is truly leading to the customer's goal.

Visualizing effort is important.
However, what companies should design is not the increase in usage days or scores itself. It is a series of experiences where customers can take the first step, return even if they stop along the way, and confirm that they are approaching their final goal.

When reviewing your own products or services, you need to confirm at least the following points.

In what situations do customers hesitate to start?
At what point do they stop using it?

How can they feel that they are making progress?
Can they resume without guilt after a break?
Beyond the quantity of action, are they approaching the results the customer originally seeks?
Do not leave continuity solely to the customer's willpower; support it as a structure of the product or service. That perspective is necessary.

■ Design the environment before blaming willpower

The 'Adult Motivation Pen' is not a product that exposes the fact that adults cannot study on their own.

It is a product that redefines the reason for being unable to continue learning not just as the individual's laziness or weak will, but as something that can be supported through product design.

If you only demand that customers 'try harder,' you don't need a service.

Make it easier to start actions.

Make effort visible.

Provide feedback for small progress.

Make it possible to return even if you stop.

Make it so that people feel someone is watching over them when they need it.

What companies should sell is not the device for praising the customer itself.

It is a state where the customer does not give up on their goal and can take the next step.

Design not only the functions the product provides, but also the mechanism that allows customers to continue using those functions.

Not leaving the 'power to continue' to the individual's personality is what will be required of future customer experiences.

[Reference Information]

Kokuyo Co., Ltd., 'Cheering for adult learning in the 100-year life era! Pre-sales of the IoT stationery "Adult Motivation Pen" have started on "Makuake"' (January 29, 2025). Product specifications and internal research on adult qualification study.
https://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/stationery/yaruki-on/news/250129.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Kokuyo Co., Ltd., 'IoT stationery "Adult Motivation Pen" exceeds 10,000 units sold!' (September 16, 2025). Sales figures, usage time, and results of purchaser surveys.
https://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/stationery/yaruki-on/news/250916.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Kokuyo Co., Ltd., 'IoT stationery "Adult Motivation Pen" selected as 23rd in "Nikkei Trendy 2025 Hit Products Best 30" and won the Grand Prize in the stationery category!' (November 6, 2025).
https://www.kokuyo.com/news/release/20251106/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Kokuyo Co., Ltd., 'Break the 3-Day Habit Campaign Autumn 2025'. Handwritten cheering message project with Benesse's 'Aka-pen Sensei'.
https://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/stationery/yaruki-on/news/3DCP_2025_autumn.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com

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