Behind the scenes: Noomcoin

Behind the scenes at Noom, we’re always dreaming up big ideas to make your experience better. How can we help you make greater progress toward your goals? And how can we best help you sustain them? How can we better personalize your experience? How can we motivate you after a dip? How can we remove other barriers you experience? How can we help you have more fun throughout the process? 

We’re committed to helping you achieve greater health—and fine-tuning every moment of the experience along the way. Our jobs will always feel exciting because when it comes to developing new features, content, and programs, the possibilities are truly endless. (It’s our great hope that you’ll continue to feel excited, too.)

Today, we wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain and show you how we developed and launched Noomcoin. Let’s start at the beginning.

Careful analysis, alongside conversations with our Noomers, told us something important about the Noom experience. “The different activities you can do on the Noom app every day play a part in achieving long-term weight loss, but they don’t always lead to results immediately,” says Product Manager Quinn Cully. “So we needed to find a way to let Noomers know that they were on the path to achieving their desired outcomes, even on days when the scale wasn’t moving.”

Cully explains that “One of the most exciting solutions to what we were observing was adding a motivating layer of gamification to the Noom Weight program. Whatever we chose, though, I wanted to make sure that it was something that makes it clear that Noomers were staying on track and progressing toward their goals.” As always, the goal wasn’t engagement for the sake of it, but to better help Noomers achieve their health goals down the line. You earn a Noomcoin every day that you complete the healthy habits trilogy: weigh in, log your meals, and reach your learning goal. “We created Noomcoin to give you clear feedback and rewards now for the actions we know will drive your results later.”

A Noomcoin is a token we’ve created to reward the actions you take now that will drive your weight loss later. Its design is inspired by the New York City subway tokens of yore.

Our data, in fact, clearly shows the connection between earned Noomcoins and results. On average, Noomers lose one pound for every five Noomcoins they earn. Over time, Noomers who earn 100 or more Noomcoins achieve their goal weight. 

We’ve checked in with some of our Noomers to learn if and how Noomcoins change their experience. One Noomer reported that Noomcoin “makes me feel like I have achieved something, and it motivates me to do the same the next day,” with another highlighting the “accomplishment” they feel. Another Noomer said that Noomcoins make them feel “proud.”

When we rolled out the beta version of Noomcoin, not only did we see Noomers engaging more with the experience, but we saw improved habits, outcomes, and engagement. Notably, with Noomcoin, Noomers are now more likely to return to the Weight program following a slip. 

But Jack Breslauer, Director of Product Management, highlights that Noomcoin also helps delay and prevent disengagement in the first place. “Noomcoin is an effective way to reward users for building habits early on, when they might not yet see the reward of weight loss,” he says. “It’s an intermediary reward that bridges the gap needed to get people from starting the Noom Weight program to seeing weight loss.” 

“We want our Noomers to feel pride and accomplishment for earning these coins,” says Cully, “but the most rewarding thing for us to see that people’s food-logging and lesson completion goes up, because building these habits leads to greater weight loss and maintenance.”

The first Noomcoin iteration was successful, but that doesn’t mean we’re stopping there. Cully explains that even though Noomcoins tend to translate to pounds lost, Noomers have asked about using them to “buy” something else. So, he and his team are currently thinking about what other benefits Noomcoins could be exchanged for, to bring more value and more fun to the Noom experience.

If you want to stay motivated and accountable throughout your journey to better health, sign up for Noom Weight today.