@Elena Verna’s most recent banger post about balancing UX with growth could not have come at a better time.

It’s fascinating to think about this balance in an environment when you’re independent and focused on the long-term rather than hyper-growth, like what we’re doing at @Buffer.

I am incentivized by things like our profit share & culture of flexibility to help the business grow, but I also don’t have the pressure of short-term gains that risk our long-term brand reputation or ability to sustainably grow.

The result: we’re investing features & experiences that are helpful, intuitive & transparent without being gross or exploitive. The idea that the product can ultimately convince some % of our users to convert to paid is bold, but something we can afford a bit more without the pressure of VC or the public markets. We do this because we think there is immense value in a generous & widely appealing free product in our space, with the knowledge that a significant portion of our users have a need beyond that they’re willing to pay for.

This even goes for the conventionally “growth”-y features we’ve added to the product. The thing I love about how we built Streaks & Goals into Buffer is that there are virtually no strings or dark patterns.

Different folks thrive with different motivation tactics. When you’re building for a wide audience and without a mandate to hyper-grow, you can afford to take the time to land on an experience that resonates with as much of that wide audience as possible but doesn’t resort to guilt as a motivator, or otherwise feels gross or exploitive.

The Streak is a ubiquitous concept by now – users for whom it resonates are motivated by the number going up. In Buffer we liken it visually to growing a plant 🪴. We have some hooks in place to remind you to keep your streak (and your plant) alive, but we don’t make losing your streak feel a huge bummer. You start with fresh seeds and try again.

With Goals (v1 just went live!), we know some creators are more ambitious, and that different social channels warrant different levels of posting frequency. So while the Streak is simply grown by posting at all each week, you can choose a posting frequency goal for each place you post & tweak them over time. And we’ll celebrate each goal you hit without making you feel bad if you don’t. It’s also totally optional (albeit encouraged) to set a goal, so if goals aren’t what motivates you, no sweat.

It would be irresponsible as a business to not have certain nudges and notifications built into the product. I’ll still get bugged if my posting queue is empty or if I’m going to lose my streak, but if you don’t want to be bugged, just turn off those emails. Simple as that. (I do want a reminders feature, and this is something we’re exploring!)

There’s certainly more to do, but I’m super proud of the team’s work on these things! It’s challenging but such a fulfilling and fun endeavor to build a product in this way.