Forcing Functions

I turned 40 last month (gulp), and for whatever reason that “4” at the front of my age has triggered a bunch of reflection.

It started informal — me generally thinking about the past 15 or so years. But it’s shifted into a borderline obsession. I've been combing through everything that's worked exceptionally well for me or for our founders, trying to identify patterns, habits, or characteristics that led to success.

This has been a blast.

And, obviously, I don’t think these habits alone will lead to / guarantee success. But some are hard to ignore.

Today’s idea is frustratingly simple: Forcing Functions.

On The Hook

Years ago, we had a founder interested in selling smoothies to college athletic departments. Lots of practices end after school dining options are closed, and athletes are either left to find their own food or, at most D1 schools, given a stipend to buy dinner. Interviews showed the athletes usually used that money on fast food.

After nearly a year of interviewing athletes, speaking with coaches, and exploring smoothie tech, progress was basically non-existent.

Then, the founder created a forcing function: They got a college soccer team to agree to buy smoothies 3x/week for a month. Suddenly, they needed to deliver smoothies at 8:30 PM on M/T/Th. And guess what? They figured it out. They got loads of feedback. By week three they'd changed a ton about their product and by week four they'd signed the college on to three more months with three more teams. More progress was made in the first week of smoothie delivery than in the previous year.

Why it Works

Dead air breeds procrastination. If you aren’t pushing towards a specific goal that has a consequence if it isn’t completed, your focus and actions won’t be as sharp.

It’s true the goal might be "wrong" — the soccer team experiment could've gone horribly, and they could've been the wrong customer. But it’s always better to sprint towards something and then reevaluate.

Types of Forcing Functions

Not all forcing functions are the same. A pitch competition before you’ve got a customer is not a good forcing function. But forcing functions with customers — where you need to deliver something to them that solves a problem, ideally a wedge problem — are invaluable.

There are a bunch of obvious types of forcing functions, like:

• Mastermind groups

• Events you host

• Value you’ll deliver to a customer (the smoothie example)

• A podcast you’ll record with a guest

And a few subtle ones, like surrounding yourself with people who naturally exhibit the type of behavior you’d like to adopt, or moving to a city that is full of people who you’d love to network with.

The Silly, Obvious Takeaway

Successful people put themselves on the hook. Duh. But it was so stark — successful people did it over and over, unsuccessful people avoided it.

How could you put yourself on the hook this week?