Pilot’s coaches help people sleep better. Their app was doing the opposite. It had streaks, badges, reminders and a feed, and it was very good at keeping people looking at their phones in bed.

Measuring the right thing

The first conversation was about numbers. Time in the app was high and the team was proud of it. We asked what would happen if it went down while people slept better. After a long pause, everyone agreed that would be the goal.

That changed the brief. We stopped designing for engagement and started designing for exits: how quickly can someone do the one useful thing and put the phone face down?

Thirty seconds

The new app has two moments: a check-in in the evening and a short summary in the morning. Both are dark, both are quiet and neither asks for anything extra. Notifications became a single line of text with no badge. Three months after launch, average time in the app had halved and the number of people still using it had gone up.