Building Successful Mission-Driven Digital Products

Successful digital products are often the result of countless hours of brainstorming, research, and collaboration across teams. Even more so, when the product is driven by a mission to help and inspire its users to live healthier lives. 

This is the case for Forks Over Knives (FOK), a company committed to changing the way the world sees and approaches nutrition. Since its founding in 2011, this brand has advocated for the transformative idea that whole-food, plant-based diets are capable of preventing diseases and improving people’s wellbeing, and helped thousands of users transition to a healthier, plant-based lifestyle. 

For our first webinar of the year, we invited Forks Over Knives’ Product Marketing Manager, Leslie Williams, to speak about the strategies that led to the success of their products, especially the meal-planning app Forks Meal Planner. In this post, we’ll share some of the main takeaways from the webinar, and the inspiring story behind FOK’s mission. 

A Mission Set to Succeed

FOK’s story began in 2011, with the launch of the Forks Over Knives documentary, one of the earliest plant-based advocacy films that sparked a change in many people’s nutrition. In response to the incredible reception from the public, FOK began to expand its message, and with it, its scope of products also began to grow. What started as a documentary, soon became a large line of products that includes a New York Times best selling book, magazines, a website with thousands of free recipes and resources, and the app Forks Meal Planner, a comprehensive one-stop solution that tackles the difficulties of transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle.

However, among all these offerings, Forks Meal Planner is the one at the forefront. This app is packed with recipes especially developed for each season of the year, updated meal plans every week, cooking courses, dynamic shopping lists, customizable meal planner for individuals and families of all sizes, and all the resources FOK’s community needs to successfully adapt to a plant-based diet.

FOK Strategies to Product-Led Growth

Forks Meal Planner has been the number one food and drink paid app off and on for several years. However, such success didn’t come without its challenges. Along with a bigger customer base, it also came the need to give Forks Meal Planner the strategic attention and expertise it needed to continue growing. For FOK, scaling up its product development by outsourcing it was they best way to go.

In this segment of the webinar, Leslie shares everything about their product development process, from making the initial decision to outsource it, to finding the perfect partner for their business:

Measuring user metrics was another of the main strategies that FOK’s product team implemented to better understand their users’ needs, increase engagement, predict user churn and make better UX design decisions. Here are some of the metrics that FOK’s team keeps track of, and how they use them to drive growth:

Do You Want to Learn More About the Process of Developing Successful Purpose-Driven Digital Products?

Give our webinar a watch to learn more about FOK’s journey and strategies. Here are some of the topics discussed:

• Why user feedback is crucial to build profitable and sustainable digital products
• How to differentiate your product in an overpopulated app market
• Strategies to properly segment and understand your audience
• Methods to align users’ needs with your business goals
• How to encourage cross-team collaboration

FOK’s story is a great example of how purpose-driven digital products can thrive when they remain authentic to their core values, and care for their community. Whether you are in the process of creating your own product, or just want to learn more about what it takes to develop a successful app, we hope FOK’s journey inspires you to pursue your own mission!