"We scaled to $100K MRR using the tactics in these cards"
Pontus - Co-founder & Design @roots
Consumer apps win when they hijack how users feel.
Dopamine, awe, delight, status are the tools. These cards show you how to trigger the emotions that make users stick.
Craft experiences like the best in-class:
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Ship apps and product features that users adopt instantly.
Solve high-leverage product challenges in any scenario. Confidently make decisions without the design guesswork.
This playbook gives you a founding-designer lens to map end-to-end flows that onboard, activate, retain, and monetise.
Instead of guessing what will work, you design from proven principles.
Instead of defending every pixel, you explain your thinking with confidence.
Instead of shipping “nice UI,” you design products that move users.
“We used many of these strategies to reach $100K MRR in just a few months”
Pontus, W. Head of Design
Sound familiar?
You screenshot for inspiration, yet something still feels off...
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100 Cards inside
Each card captures the emotional layer in winning apps
The moment a user says 'I'm in,' something shifts psychologically. They feel ownership. They feel accountable. They stick around
Activation
Stack of 13 cards
Duolingo
Language learning
The tingle of anticipation when you don't know what's coming next. The small dopamine pulse when the result surprises you. That's the emotional engine behind every app you can't stop opening.
Retention
Stack of 12 cards
Bumble
Meet new people
There's a feeling you get when something takes time. When the answer doesn't arrive instantly, it signals care. And that triggers the feeling of the outcome being more valuable.
Onboarding
Stack of 15 cards
Pinterest
Visual inspiration
Sometimes making something harder makes it feel more valuable. The pause before a big decision. The extra step used intentionally, transforms a routine interaction into a meaningful moment.
Engagement
Stack of 11 cards
Amazon Music
100 million songs
“We used many of these product strategy cards and scaled our start up to $100K mrr in just a few months”
Play cards
Layer them into any proudct design scenario to reach PMF
THE ANATOMY
100+ tactical cards.
Each card contains What the tactic is. Why it works psychologically. When to use it. What to do. What to avoid.
Each designed to help you turn features into sticky experiences
PAIRING SYSTEM
All cards are designed to pair and combine.
Each tactic card ends with recommended pairings, related plays that strengthen the user flow when applied together.
Stack two or three and you're not just applying a tactic. You're building a complete experience.
APPLY IT
Use prompt cards to shape the tactic around your product
Every tactic is paired with a set of guided prompts. They help you adapt the play to your product, your users, and your stage.
These are the thinking tools that make sure what you build actually fits.
Interlinked
This is not another boring, theoretical ebook
Strictly a no BS, highly actionable, modular, and interlinked card system. Apply to any product at any stage.
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The playbook
Product thinking you can pull from and apply to any app project in the next 15 minutes.
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100+ tactical cards.
Each tactic covers what to do, why it works, and when to use it
For apps at any stage.
Use to build any feature of any app in any stage
Covers every user journey
Onboarding, activation, retention, monetisation, +8 more stacks
Digital resource
Download it, open it, and start using it in minutes
One time payment. Lifetime updates
THINK DIFFERENT
Become the innovator that turns any flow into seamless experience
See product from from a new angle and build features users instantly understand. Reach product market fit
Before
Without the playbook
1. Copy & paste pray
You reference other apps, hoping if it worked for them it will for you
2. Losing clarity
Feature bloat starts to feel like you’re moving away from the app’s vision
3. Winging it
You’re guessing what might work, and design without much depth
4. Scratching the surface
Your ideas are good but lack the depth that would help you lead
5. Too much aesthetics
You’re focusing more on the details and lose track of the bigger picture
After
With the playbook
1. Principle-driven design
You can explain the principle behind every choice you make.
2. Guard product vision
You see where the product is drifting and you know how to pull it back
3. Design with conviction
You know why and how a flow works before you even build it
4. Become the go-to
You bring the depth that earns trust and shapes product direction.
5. You see the full experience
Balance the details with how every screen serves the business goal
Stacks
Every card stack is a complete toolkit, not just a list of tactics.
Each stack gives you three layers most resources never touch.
HOLISTIC STRATEGY
12 Product stacks for solving any product challenge
Stacks bundle multiple tactics into complete flows for nailing common scenarios like onboarding or conversion.
INSIGHTS & METRICS
The Proof
Know exactly what to measure, the formula behind each metric, and why it matters.
Go beyond the visual and measure your new product thinking skills.
BEHIND THE DATA
The Diagnosis
Before you optimise, understand what's really happening so you can target the right problem without wasting time.
Diagnostic prompts that help you decode user behaviour and find the real problem.
The playbook
Ditch the guesswork. Design products that stick
Win their attention in the first 10 seconds, land users into the aha moment, and inspire action - whether you're designing onboarding flows, improving retention, or building your first product.
These 33 product plays are used by product teams at the world's most loved apps.
From Duolingo's commitment loops to Airbnb's time-to-value framework, these cards decode the exact mechanics behind the apps millions of people use daily so you can apply them to your own product in minutes.
Turn first-time visitors into repeat users
Introduce features users understand first try
Get users to value in under 60 seconds
One time payment. Lifetime updates
“Super impressive level of detail and instantly usable.”
Hey I'm Bartek, I design apps people can't put down
I’ve spent the last seven years shaping product experiences in startups. Along the way, I reaised that evoking emotions is what made winning apps.
These cards are the strategies that capture the ways to design emotion. Gathered from the best best in class apps & personal insight. This playbook is something I wish I knew about from day one.
Founders, developers, product managers, and marketers.
They all use the playbook to weave in the emotional triggers that make up wining app experiences.
Plays: Individual tactic cards, there are 33 of them.
Stacks: Are groups of plays that focus on a single area like onboarding, activation, or retention.
There are 12 stacks in total:
Onboarding - 15 cards
Activation - 13 cards
Retention - 12 cards
Engagement - 11 cards
Growth & Viral - 10 cards
Monetisation - 12 cards
Conversion Optimisation - 10 cards
Experience Refinement - 9 cards
Trust Building - 10 cards
Intent Shaping - 9 cards
Habit Formation - 11 cards
Premium Positioning - 9 cards
It's an active working tool to be shuffled, combined and remixed. There isn't a linear path to follow.
No. This isn't a visual design resource.
Yes. The emotional layer and applies to all apps, web or mobile. The "Make it Yours" cards help you tailor to your specific scenario.
Both. Before launch, it helps you build the right flows from day one so you're not patching problems later.
After launch, it helps you diagnose what's not working and fix it with something proven instead of guessing.
