--English version below — Ein Buch gemeinsam lesen, von den Erkenntnissen der anderen und vom Austausch profitieren. Das wollen @Teresa Moreno , Nina Kroner und ich einmal ausprobieren mit Roman Rackwitz’s Buch „Drive Method - How to make engagement survive when rewards stop“. In unserem Buchclub sind noch einige Plätze frei, wer dabei sein möchte. Zwei Highlights: 1. Die/der erste, der hierunter kommentiert mit „Ich will dabei sein!“, bekommt von Roman das Buch geschenkt, um bei unserem Buchclub dabei zu sein. 1000 Dank, Roman 🙏 2. Roman ist beim Termin im April dabei und wir können ihn mit unseren Fragen löchern. Und das ist unser Fahrplan: - 13.02. von 12-13 Uhr: Kick-off & Getting to know - 24.02. von 12-13 Uhr: Discussion about Part 1 - 18.03. von 12-13 Uhr: Discussion about Part 2 - The Myth Section - 31.03. von 12-13 Uhr: Discussion about Part 2 - The Insight Section - 15.04. von 12-13 Uhr: Part 3 - 23.04. von 12-13.30 Uhr: Final session with Roman Rackwitz Wer ist dabei? Bitte meldet euch bis 31.01. hier auf diesen Beitrag mit einem Kommentar. —— Reading a book together, benefiting from each other's insights and exchanges. That's what Teresa Moreno, Nina Kroner and I want to try with Roman Rackwitz's book “Drive Method - How to make engagement survive when rewards stop.” There are still a few spots available in our book club for anyone who would like to join. 2 Highlights: - The first person who writes the comment “Yes, I want to be part of it” below this post will get for free a book from Roman to participate in our book club. Many thanks to Roman 🙏 - Roman will participate in our last Webcall in April where we can ask him all of our questions. And this is our schedule: - 13.02., 12-13: Kick-off & Getting to know - 24.02., 12-13: Discussion about Part 1 - 18.03., 12-13 : Discussion about Part 2 - The Myth Section - 31.03., 12-13: Discussion about Part 2 - The Insight Section - 15.04., 12-13: Part 3 - 23.04., 12-13.30: Final session with Roman Rackwitz

Over time, when you keep in mind the idea that “there are always opportunities to improve the environment for yourself AND those around you,” it becomes easier and easier to recognize the small nuances that are currently standing in the way or that “could have a positive impact on the process.” As engagement designers (and also as gamification designers), the principle of regular 1% change, which adds up to enormous impact over time, should be our best friend. Don't aim for big wow effects with your applications. Behaviors and emotional attachment take time. This includes building trust with the other person. And you can't cut corners there.

Hey everyone, Bernardo and I are heading into the Christmas break, and before we do, we wanted to pause and take stock of the year we just lived through. 2025 was loud. Not noisy in the hype sense, but loud in consequences. This was the year AI stopped being a future topic and became an everyday material. Not a concept. Not a trend. Something people had to react to. Something that showed up in products, workflows, expectations, and pressure. Early in the year, the market jolts made one thing obvious. This is not a local experiment. It is a global race with real stakes. Then the pace accelerated. Reasoning improved. Coding became conversational. Images and video crossed a threshold from impressive to usable. Infrastructure spending exploded. Valuations followed. Entire industries began quietly rearranging themselves. But the real shift was not technical. It was behavioral. 2025 was the year people stopped talking about AI as an abstract force and started shaping it into real systems. Teams moved from side experiments to uncomfortable questions. What does this mean for how we design work. How we design products. How we design decisions. How we design responsibility. That transition has only just started. What feels different now is clarity. The fog is thinning. The performative demos matter less. The real use cases are becoming visible. The gap between people who observe and people who build is widening fast. At this point, curiosity combined with action is already an advantage. Looking toward 2026, the tone shifts again. Less exploration for its own sake. More execution. More budget. More expectation to move from ideas to outcomes. For people working seriously with engagement, behavior, and system design, this is not a threat. It is an opening. We want to thank everyone who has been part of this community and our journey. Reading, questioning, pushing back, building, sharing. This space just started. We are really looking forward to how it will go forward and develop further.

- Where are you from? - What’s your business? - What’s your next goal? - What do you want to learn? Let’s start a great discussion! Thank you. 🙏