Takeaways From Forks Over Knives Webinar About 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 we’re talking about mission-driven digital products, that have a clear goal 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 beginning 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. Throughout the years FOK has 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.

Along the way, the team had to make a lot of decisions, and of them was choosing between creating an in-house team for product design and development, or finding a partner that could help them scale their product, and constantly improve it. For the Forks Meal Planner’s team, outsourcing was the best option, and Leslie told us everything about its benefits.

Plant-based recipes for everyone

Among all the products that FOK offers, the Forks Meal Planner app is at the forefront. This app is packed with recipes that adapt to each season of the year, new updated meal plans every week, resources that support the journey of FOK’s community to a plant-based diet, cooking courses, dynamic shopping lists, and a customizable meal planner for individuals and families of all sizes. After learning about all these features from our Webinar with Leslie Williams, it doesn’t come as a surprise to know that Forks Meal Planner has been the number one food and drink paid app off and on for several years.

However, this success didn’t come without its challenges. In this Webinar, Leslie Williams explored some of the challenges faced by FOK’s teams when developing Forks Meal Planner, and how they overcame them by paying close attention to the needs of their users and staying true to their mission to bring nutrition education to as many people as possible. Paying close attention to the metrics is a fundamental part of understanding the users, and we got the opportunity to ask Leslie what kind of things were the most important to measure for mission-driven digital products like this one.

Some of the topics we discussed in this webinar about FOK’s recipe to successful mission-driven digital products:

• Why user feedback is key to building successful and sustainable mission-driven digital products
• How to differentiate your app in an overpopulated app market
• Strategies to segment and understand your app audience
• Why collaboration across teams is crucial for mission-driven digital products 
• How to to align users’ needs with your business goals
• How to support users and address their needs

If you want to learn more about these topics and many others, you can listen to the full Webinar recording. We hope FOK’s strategies motivate and help you implement a more user-centered approach to your product!