Accountability as a Service

Theory #41: Hey you, did you do the thing you said you would do?

May 22, 2024

People have all kinds of ambitions, goals, and plans, but consistently following through is the hard part. Some people are wired to make steady progress or have learned to do this well. But many people depend on external pressures and constraints, feedback, check-ins, and high stakes — financial, professional, or social — to spur them into action. All of these things provide accountability.

“The term accountable originates from the Latin computare, “to count.” To be accountable required a person to produce “a count” of either the properties or money that had been left in his care.”1 So my favorite frame of accountability is this: being accountable is being answerable for something and to someone.

Accountability-as-a-service is something people increasingly crave, and I believe it’s on a steep growth path. As just one example, I recently launched an experiment for writers like me who want to write more. At its core, this experiment is about accountability. And I’m expecting to see a lot more products, services, and experiences with similar goals. Let me explain.

Why Now (The Tailwinds)

I see a few reasons people are seeking accountability now more than ever before (and all three of these resonate with me personally):

Rise of independent professionals: An increasing number of people work for themselves, whether they’re starting businesses, freelancing, or creating (and many of these people are working solo). This means less consistent individual accountability despite high-level commitments to partners, customers, etc.
Increase in flexible work structures: Remote and flexible work options have grown, in part due to COVID-19 and due to accelerating tech that makes decentralized teams and async work more effective.
The “now what” of information abundance: The internet now allows anyone to learn anything. Hence we’ve realized that information wasn’t really the limiting factor all along — it was us actually doing the things we decide we want to do, especially if we’re in independent and flexible contexts.

On top of these, there's a cultural shift away from public living and towards closer-knit communities and holistic self-improvement. This shift emphasizes semi-private and private goal-setting with supportive follow-through, reinforcing the need for help with accountability. (I’ll explain this macro trend more in a bit).

For What (The Use Cases)

The accountability itch isn’t just in professional contexts. It can apply to almost anything that people care enough about achieving such that they have goals. Accountability is meant to help with the action-orientation part of this desire.

I see 3 big categories:

Be the best version of your physical self: Staying physically fit has always been a priority but not consistently acted upon. Gym memberships and personal training have been part of common attempts. Now, with abundant information on diet and exercise and the like, the biggest challenge is people’s ability to follow-through.
Be the best version of your mental self: We've seen hype cycles around antidepressants, yoga, meditation, therapy, psychedelics, and spiritual retreats. Many of these are supportive, but few are rooted in on-going accountability.
Be the best version of your ambitious self: Ambitions go beyond basic need, ranging from professional goals to serious hobbies. Achieving these requires mental and physical effort and specific goal-setting with consistent execution.

There are countless categories and subcategories for every topic or interest. The challenge is finding the right context and service for you.

*A few recent examples of what people seek to get and offer accountability for.*

And How (The Service Model)

Accountability-as-a-service typically includes a few core features, which can be delivered in an incredibly lightweight way (e.g. text messaging, email), via dedicated apps or, of course, in person.

Core features.

Goal-setting: Help with choosing, sizing, and pacing goals.
Regular check-ins: Establish a habit-building schedule (daily, weekly, etc.). Daily is ideal for anything that’s a frequent goal (e.g. diet, exercise, work).
Reporting results: Require accountability for specific actions, tasks, and outcomes (e.g., diet, exercise, work progress).
Feedback loop: Reflect on progress and adjust goals and strategies as needed.

Accountability-as-a-Service can be 1:1, in a peer group, or 1:many (e.g. a teacher to a class of students). There are tradeoffs to each of these formats, but regardless of which, there’s always someone seeking accountability for themselves and someone providing it. In groups, roles rotate — similar to a “give-to-get” model but “coach-to-be-coached.”

Skin in the game.

Along the way, it can be helpful to have something that’s at stake besides just the judgment of the other people in the loop.

Paying a fee upfront: Both compensates the coach and ensures the coachee's commitment, with costs that vary based on service demand and rigor. (I’ve seen ranges between tens and thousands of dollars per month.) Bundling an upfront cost or post-facto penalty plus human judgment is a common hybrid.
Committing in public: Sharing goals with friends or followers to leverage social pressure and motivation (e.g. posting fitness photos on social media). You’re signing up to pay with reputation and self-esteem points.
Putting up collateral: Pledging something valuable to increase commitment, though it’s less common due to sentimental attachment to non-money things.

The willingness to pay for accountability in some way is evident not just among wealthy individuals but also across more modest socioeconomic groups, highlighting its growing importance and signifying a broader cultural shift.

Humans vs. AI

A lot of people believe that accountability-as-a-service will be solved by AI. I disagree, especially to the idea that the delta between the tech we have today (already good) and will have tomorrow will make the difference.

AI can support a productized version of this service, but accountability is strongest when the person on the other end is human and is someone you respect. People feel comfortable snoozing their morning alarms in private but would hesitate if someone they respect knew. The potential for meaningful judgment — both positive and negative — is the critical human factor.

AI-based products may be superior at analyzing what works, suggesting changes, and even assessing the quality of human or “coach” interactions. However, a purely AI-based service will largely serve as a productivity tool, not an accountability tool.

To get mathematical, there’s probably an exchange rate we could derive that values technological censure relative to human censure, i.e. how bad I feel if a machine tells me I failed versus if a human I respect says the same. The easiest unit of this ratio is dollars since it’s a currency of consequence that we’re used to.

Today, for people with an abundance of money, the exchange rate would be higher (i.e. they won’t feel the cost of failed accountability at low prices, e.g. $10/month). This is true whether they have a human or AI coach. So pairing an AI with a significant monetary consequence can shift it from a pure productivity tool to an accountability tool.

My hypothesis is that the monetary consequence that’s bundled with an AI product has to be higher than the monetary consequence that’s often bundled with a human service — because negative human judgment is inherently costly to us. And if there’s an ounce of truth in my thinking, then yes, AI will lower the practical monetary costs of these products & services, but there’s a good chance it ends up lowering effectiveness too.

(If and when we no longer distinguish between machines and humans anymore, there’s an argument to be made that this point will be moot, but that’s far off.)

The Era of Actionable Self-Improvement

The latest era has pushed us to live, consume, and compete in a public arena of 8 billion people, creating what I call an era of distractible, performative self-improvement. We've been inundated with so much information and entertainment about progress that we get lost among shiny concepts and struggle to take action. Or when we do take action, it’s driven by how it will appear more than the result.

However, over time, it becomes clear that success in any kind of vast arena (especially public ones) requires quietly doing the things you need to do in private.

One of my favorite commercials is an Under Armour spot featuring Michael Phelps with the tagline: “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light.”

The new era of actionable self-improvement is a return to focusing on what we do in the dark. It’s a realization that regardless of public ambitions, success begins in private — through health, fitness, family, friends, work, and hobbies. And as we actually take action on these priorities, we gain more intrinsic satisfaction.

This cultural shift moves us towards a post-very online, post-public social network world, one in which we focus on our nested communities and individual growth.

The new directive is to commit to fewer things but with greater dedication. Shift from merely contemplating your goals to actively pursuing them. And the more ambitious and independent you are, the more you’ll benefit from being held accountable — being answerable for something and to someone.