The Score is a Smoke Screen

Over the years, a lot of people like to ask me what the Octalysis Score represents. You might have that question too as you look at some of the Octalysis charts. As we already know, scores tend to intrigue the mind, and everyone likes to find out about them. However, I usually try to stray away from spending too much time explaining the Octalysis Score because it is actually the least actionable element in the realm of Octalysis.

What’s useful is using the Octalysis chart to determine which Core Drives are weak and need to be improved on, while understanding the nature of the dominant Core Drives in terms of being White/Black Hat and Left/Right Brain. The Octalysis Score itself is somewhat just fun and gimmicky. But since people keep asking, I thought I should share a bit on how I arrive at these numbers.

Generally, for each Core Drive, we assume a number between 0 to 10 based on “How strong does this Core Drive motivate towards the Desired...