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In its early days, Alarmy's team was skeptical about its mission and vision. Perhaps it was due to lack of experience, but even after reading many related articles and discussing with many people, it was difficult to agree on why the mission and vision were important.
Does the mission and vision really make sense for startups that are busy searching for Product Market Fit (Product Market Fit)? It is said that mission and vision should not change over time, so does it make sense to decide this at the beginning when everything is uncertain? Wouldn't this concept fit into the lean startup approach? So why do other companies establish this?
Many people around me said that the mission and vision were important, but the explanation of how it was actually applied and what impact it had felt abstract. Saying things like “it helps with decision making” or “motivates members” sounded vague, like the principal's exhortation during a school review.
At the time, we said, “Do we really need a mission? If so, what kind of mission and vision do we need?” I was continuing to think that.
Alarmy started from the beginning without a clear mission or vision. Instead of a grand goal to change the morning of the world, a personal side project created by an individual developer to get up better gradually grew into a business.
In the early days, most of my time was focused on solving users' weather problems, and every time I received feedback that “this app changed my life,” I was greatly encouraged to improve the product. As revenue and users grew, our services were impacting more people.
When growth began to slow, we began discussions about which direction to move forward, what features to develop, and who to target. As team members had different perspectives on the direction of the product, it became difficult to coordinate opinions.
If you think about it, Alarmy is always asking, “How can people wake up effectively?” I tried to answer the question, and while solving this problem, I realized that users were satisfied and the company had grown. The essence of an alarm isn't just to tell you the time; it allows you to start your day at the desired time. Ultimately, effectively waking people up was the core value our app provided.
“Wake people up, fully and clearly” (let's wake people up with complete certainty)
As this mission became clear, the direction of the product became clear, and team members also had a better understanding of the nature of the product, reducing unnecessary communication. For example, I decided not to add a stopwatch or timer function provided by other alarm apps because it didn't fit the direction of “definitely waking up.” Through this course, we learned that the mission defines the essence of a product and provides a direction for startups that need to focus on core goals. For Alarmy, this mission What perfectly awakens peopleThis is it.
The mission is “What do we do as a company?” Ramen, the vision is “What do we ultimately want to achieve?” This is it. It depicts Alarmy 10 years from now, and acts as a compass that tells us where we are looking at.
Historically, an “alarm” was a tool to tell the time. In the past, it started with the cry of a chicken, then changed its appearance with the development of technology in the form of an alarm clock and an alarm app for smartphones, but the role did not change. From the past until now, the purpose of alarms has been simply to let you know when to wake up.
In fact, most alarm apps before Alarmy simply aimed to ring at a fixed time. However, instead of simply sounding an alarm at a fixed time, Alarmy has expanded its scope of responsibility by “actually helping people wake up when they want.” It's a subtle difference, but it makes a big difference in product direction. Various weather missions designed to clearly wake people up at a fixed time, and Alarmy's features such as “prevent falling back asleep” and “prevent turning off the power” created to prevent people from falling back asleep after turning off the alarm are not simply “ringing at a fixed time,” but “as a result, people wake up at the desired time,” they are functions created in consideration of an expanded range of responsibilities.
So what is the next alarm paradigm that Alarmy is trying to change?
We believe the role of alarms should extend beyond simply waking people up to help them start a successful morning. Using Alarmy should mean users wake up perfectly and start their day well. From this thought, our vision was born:
“Make people's morning successful” (Let's make everyone's morning a success)
What is a successful morning? If you can sleep well, wake up when you want, wake up feeling refreshed, and start your day with your favorite morning routine, wouldn't that be close to a successful morning?
Alamy's vision of creating a successful morning naturally extends the alarm's scope of responsibility. If traditional alarms are only responsible for making you wake up on time, Alamy is responsible for a much wider range from the evening time before bedtime to the morning time after waking up, and should take care of the entire user experience during this process. This extended responsibility makes a fundamental difference between Alarmy and traditional alarms. Because of this, Alarmy is positioned as a product in the wellness category rather than just a utility.
By redefining alarms as wellness services that enable a successful start to the day, we believe we can achieve a “zero to one” change that naturally changes people's habits.
Alarms are a necessary tool for everyone around the world. Every morning, people need to wake up for work, study, and self-development. But waking up every time you want isn't as easy as you might think, and an unintentional oversleep can ruin not only your morning but your whole day. With this in mind, helping people start their mornings on time is very important.
Alarmy helps people wake up when they want and start the morning successfully. It may seem like a small change, but changing the way people weather can change their day, week, month, and ultimately their entire lives.
As of December 2024, Alarmy was the first in the world to receive more than 1 million reviews, while maintaining a high rating of 4.8 points and receiving sincere feedback. I believe this is proof that we are making a small but meaningful impact on the world.
We make successful mornings for people around the world every day, and through this, we help them create the lives they want, and thereby have a positive impact on society.
In summary, we aim to effectively wake people up and provide a successful morning for everyone. It took a lot of trial and error to arrive at this seemingly simple mission and vision. Looking back, making the mission and vision effective was not about creating a plausible and nice phrase, but rather a process of deep thinking and discussion with team members about the true meaning and goals of our work.
Finally, I looked back at Alarmy, inspired by Amazon's Jeff Bezos's emphasis on “bet on something worth 10 years from now.”
After 10 years, people will still have to wake up, they will need an alarm, and people will want to wake up when they want and have a successful morning.
We're redefining alarms as “wellness services that help you start a successful day,” and we aim to have people set alarms in anticipation of a successful morning after 10 years.
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