The FROG Method · Player Diagnostic

It's not your course.
It's one broken letter.

Four things make any game impossible to put down — and any offer actually work: Feedback, Rules, Opt-in, Goal. Miss one and the whole thing stalls, no matter how good the rest is.

I could never keep them straight, so I turned them into a frog. You're welcome.

Landed here from the scorecard? One of these four is where your game is breaking. Let's find it — so you stop fixing what was never the problem.

Here's what each letter looks like when it's the broken one.

FeedbackThe progress you can feel.

Great games constantly show you you're winning — points, a filling bar, a level-up, a satisfying ding. That's what keeps your thumb on the controller at 1am.

Broken when

People buy your course and never finish it
Followers like one post, then quietly vanish
Members go silent a few weeks in
People get so close to a result, then disappear

If people start and don't finish, it's not your ending. It's your feedback loop.

RulesThe container that makes it playable.

Constraints sound like the boring part, but they're why a game feels fair and doable instead of overwhelming. Your scope, your boundaries, your "here's exactly what this is."

Broken when

The offer's so open-ended nobody knows where to start
It promises everything — which reads as nothing
People can't tell what's included or how long it takes
Or it's so rigid it feels like a cage, and they opt out

Too loose and they drown. Too tight and they suffocate. Either way, they bounce.

Opt-inThe yes — and where most people are secretly stuck.

A game only works if you choose to play. Every click, every join, every buy is an opt-in. This is the one I see break most often, by a mile.

Broken when

You post the invite to your blog or offer… and hear crickets
Your site's been live for years; nobody visits unless you drag them there
Great content, zero clicks
You keep fixing the thing behind the wall — but the wall is where people turn around

It's not your course. Nobody's even seen it. It's the invitation.

GoalThe reason worth playing for.

Every game gives you something to chase — believable enough that you think you can do it, big enough that you actually want to. Get that balance wrong in either direction and nobody plays.

Broken when

The promise sounds too good to be true, so nobody believes it
Or it's too small to bother with
There's no clear destination at all
Or it's your goal, not theirs — they can't see themselves in it

Unbelievable, invisible, or not worth the trip — and nobody presses start.

So now you know your letter.

One of those four stung a little more than the others. That sting is clarity.

You might be great at some of these — most people are. But one broken letter breaks the whole game. The best goal in the world can't save you if nobody opts in. Perfect opt-ins don't matter if your feedback loop lets everyone quit halfway.

You came in thinking the problem was your course, your website, your offer, you.

Turns out it's just a letter. And now you know which one.

That's what makes it fixable.