InPowr: Self-help 2.0
A new Web app, InPowr, helps you take an inventory of your state of mind, and take action to improve it.
Unveiled at the Web 2.0 Expo on Monday: InPowr, a service to help you achieve your life goals.
Don't laugh. I already did that for you, live from the event. I Twittered: "InPowr intro: WTF? 'It's fun, it's light,' Sure, just answer the 36 QUESTIONS. Argh."
At the moment the site is feels like an online Cosmo quiz. The first thing you do is answer 36 question about your state of mind. Then you get a little diagram showing you where you are, and are not, feeling content. After that, you get a grid with tiles that represent things you need to work on, such as "My finances." Then you put together tiles in groups and, finally, you set up some goals to address the issues in those groups. It's actually not a bad way to take an inventory of what you need to work on in your life, but the whole process is rather rigid.
In its current beta form, the service is a tease, since key features have yet to be released. A key value proposition of InPowr is that it will help you create a 21-day plan to improving your happiness, and that it will allow you to add friends as a support network to help you. These and other key features should come to the service soon, but without them, InPowr strikes me as just a clever quiz.
After the InPowr demo at the Expo, I talked to several people and asked them what they thought about it. "Would you use it?" I asked. The vast majority said, "No way." Only one person seemed intrigued by the service: a woman who told me she was a big Tony Robbins fan.
There's nothing wrong with software and Web apps whose creators want to help us improve our lives. Like the little personal goals start-ups JoesGoals (review) and SuperViva, InPowr comes from a good place. It just seems, for the moment, more precious than useful.
