The moment the wheel stopped

I remember the first time we launched the discount wheel. The analytics were open on one screen, my coffee was cold on the other. It wasn't about the spin itself, but the pause before it.

Watching the hesitation

You could almost see it in the data—a little blip of hesitation before the click. I started noticing it wasn't just about getting a discount. It was a tiny moment of permission, a user deciding to engage on their own terms.We had debated the odds for days. Making them too generous felt cheap, like we were buying attention. Making them too stingy felt like a trap. Finding that middle ground was the first real test.

The quiet win of fairness

The real shift happened when we stopped hiding the mechanics. We put the odds right there, in plain text next to the wheel. No asterisks, no fine print. It felt risky, like showing your hand in a card game.But the reaction was different. The bounce rate dipped. The time spent on the page went up, just a little. It was the quietest win I've ever tracked, but it meant more than any spike in conversions. It was the beginning of a different kind of conversation.

A change in the questions

Support tickets shifted from 'Is this real?' to 'How do I use my code?' That tiny change in phrasing told me everything.

The value of a clear no

Seeing someone land on 'Try Again' and not immediately leave the site. That was the moment I knew the trust was building, slowly.