LockIN

LockIN turns solo work into team energy. Inspired by the Kohler effect, it links students in small focus groups where everyone’s progress boosts motivation—making isolation feel collaborative.

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LockIN: Product Story

Inspiration

We’ve always struggled with procrastination, especially when surrounded by people doing the exact same thing. It’s easy to convince yourself it’s okay to slack off when everyone around you is too. Over time, we realized that growth often depends on the people you surround yourself with. When you’re around individuals who are focused and working hard, you naturally want to match their energy. This idea is backed by the Köhler effect: a psychological phenomenon where individuals perform better when they feel their contribution is crucial to the group’s success.

That realization inspired us to create LockIN, a social platform designed to help people stay accountable, focused, and motivated through shared productivity.

What It Does

LockIN allows users to form or join productivity groups where each member works toward their own goals—but together. Users can create dedicated sessions, add friends or peers, and track each other’s progress in real time. Seeing others lock in and make progress fuels motivation and keeps everyone accountable. It transforms solo productivity into a collaborative experience driven by social connection.

How We Built It

We built LockIN using React Native for the mobile front end, ensuring a smooth and intuitive user experience. For authentication, we integrated AWS Cognito, allowing users to sign up and securely log in. We used Amazon RDS to store user data and PostgreSQL as our main database for reliability and scalability. FastAPI serves as the bridge between our backend and frontend—fetching, updating, and sending data seamlessly between the app and the database.

Challenges We Ran Into

Setting up the app’s full infrastructure and testing each component took significant time and teamwork. One major challenge was dealing with merge conflicts while collaborating on the same codebase, which slowed progress and required careful version control. We also faced technical hurdles integrating certain AWS services, especially authentication and database connections, which demanded troubleshooting and trial-and-error. Despite those challenges, we learned a lot about teamwork, patience, and problem-solving under pressure.

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

We’re incredibly proud of having a fully functional demo that allows users to sign in, view stored data, and access a clean, responsive UI. The fact that our app not only works but also reflects our original vision for social-driven productivity is something we’re genuinely proud of.

What We Learned

We learned how much goes into full-stack development, from designing front-end interfaces to managing backend infrastructure and cloud integrations. Working with AWS gave us hands-on experience with real-world tools like Cognito, RDS, and S3, and we learned how to collaborate efficiently while building a product end to end.

What’s Next for LockIN

Looking ahead, we plan to integrate AWS Rekognition to add a unique accountability feature. In future versions, users could “lock in” by submitting a quick selfie, Rekognition would verify their identity and confirm that they’re present for their session, whether at the gym or studying. This ensures real engagement and adds an interactive layer of motivation.

We also want to introduce public global groups, allowing users to join broader communities centered around productivity themes like studying, fitness, or creativity. Lastly, adding an SMS messaging feature within groups will make it even easier for members to communicate, celebrate wins, and stay on track together.

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