Founding member of Trainiac. Provided product design direction and strategy. Developed the trainer and client side apps, conducted user research, executed major features, and optimized the user experience to grow our user base month over month.
70% of the 169M adults in the US consider fitness a priority, yet 74% of them struggle with making that happen. This is due to an overwhelm in options, many of which put the onus on the user to build their own fitness plan by cobbling together different fitness solutions, going hard with one approach for a few months, or having to physically attend a studio class with a high price point. Personal trainers are expensive and even if someone can afford them for a while, it doesn't make sense long-term for most budgets. People need help. They need to know what to do and they need the motivation to stick to it.
Before Trainiac was born, we built Stryve, a fitness app that created algorithmically generated workouts that evolve with you. We learned that users generally stayed active for around 2-3 months then fell off. This echoes the majority of fitness apps and services that lack accountability. We realized there is a real fatigue that occurs when there is nobody there to get you started on the right foot, build an engaging program that adapts with you, and is cost effective for real ongoing consistency. This is when we realized that a personalized approach with an expert, human touch was worth exploring.
While analyzing the market, we realized a huge opportunity to bring a more holistic and individual approach to the market. We noticed most available solutions fell short from what we wanted to create. We decided that if we can unlock the mystery of helping people establish healthy habits this can extend beyond fitness and captivate a wider, wellness-focused audience.
Our first case study was fitness. Solving this would allow us to apply our our learnings to other areas.
Who are we building this product for?
Embarked in a deep discovery phase identifying which types of people were having success with different types of fitness solutions and what is not working for each demographic. We identified 3 sets of users that we could most help with our product due to the unique set of features and our approach. We felt these people were most underserved in the current fitness space and wanted to reach them with our unique POV.
How can we set up our clients to be successful?
After personas development we defined a readiness scale in which we could accurately predict who was going to have the most success with our product We found that people who were having the most success with our app were people who were in the "preparation" or "action" mindset. We then anchored our language around these mindsets and used this to inform our marketing strategies and app experience moving forward.
When it comes to developing an effective habit of fitness, we’ve found that oversight and encouragement from a qualified professional is absolutely essential. That’s why we set out to make individualized fitness more accessible and affordable to more people.
Working as an agile team utilizing 2-week sprint cycles kept us focused on solving problems quickly and allowed for rapid iteration and testing. We put together prototypes to test with users to understand what worked best and how to shape the desired user behavior. We learned fast and applied solutions between rounds of testing to continue moving efficiently.
Time based, follow-along video format featuring bodyweight-only, cardio work, and various equipment options.
Rep based workouts featuring dumbbell, barbell, and strength training work at all levels.
Log activities done outside of Trainiac to give your trainer a complete view of your fitness lifestyle (running, cycling, studio class, etc).
In response to Covid-19, we developed a new offering for clients to engage in fitness in a virtual class environment.
Your custom fitness ratio of cardio, strength training, and mobility work to get you to your goal.
Breakdown of what how may days you will work out and what type of workout you will do.
On-demand trainer chat for asking questions, getting support, and deepening rapport.
A daily, monthly, and lifelong dashboard view of one's fitness habits, trends, and statistics.
Integration with Apple Health so clients can fold data from 3rd party apps into their Trainiac experience and keep their trainer in the loop.
Find a trainer that matches what you are looking for in specialty, personality, and training style.
Report card of your progress with opportunity to reflect on progress and ask trainer for adjustments.
Target calories, macros breakdown, target hydration, meal planning, grocery lists, etc.
In addition to the client app, we designed a sophisticated trainer side app to enable trainers to manage clients, build custom plans, design custom workouts using our robust content library, take notes to evolve a client's programming, and build relationships with their growing client base. They're even able to see how they are performing as a trainer with a dashboard that displays average response time, trial to paid, and retention metrics.
Trainiac has helped me grow my training business and has made it a breeze to create custom programming for each of my clients.
Here's a peak of the high level UX flows including Sign in, Onboarding, Weighted Workouts, HIIT Workouts, Live Group Training, + Activities.
While building Trainiac we keep a close pulse on KPIs like client acquisition, conversion, LTV, CPM, and retention data to guide high level investments and engage with investors. We also look at detailed user behavior datas as well as conducting qualitative feedback sessions with both clients and trainers.
As we continue building on Trainiac's success, we consistently gather qualitative and quantitive feedback from our clients and trainers. This involves keeping a close eye on usability, customer support tickets, scheduling research sessions, sending surveys, and keeping close relationships with our trainer team.
In addition, each week I lead a workshop where we discuss how to ensure that we continue helping people build a habit of fitness and transform their relationship with movement. These discussions directly influence product strategy roadmaps moving forward.
Since our main goal is to help people establish healthy habits in their lives, we're looking forward to adding other wellness facets into our programming. This will include nutrition, hydration, sleep, mindfulness, and more.
In order to get there, we need to rebuild the app to make our mental model clear. Our goal is to visually reflect our evolved point of view in our app and provide the space and organization necessary to keep the client experience clean and easy to navigate. Our high-level core values and offerings will be reflected at a glance.
We've been honored to be featured in the Wall Street Journal, Self Magazine, Women's Health, The Telegraph, Insider, Livestrong, CNBC, MSN, WebMD, Well+God, Shape, Mac World, and many more. Here are just a few awards that we've garnered through our client and product experience.
