I recently tried to answer the question—how do you build a premium community product that helps people preparing for extreme athletic events, go from ametuer to semi-pro to pro?
The first thing I did was make up some detailed user profiles (enjoyed this part of the process the most), identify and list problems with existing training apps in the market, ideate features that my app will contain, chart what the user’s journey will look like and some GTM methods too. I also made a couple of mockups.
User profile of Hamsa Chandrasekar, who is a semi-pro athlete:
Hamsa is a 29 year old tailor living in Gidhaur, Jharkhand. She has competed in local athletics competitions from a very young age and hence, is well-known there. Hamsa thoroughly enjoys the popularity. She now wants to leverage her strength in athletics to step out of her locality and make a mark at a more popular stage.
Daily routine:
Hamsa gets up at 6 AM and opens up her tailoring shop soon after. She begins sweeping the floors, tidying up her table, and gathering tidbits of cloth from around the shop left over from yesterday’s work. She begins work by 6.30 AM and continues to trim, stitch and hem until the day’s first customers and people picking up their clothes start dropping by at 9 AM.
She then mostly spends the rest of her work day conversing with new customers about their needs, bantering with the few repeat customers that have made her shop their go-to (some of whom are fans of the athletic prowess she had as a kid and a teenager) and working on clothes intermittently, until 4 PM.
She packs up for the day then, and heads home where she has a gym setup that she has built over a couple of years. She takes a nap to recover from the hard day’s work and heads to the gym room by 6 PM where she starts her workout with some cardio on the treadmill and light HIIT before hitting the weights. She is unaware of good fitness and training apps due to lack of exposure to such online platforms, and has built her workout routine entirely from tips she’s heard from interactions with her customers.
She has sweated a satisfactory amount by 7.30 PM, and so she takes a quick shower and begins preparing dinner for herself while watching some TV before heading to bed early.
Goals:
Hamsa wants to regain and increase her popularity by getting back into the world of athletics in a dramatic and loud way (and she believes the best way to do this is by finishing on the podium at a national-level triathlon or a similar event)
She wants access to an easy-to-use app that will be a knowledgeable and helpful digital trainer of sorts, throughout her training journey
Frustrations:
Living in Gidhaur, she has limited access to quality training
She has a hectic day job that takes up the majority of her day so she would like to customise her training timings
User profile of Ramesh Sethuraman, who is an amateur athlete:
Ramesh is a 23 year old software engineer who is a fitness enthusiast. He began trying out multiple types of exercises like swimming, weight training, pilates and HIIT in his late teens, but has never tried out any athletics competitively. In an attempt to challenge himself, Ramesh has decided that he will take on the ironman race.
Daily routine:
Ramesh wakes up at 9 AM, and logs onto his work laptop soon after. After a couple of hours of checking and replying to his emails, standup meetings and 1:1s, he takes a break at 12 PM for a quick bite which is usually a sandwich or an omelette.
After eating, he heads to the well-equipped gym in his apartment by 12.45 PM. He has lately been trying to follow a routine of spaced out leg days, arm and core days and today is leg day. He spends an hour and a half doing lunges, deadlifts and squats among other exercises. In the gym, he is joined by a few people he is used to seeing there regularly, and chats with them in between his workout.
During the walk back to his house, he looks up some of the tips his gym peers told him and researches upcoming athletic events on his phone. By interacting with a few ex-athletes in the gym, he has developed a keen interest in extreme athletic events and now wants to take part in them.
He has showered and feels refreshed enough by 2.45 PM to head into a deep work mode. He mutes his phone notifications and codes, runs tests and reads documentation for a couple more hours.
He feels some strong hunger pangs around 5 PM, and heads to the kitchen to make himself a large and satisfying meal. He runs back and forth between his work laptop and the stove to ensure he’s on top of any urgent work tasks or messages. He then eats early dinner at 7 PM while reading the news and scrolling through social media.
After asynchronously updating his manager and teammates on the progress he’s made on work during the day, he heads to his room at 9.00 PM and begins a series of phone and video calls with his parents, siblings and some friends from his bed. He continues to monitor his work laptop for some time, and ends up falling asleep at 1 AM.
Goals:
Ramesh wants to push his body to the limits because he feels like he hasn’t tested it yet through the workouts he’s tried (and he believes the best way to do this is by finishing in an extreme athletic event like the ironman race)
He wants a buddy with a similar fitness proficiency and goal so they can motivate each other and keep each other on track
Frustrations:
Ramesh hasn’t stuck to any fitness apps because he is frustrated by the lack of personalisation in these apps
He has endless access to tons of resources online, but doesn’t have the patience to collate them
User profile of Sruthi Ramachandran, who is a pro athlete:
Sruthi is a 25 year old professional athlete living in Bareilly.
Daily routine:
Sruthi is typically awake and ready for breakfast by 7 AM — a breakfast that hasn’t seen much variation over her 10 years as a professional athlete. She consumes 2 boiled eggs, a banana and a multivitamin. She spends the first hour of her day eating breakfast slowly, sipping plenty of water, reading the day before news and (slightly anxiously) rereading details about upcoming competitions.
At 8.30 AM, she makes her way to the public ground near her house. She exchanges greetings with her trainer and they begin with the usual track day routine which is a slow jog, followed by some stretches, and walking slowly into a sprint. After a few repetitions and variations of the same, Sruthi is thoroughly exhausted. It’s 10 AM and the sun’s now harshly beating down on them.
After a quick debrief with her trainer, she heads home and spends some time relaxing by showering, helping her mom out in the kitchen and taking their dog on a walk. She has a nutritious homemade lunch at 12.30 PM that’s loaded with proteins and fats. The filling meal leaves her sleepy, and she takes a nap.
Waking up at 2 PM, she heads to a gym nearby where she carries out an intense plyometric workout whose details have been messaged to her by her trainer. Her leg and core muscles feel like jelly after an hour and a half of this, and she heads home right after.
She reaches home by 4.30 PM and takes a few minutes to stretch and meditate, before taking her dog outside to play. She spends the rest of her day reviewing the next day’s training schedule, watching YouTube videos that are mainly about the mental aspect of competing in athletic events and taking notes, and eating dinner with her mom before heading to bed at 10 PM.
Goals:
Sruthi wants to continue to maintain consistency in her routine, while regularly finding and implementing little improvements
She wants to approach her next athletic event with confidence and less anxiety than her last one
Frustrations:
Having been an athlete for over ten years, Sruthi is very bored of her normal routine and wants to find joy and fun in her daily grind again
She is unaware of any helpful communities of athletes near her and would like to find one to mitigate the loneliness that has come with being a solo sportsperson
Problems with existing apps:
1.There is a lack of real-world simulation.
In Formula 1, drivers take a dedicated day to walk the track they will be driving on. Unfortunately, a track walk isn’t a common practice for races like triathlons and marathons though it is very important. It serves the purpose of preparing participants for any surprises like sharp turns or ugly terrain, and allows them to calm their nerves and visualise themselves in the race feeling good. It is also important to pay heed to the weather they’ll be running in, and prepare themselves accordingly.
2.There is no mental training
Extreme races like the ultraman and ironman races require a particular mindset to participate and finish, due to the tremendous physical stress the body comes under. Following practices like objective self feedback and “being in the moment” has helped many professional athletes get in the right mindset to produce the best results. While pro athletes around the world have access to high-quality psychologists and therapists who provide this help to them, it is usually out of reach for hobbyists and amateur athletes.
3.There is not much information on “why”
While many apps provide recommendations on training schedules and diets, there isn’t much transparency to the user on “why” they’re recommending these. There is a need to show and tell the user why they’re recommending what they do.
Features and user flow:
Each feature was born out of the most pressing frustration for each persona and missing pieces on apps in the market today.
1.As soon as they sign up, the user is greeted with a questionnaire that asks them certain questions to gauge their fitness goals (which race and when and where they’re participating), history, current schedule and athletic proficiency so that the app can make recommendations of schedules and exercises based on this.
2.They are then presented with a detailed day-by-day schedule of activities including nearby locations where they can carry it out to closely simulate a real-world race, optimised according to their answers to the questionnaire. This is coupled with a larger roadmap that details exactly how each week’s progress will make a difference and why certain activities have been recommended and at certain times of day. This schedule is customisable.
3.Users can log their activity and while they’re doing this, the app gives regular reminders on posture and pace
4.Based on their location, the kind of race they’re looking to take part in and their current athletic proficiency, users can find a buddy to keep each other on track and motivate each other. This is in addition to, and more effective and personalised than, groups that they can find and join on the app where there are fun leaderboards and shared logs so users can celebrate each others’ wins.
5.Leading up to the day of the race, the app gives regular weather forecasts for the day and locks all features on the day itself, only showing “best of luck” messages from the user’s buddy and groups on the d-day
First prototype’s design shots:
GTM methods:
1. Announce a waitlist for the app, when it’s launched to the world
Similar to a “FOMO” style marketing campaign, a waitlist creates a sense of exclusivity while generating a buzz around the new product.
2. Before the announcement, create social media buzz through “mysterious” and puzzle-like content that’s shared through influencer partnerships
We will try to attract people to the waitlist landing page, through social media. We will create a page for this product before its launch, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and partner with influencers closely connected to the world of athletics (for example, fitness influencers) to post and share content that creates a sense of anticipation around the launch.
3. Sponsor local athletic events
Local athletic events like marathons typically attract a very large gathering in India. In fact, the largest marathon in Asia is one that takes place every January in Mumbai, India (Tata Mumbai Marathon). These are people who are either amateur or semi-pro athletes and hence these make for the perfect venues for gathering brand awareness.
4. Provide free helpful content and increase organic discoverability, through SEO
Since organic SEO efforts typically take months to show any results, we’ll begin a blog hosted on the product’s website that provides helpful content to readers about mentally training for races, diet tips and recommended schedules among other topics. This will eventually establish our brand as a thought leader in the space.
5. Do paid ads at strategic places — for example, popular blogs about fitness and the homepages of athletic events’ websites
The audience we’re reaching out to - those interested in, and are preparing for extreme athletic events spend a majority of their time surfing very particular parts of the internet. Fitness blogs are one example and this is where we’ll put up display ads.