top of page

​Amity Fit
- Tinder for Fitness

Prompt: Develop a product helping people ease into the life post-pandemic
 
Products Splash Competition 2021

Overview: A hypothetical social platform where fitness enthusiasts can meet & work on goals together

​

Duration: 5 weeks

​

Team members: Linh Tran, Surbhi Kochhar, Sabrina Chan, Therese Faith Brasileño

​

Biggest achievement: Create a product from scratch!  

​

​

Overview

Problem

During the pandemic, our team lacks the motivation to exercise, and this boils down to not seeing others exercise. Integral to the fitness experience are the social interactions that give it a human touch. The pandemic has wiped out the friendly banter from fitness enthusiasts. This has led to an isolated, and estranged feeling from exercise.

Why is this problem important?

Because of the home confinement and quarantine order, Fitness and Social Interactions are the two aspects of life most impacted by Covid.

Solution

With the new normal being constructed, we want to reestablish social connections founded on a renewed commitment to health and fitness. It’s Tinder for fitness where you can track progress, set goals and get rewarded for going on “fitness dates” with your partner.

My contribution

During the research phase, I conducted market research & competitive analysis. To solidify the ideas, I designed an user survey with the team, and interviewed potential users.

 

During the ideation phase, I analyzed user feedback, thus prioritized which features to build in our MVP. I also conducted user testing, and worked with designers to implement changes.

​

During the evaluation phase, I defined success metrics and potential pitfalls of the project. Finally, I prepared a pitch deck and a case study brief.

Our approach

1. RESEARCH

  • Market Research

  • Competitive Analysis 

  • Survey & Interviews

  • Affinity mapping

2. IDEATION

  • Brainstorming

  • Lo-fi Prototype

  • Hi-fi Prototype

3. EVALUATE

  • Product Roadmap

  • Success Metrics/Potential Pitfalls

  • Pitch Deck/Case study Brief

Final Pitch Deck

Research

1. Identifying the problem

As a team, we all felt unmotivated to exercise during the pandemic. While the downloading rate of fitness apps increased exponentially during the quarantine, the inherent personal touch in exercising with others was lost. Now that we are slowly transitioning into normal life,  an idea of a social fitness app started bubbling.

2.  Research

To better understand the problem space, we conducted literature review and a competitive analysis. For the competitive analysis, we focus on fitness apps that comprise community-based elements.

nrc.png
fitbit.png
strava.png
PU.png

Our main findings are:

  • Social interactions and fitness activities are 2-way street, both enhancing one another, making a good combination

  • Fitness apps have a place in the market and continue to dominate in the upcoming years.

  • Current fitness apps focus a lot on people who are already into fitness, not people who try to break into fitness or try something new 

  • Current fitness apps provide a community for shared experiences; however, there is no accountability feature

​

​

The results motivated to:

  • Focus on the social aspect to see if people want to meet with new people nearby in the neighborhood to workout with in-person, especially post-covid time in interviews and surveys

  • Narrow down our target users

3. Redefining target users

Survey

We used a survey to 1) people's pain points of workout in the pandemic, 2) people's perceptions of social aspect of fitness, and 3) narrow down our target users.

Screen Shot 2021-08-21 at 5.35.52 PM.png

Interviews

Afterwards, I conducted interviews with fitness enthusiasts to understand more about their fitness routines and how they approach fitness post-pandemic.

Redefining target users

From our surveys & interviews, we further analyze the target users based on their needs and the product's impacts. Based on our evaluations, we decided to focus on young adults who are fitness enthusiasts.

  • See detailed Targetted User Analysis

4. Affinity Mapping

After narrowing down on our target users, we did an affinity mapping to understand their exercise habits, and what pain points they are facing 

Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 12.40.52 AM.png

Key Takeaway: From our research & affinity mapping, we found that the pain points are Lack of motivation & Lack of support towards exercise in the pandemic

Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 3.50.56 PM.png

Ideation

1. Brainstorming

After having a clear understanding of our target user and what they pain points are, the team did the "How Might We" exercise to brainstorm on different potential solutions. Each member came up with several ideas for each HMW question, then we discuss as a group. 

Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 12.55.44 AM.png
Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 12.56.18 AM.png

From here, we narrowed down the big themes that emerged for each of the users' pains and gains.

Pains

Pain Relievers

Loss of motivation due to the pandemic

Stay motivated with an accountability partner

Gains

Working out with others with the same passion

Gains Creators

Get paired with one person or a group who wants to do the same exercise

Exercise frequently to keep fit

Be able to track the workout ptogress

  • See detailed Targetted User Analysis

The Solution

A social-based fitness app that matches people to accountability partners and find fitness opportunities in their community while tracking their own fitness progress. Like Tinder! But for Fitness! 

​

  • Curated Fitness Matching: meet accountability partner based on location, fitness levels, and goals

  • Hybrid model: encourage reali-life/online meet up to enhance the social aspect and the physical wellness aspect 

  • Reward System: the more users exercise, the more friends they meet. 

2. Lo-fi Prototype

Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 5.41.56 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 5.42.53 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-09-05 at 5.43.09 PM.png

We started out by sketching out the screens for 2 processes: Finding a personalized match, and join an event/challenge.

  • See detailed Targetted User Analysis

3. User Testing

user testing.jpeg

I conducted user testing with 3 potential users. The users found the flow to be easy to use, and had no difficulties navigating the flow. There was only an issue of not being able to go back to change their responses for matching criteria, which we implemented by adding a "Back" arrow.

Evaluation

1. Final Prototype

2. Lessons learned

Communication & organization when working in teams is key

Working online with a team from 3 different timezones teaches me to set clear goals and expectations early on among the members. We utilized a lot of work collaboration tools such as Miro, Figma, and Google Drive

Product Managers truly wear a lot of hats!

I have heard several times that PMs conduct a lot of roles in the product cycle, and here, I experienced it first-hand. Validating a problem, conducting user testing & navigating product roadmap all in 5 weeks were definitely daunting, but I appreciated PM roadmap & framework more as I had to make quick decisions in a short time.

Don't be rushed in the problem validation stage

A good product solves the problem. Again, I have learned from this experience that regardless of the beautiful design & detailed product roadmap, if one cannot define the problem to solve, the product is not helpful.

3. If I had more time, I would...

Conduct an user testing with the final prototype

Conduct more user interviews to prioritize the product features

Apparently after we conducted this case study, there have been a few social fitness app got launched, so I would want to look into them.

© 2024 by Linh Tran. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page