Fitness Trainer

The personal training industry is worth a whopping $13B today (2022), but trainers still struggle to create a stable business, with some 80% closing shop before the end of their first year.

Motivated by a personal life-long curiosity and involvement in this space, I wondered if perhaps the solution might lie in instruction.

With only 6 weeks to work on this project, I was aware from the beginning that there would be no time to put together and carry out my own Qualitative Research plan.

Research Approach

So given my time and resource constraints, I used secondary "desk" research (aka. existing literature) for my data. In particular, I looked at:

• Survey data. I divided this data into two categories: one that looked at the situation from the trainer's point-of-view, and the other from the client's.
• Industry releases. In particular, accreditation organizations, like the NCCA, collect information that help provide an accurate look at the state of the industry.
• Articles. I cross-referenced my findings with up-to-date articles written by subject matter experts

The information gathered from the research allowed me to determine who the audience was (specifically), what the problem was (specifically), and where the gap(s) were.

Key Insights

To summarize, below are the most salient insights that I discovered from my data analysis process:

• hard & soft skills. clients who stayed with their trainers the longest would most frequently cite their trainers' blend of expertise and empathizing skills as their primary reason why.
• retention > acquisition. in such a competitive industry, the key to success for personal trainers is to focus on improving their client retention rate, rather than client acquisition. it is far more profitable to retain an existing client than to acquire a new one.
• people, people, people. as obvious as this may sound, too many trainers seem to be forgetting the "personal" aspect of the training. clients all have a personal story to tell about their struggles with fitness. they most want to feel "heard."

Design Model

Based on the research, I decided to apply Cathy Moore's Action Mapping design model because of its fit with the needs of this project. In specific, it matched up with the following key priorities listed below:

• Adult Learning Theory. With an audience consisting of adults (18+), the solution would need to follow a set of principles based on Andragogy (such as the Knowles theory).
• Business Goals. The design solution would need to be able to show, in as direct a manner as possible, how it relates to the business goals.
• Action-Oriented. Since we are aiming to change a job behavior or action, the ideal design model would make practicing this behavior a centerpiece of the solution.

Moore's Action Mapping process allowed me to apply a similar approach as the Backwards Design model, where the designer starts with the end goal or objective in mind first and works backwards, incorporating only what is absolutely necessary.

Action Mapping in Action

I had earlier identified the 2 main expectations that clients had in their trainers: expertise (or, domain knowledge) and empathy (or, the ability to listen to their clients and respond to their needs accurately.)

Since domain knowledge was something most trainers knew how to acquire, and for which there were already plenty of solutions, I decided that the focus of my solution needed to be on training their empathizing skills.

1. Identify the Business Goal

What was the direct, measurable business goal that this solution is designed to achieve?

To increase client retention rates for personal trainers

2. Identify what people need to do to reach that goal

What specific action did trainers need to be able to do in order to "increase client retention rates?"

know how to empathize with their clients

3. Design activities that help people practice the behavior

For this third step, I took some time to brainstorm and ideate. After all, empathizing is, in and of itself, a difficult skill to learn, which means its acquisition is more likely to be measured in terms of years rather than days or weeks.

What I knew for sure at this point, due to the insights gathered from the data, was that:

• clients often brought up the same, specific reasons for why they left their trainers
• trainers sometimes felt "unsure" of what to say or how to respond in very specific situations with their clients

Perhaps the best thing to do in this case is to provide a learning solution that would have trainers face highly likely scenarios that most closely mimic real-life authentic practice so that they can learn how to respond to such challenges in real life.

With this idea in mind, I created the following storyboard in order to imagine how this solution might play out.

4. Identify the Minimum Information people need to complete each activity

I wasn't sure how to gauge how much knowledge I should assume my users would already have. And there was no time to conduct the type of research to find out.

So I decided that the best way forward might be to embed clues in the context to help them make the correct choice. I also decided to have a learning module precede the assessment so that users could feel free to take guesses and make mistakes in the first portion, which would help inform their more educated selections during the latter. (This design decision can be seen very explicitly in the difference between Prototypes 1 and 2 below.)

Moore's Action Mapping process allowed me to develop a prototype very quickly. The entire process from research to the creation of the first prototype took only 3 weeks owing, in large part, to the model's emphasis on speed and iteration. I tested the first prototype with several users for a week, and used their feedback to develop a second, much more fleshed-out version by week 6.

Prototype 1.0

The first iteration, built using Articulate Storyline 360 (and Adobe Photoshop for graphics), was a scaled-down version that was designed to get an MVP in front of test users as quick as possible. Click here or on the image below to try it out.

Prototype 2.0

While Prototype 1 was designed to be made obsolete as quick as possible, Prototype 2 was designed to "endure." With the addition of some assessment measurement and reporting features, it would be ready to deploy. Click here or on the image below to try it out.

Upon reflection, what were some of the biggest takeaways to come about from this project? For this project, there was really just one big "aha" moment.

Identifying the real need

The business need in this case was very apparent (increasing revenue for trainers), but there were so many different directions this project could have taken in order to help accomplish that. What helped me pinpoint what I believed to be the most optimal way forward was to prioritize the customer's feedback data and attempt to solve the problem from their end (rather than from the perspective of the actual client, the personal trainer).

Identifying the pain points of the customer allowed me to see how the personal trainer needed to improve their own services. If I had started with the needs and pain points of the trainer, on the other hand, I might have developed a solution that would have made them happier in the short-term but that their own clients may not have wanted. Here is how the theoretical frameworks had played out in my head:

Original Framework

Before conducting any research or analysis, this was how I viewed the problem: the client had already identified the problem, so all he needed was a solution from me.

Optimizing Framework

But by conducting my own research and analysis, I discovered that a more optimal solution could be explored if we essentially started from scratch (and involved the end users more). This shifted the solution in the client's mind away from "acquiring new customers," which is a costly endeavor, to one of "retaining existing ones," which can be done with fewer resources and a well-designed instructional intervention.