My five-year Peloton journey has included two moves, one surgery, countless business trips, a few vacations, and a major home renovation. Oh, yeah… and a bit of a global pandemic.
That’s life. Messy, unpredictable, and rarely following a straight line.
Through it all, my dedication to fitness hasn’t changed. But my needs as a user definitely have.
The best products only begin with solving problems. They evolve with us through life’s changes.
They become part of our story.
After exploring streaks, family workouts, and recovery modes in this short series, here’s what I believe matters most:
- Flexibility to adapt as users’ lives change
- Recognition of different seasons in the journey
- Support for natural breaks and comebacks
- Features that strengthen real-world connections
- Metrics that motivate without creating anxiety
For product makers, the challenge is clear:
How do we build products that feel less like task masters and more like trusted companions?
The answer might be simpler than we think.
Listen to users. Watch how they actually use your product. Notice where they struggle. Pay attention to why they leave – and what brings them back.
Great products don’t demand perfection. People are imperfect.
Great products support progress.
(In deference to Peloton, “Progress, Not Perfection” is a common mantra among its instructors.)
Think about Strava, the popular fitness tracking app. It knows that athletes sometimes need to record a workout manually when they forgot their watch.
It lets you hide a segment of your running route that includes a traffic light where you always have to stop.
It even has a “privacy zone” feature to hide exactly where you start and end your workouts – because it understands that sharing your exact home location might not be smart.
These functions are acknowledgments of how people actually live and use the product in the real world.
What’s your product’s role in your customers’ life story?
Laurier
P.S. Thanks for following this series on making products more human-friendly. What resonated most with you? Hit reply – I’d love to continue the conversation.