Case study: On-demand video gym

After I decided to become a product manager, I have invested lots of time in having product manager skills. I think the main role of the product manager is to solve the customer’s problems and give competitive advantage to the company. Every product manager must have a certain skill set to achieve these goals. I decided to master these skills via doing case studies of actual products already in the market and be a great product manager.

My name is Harsh and I am a self made product manager. This article is about designing a new product feature for the Urban Sports Club (USC). For those who are not aware of USC, it offers a flexible and diverse flat-rate sport membership across Europe. I personally use this membership and am very happy about it. This case study is just one hypothesis, for learning perspective and not supported by the USC.

Problem: Design an on demand video product for USC members.

Solution:

Well, to find the right solution for this problem, we need to assume many things in our case study. Let’s start with asking the question about whether this new feature will be inside the USC website or a separate portal. Let’s assume that we want to offer this on demand video feature within the USC website. Also assuming to design MVP in this case study just for the USC website. But of course in the long run we can add this feature for the mobile app as well.

Now, I would start with this framework to solve this problem,

1. USC’s vision
2. Market and competitor research
3. Customer segmentation and prioritization
4. Potential pain points and prioritization
5. Find solutions to solve the selected pain point
6. Features of the MVP
7. Define the trade-Offs
8. Define success metrics

1. USC’s Vision:

Think about USC’s vision of why they want to launch an on demand video feature. I assume that the vision is to keep people engaged with the fitness and other activities they care about during and after covid-19 pandemic. In general during the lock down situation, it is difficult for members to visit their partner’s studio for desired activities. For this reason it totally makes sense for USC to introduce an on demand video feature for the members.

2. Market and Competitor Research:

It is obvious that there are multiple competitors already functioning in the market like Cyberobics, Gymondo etc. I would focus on finding out the unique features which aren’t provided by the competitors. Of course you can list all the active competitors, make a table and compare each feature provided by them to find out what could be the next game changing new feature. Just to keep this case study brief towards the goal, I would not go deep dive into the competitor evaluation.

In my opinion, I would consider adding the social interaction to this on demand video feature which is not provided by the competitors yet. With the social interaction feature I mean that the members can like, comment and share the video content. As USC is having huge members across Europe and if the members can share this new feature with their friends and family then automatically it can get popular and USC can leverage from the members activity.

3. Customer Segmentation and Prioritization:

I would define the customer segmentation in two big buckets.

• Creators
• Viewers

Creators: As we know this feature demands a professional video content so that the members can see their desired videos and in general it is in interest of USC that with this feature, USC gets more paid members. For this purpose I would encourage the local professional video creators and partners of the USC to create content for this feature. With this feature they can easily login into the website and upload their professional video content. Of course this on-boarding process for the creators needs to be regulated by the USC guidelines.

Viewers: From the viewers perspective we can add some social features to the platform like they can like, comment and share the content uploaded by the creators. And I believe that this is definitely a unique feature for the USC website as no one in the market provides this kind of feature. In the long run based on the viewers activity metric, we can personalize the experience for the viewers by recommending suitable videos.

I would focus and prioritize the creators segment. I feel that in the beginning, if we focus on creators and manage to create good content with them, then this will be a huge success for this feature.

4. Potential Pain Points and Prioritization:

I also believe that this kind of feature is not that easy to build, especially when you don’t know if this idea works or not. These are the potential pain points I see, which have the high impact in the success of this feature.

• If this feature brings new paid members for USC or not.
• It’s difficult to know at this stage whether members like this feature or not. If not then it would be a waste of time, money and effort.
• Whether the video content created by the creator is good enough for the members. So, to regulate the high quality and good content is a challenging part.
• From the creator’s perspective, maybe some creators think they are good at what they are teaching but not good at making professional videos or vice versa. So, to connect a good creator with a professional video creator would be also the biggest challenge in the beginning.
• And if the members are using this feature then how can we engage them to use this feature often.

In my opinion, these are the potential pain points I see at this stage. And all these pain points are somehow connected to each other. From these points I believe that the biggest challenge is to connect professional video creators and creators (teachers), and working collaboratively with them to create professional video content. The reason behind choosing this most impactful pain point is because ultimately, the good content will decide, whether this feature is successful or not.

5. Find solutions to solve the selected pain point:

After selection of the impactful pain point, let’s try to find out the potential solution for that.

• Create the professional video creator team. Make sure that they work together with the creators (teachers) to create professional video content.
• Encourage the creators to record their live session and then upload it to the platform.
• Ask the creators to record a video and send it to USC. Then with the help of the professional editors, try to make the content good enough so that people like to watch and tell others to watch it.

There could also be more solutions to this pain point. But I would choose to go with the first one. I think also that with the help of a professional creator and video creator team, USC can make this feature more impactful.

6. Features of the MVP:

Well, let’s discuss and list out the features of the on demand video product. Following is the list of the features from the creator as well as from the viewer’s perspective,

• Creators and viewers can login to the website
• Creators can upload the videos
• Creators as well as viewers can like, comment and share the content
• Viewers can also make their watch list
• Viewers can give feedback private as well as public
• Categorize the content based on activity
• Categorize the content based on time
• Categorize the content based on creators
• Categorize the content based on level
• Categorize the content based on personal goal

Of course we can add plenty of new features to this MVP but for a start I would go with these features and then add or refine the features based on the insights from the metrics.

7. Define the trade-Offs:

Now, let’s define some trade-offs,

• Well, for some people who are not that self motivated to do an activity online at home with on demand video, would be difficult to choose for this feature. They would prefer more live sessions.
• On the other hand, there are some people who feel observed during the live sessions, for them this feature would be great.
• People may be confused in choosing live sessions or on demand video content.
• To provide the weekly or monthly activity chart for the members would be great add on to the on demand video feature. With the help of that members can evaluate their activities.

I believe in general, USC should start creating the weekly or monthly report for their members about their respective activities. We can provide this feature on demand because we are also concerned about the privacy of the members and we stay compliant with the GDPR regulations. If they ask for the report then we provide them on demand.

8. Define success metrics:

Following is the list of success metrics for this feature,

• Engagement metric for creators
• Engagement metric for viewers
• Retention metric for viewers
• Average no. of videos uploaded
• Monthly/weekly active members
• Average length of the video seen by the members
• Feedback from the creators and viewers
• Creator retention metric (whether they upload content frequently or not)

This is not the complete list of metrics but for the beginning as a product manager for this product feature, I would consider these success metrics for valuable insights.

End Note

Well, as mentioned earlier, this is not the only way to solve this problem. This is just the hypothesis. In my opinion the product manager must discuss this feature with the stakeholders and brainstorm some ideas. Optionally you can also add a user journey for the creators and viewers. Also discuss the competitive advantages of this feature as we have added social interaction. We can also include the pricing structure with the creators for this particular feature. But to keep this article brief, I haven’t included it in this case study. I strongly believe that this feature can increase the conversion rate of the paid members for USC.

If you have any suggestions to this case study, or maybe something I have missed to include then please let me know in the comments. I would appreciate it. And also thanks for reading it till the end. If you think this article is good and informative then do consider to share as well.

Till next time, stay curious, stay motivated and stay connected.