Why the Future of Strava Premium Is the Future in the Training Log
Planning Future Activities Is Strava’s Missing Piece for Premium Users
Objective
Identify how Strava could add value as a training planning tool in addition to a place where past activities can be analyzed.
Background and Product Suggestion
When it comes to training for an event, more and more athletes are using specific schedules to prepare. Marathons are probably the most popular example of an event where specific training schedules are used, but as more and better training information becomes available, athletes are training harder and smarter. One area where Strava falls short is the ability to plan future training within the product. As people are more invested in developing sound training plans, this is an area where Strava could continue to grow and increase engagement with the product.
As of now, the extent of being able to plan your weekly workload is by setting goals for either miles or time for both running and cycling as seen below.
As you work through your week’s activities, you can view your progress on the training log page and landing page.
This more recent addition to Strava is an excellent way to view your historic training data and understand if you met the volume or time you set out to do. If I saw I had a goal of 60 miles and only ran 45, that’s valuable historical information and I’d know there was probably a good reason that was the case. Likewise, if my goal was to run 60 and I ran 75, I’d be aware the extra mileage wasn’t scheduled to happen.
These goals, however, are most likely not random numbers or best guesses. Instead, if an athlete is following a schedule, it is an exact calculation. When I input my weekly mileage goal for running on Strava, I look ahead to the training I have scheduled and put the some of the runs as my weekly mileage goal. Eliminating that process of cross-referencing is where Strava can add significant value by allowing users to plan their future training within the Strava platform.
There are similar products to Strava which allow you to plan future workouts on a calendar. Other athletes may use a notebook to jot down training a few weeks or a few months at a time, but either way the planning phase of training is taking place outside Strava. If an athlete was able to view the future in their training log screens, this would be a natural place to be plan future training.
Instead of only being able to add weekly mileage or time goals, Strava could add the ability to do something similar, but on a daily basis. By being able to add activities from the training log as shown above, athletes could specify an activity title, an activity type, and then either a total mileage or time goal for the day. I would also include the ability to add a rest day, as scheduling those appropriately and knowing they are coming are important within an athlete’s schedule. As you build out your week’s training schedule, your weekly goals would automatically calculate.
When you schedule an activity for a day, it will appear the appropriate color outline depending on the activity type, but it will be hollow instead of colored in. As you complete your scheduled activities for the week, the outlined circles will become shaded in.
Conclusion
Strava proves to be the dominant platform where athletes share and analyze their past activities, but lacks the ability to schedule into the future. With that being the case, Strava will always be used in addition to something else as a training tool. By providing the ability to schedule training into the future, Strava will become a one stop shop training tool. Beyond that, allowing other users to see future training plans of an athlete as well as past activities can generate increased community engagement and discussion. Users will be more invested in following specific athletes that use this feature and drive traffic back to the product more consistently.
If this feature is added, it also naturally opens the door to allowing one user to plan future activities for another user in a coach/athlete type relationship. Strava could use this feature to schedule their own plans they currently offer in the future training log, as well as give users the option to engage in a more customized experience. Users could then receive daily alerts through the app notifying them of their scheduled workouts which would increase interaction with the Strava ecosystem in general.
Although this feature my not be a huge draw for all users, it would be welcomed by more serious athletes who are ideal candidates for premium membership. As current premium offerings are useful, there isn’t one can’t miss feature that is drawing users to sign up for the paid version of the product. This is a feature set rich enough to draw new premium users as it is a clear value add for more invested users. Adding planning within Strava would be a natural move to help more committed athletes while at the same time creating new premium revenue opportunities.
