From “Restroom Loo-Cator” to Points of Interest: How a Bathroom Idea Hit the Product Roadmap
Sh*t happens. Literally. And few things rival the panic you feel when you’re out on a run, need a bathroom, and can’t find one. So we wanted to try and solve for that.
Here’s a look at how a cheeky Jam called “Restroom Loo-Cator” developed into a major product in the span of a few months. But what’s a Jam?
Innovation, but Make It Fun
A couple times a year at Strava, we hold Jams. Originally a hackathon, Jams is now a company-wide week-long pause on regular work to pursue dreamy ideas. And while not all Jams focus on your GI tract, they do all aim to make Strava better.
Most often product-related, Jams can be about anything — a marketing idea, our company culture, our ways of working. Anything goes so long as creativity and problem-solving are at the core.
Once you land on an idea, you recruit. You find other people at Strava who are stoked about its potential and start brainstorming and building. Presentations are Friday, so you’re on the hook to work efficiently as the clock ticks. Since Jams are company-wide, you get to work with people you might’ve never worked with before. Or even met. That’s all part of the fun.
After presentations, we vote for winners in four categories: Most Visionary, Most Product Fitting, Best Internal and Most Fun. The Restroom Loo-Cator Jam was crowned Most Visionary last summer.
Start With a Core Customer Need
A visionary idea often begins with a fundamental need. Thinking of the basics, Kau Poondi, a Senior Data Platform Engineer, proposed a bathroom finder. Because what’s more fundamental than that?
“I was hesitant to pitch an idea around bathroom usage to the entire company, but much to my surprise, the Zoom chat blew up,” he says. “The project was dubbed ‘Restroom Loo-Cator’, and after Jams was complete (and with many more potty jokes along the way), our team took the proof of concept, iterated, and eventually added other Points of Interest, like cafes and trailheads.”
By the time the product shipped, 16 categories of Points of Interest were added to our maps, including one totally unique to Strava: Start Points. Start Points are popular spots that people start their runs, rides or walks from. The algorithm our Athlete Services team built uses de-identified and aggregate public community data to see which locations get clusters of uploads from athletes. It then places the top ones on our maps for other Strava athletes to discover.
Points of Interest began with a singular athlete problem. But solving that problem laid the foundation for an ecosystem of athlete solutions — one that our engineering, design and research teams can continue to add to and build from.
Creativity + Practicality = Product
Dreaming big and thinking outside of our day-to-day is how the seeds of some of our best products were first planted. When imaginative ideas were met with a practical plan forward, they were able to blossom into full-fledged products.
“The best product is usually at the intersection of utility and novelty,” says Will Meyer, Senior Product Manager of our Athlete Services team. He joined Kau on the original Restroom Loo-Cator Jam and led the product’s path to market. “Jams is great for creating space to prototype new solutions to athlete problems, and when the athlete problem aligns with our business goals, it’s powerful starter fuel for product teams.”
There isn’t just one way to build. But keeping your customer and their pain points at the center of your big ideas — and in the path you take to bring those ideas to life — is a reliable way to put innovation at the forefront, construct a product roadmap you’re excited about, and have fun along the way.
Building new things is meant to be fun, after all. So why shouldn’t you present a slide with a poop emoji on it to your whole company?
