Situational Intelligence in Fitness
The future of fitness outcomes for consumers is driven by situational intelligence. Content and data without intelligence is useless. Fitness more than most industries is going through a dramatic shift. Content, communities, and data (from wearables, or apps) are three pillars of fitness that everyone races to (at a wild pace). Due to the terrible covid pandemic, many people were forced to work at home and this behavior change gave rise (for the most part) to the Connected Fitness Industry. Not being able to go to gyms due to restrictions forced people to stay at home, the desire to keep in shape by any means necessary, and in some cases people did not want to feel alone so they gravitated toward solutions that had a sense of community (either local or those that are abroad).
Connected Fitness:
Connected fitness company’s goal (aside from the great marketing stuff out there) is to build a holistic offering around a consumer so they are able to workout to content wherever they are, either on connected equipment which includes bluetooth and a touchscreen monitor- usually Android or on a mobile app and most importantly track their performance over time through stats. In a nutshell, since most of us know about it already due to Peloton, Tonal, Hydrow, Mirror (Lululelmon bought them for 500 million in 2020 during one of the peaks of Covid.)
Every company raced to be a connected fitness company whether this is brick and mortar gyms, or fitness equipment companies. The race to have a place in our living rooms, and hearts was on due to what was mentioned earlier around content and communities.
Most of these products (digital and digital ‘transformation’ suffer from the same challenges
Lack of engagement
Churn rate (retention)
Loss of subscribers on a large scale
Increased choice for consumers
Doing the same thing as others and expecting different results.
We as consumers want everything at our fingertips especially if we are paying and providing our data. Most companies know that the winning ingredient is personalization. To get there it requires a seamless ux and built in trust with the consumer.
Here Comes Situational Intelligence for Fitness Companies Situational intelligence isn’t about sprinkling data or the latest buzz word into products. It is is understanding what a consumer needs before they need it, based on data (personal data, environmental, health data for starters). Everyone is different and the best products realize this and adapt to it. What are the ingredients to situationally intelligent products?
Privacy and trust focused
Consumers want value for what they are providing (time, money, data). The information generated by a consumer has to be for them only, and shared with audiences only with their consent.
Data focused
Many consumers have wearables (iWatch, Oura, Fitbit, Whoop) and pair this with their app behavior. Companies need to entice consumers to create more data so the value they are providing to the consumer is eye opening and keeps them coming back for more. As we know, pain killers often sell more than ‘vitamins’. This doesn’t mean cool looking charts it means situational tips. Oura Ring really understands this for instance and based on sleep patterns over time they generate insights on the mobile app.
Bumping Engagement + Retention:
This doesn’t mean throwing a ton of features into the product that we as product teams think will ‘set us apart’ it means being empathetic with the end consumer, and guiding them to their direction. The basis of this is intelligent engagement not forced engagement.
Bringing it All Together: The Future of Fitness and Situational Intelligence
In a world increasingly driven by data, convenience and personalization, the fitness industry stands at the forefront of this transformative wave. Connected fitness, fueled by situational intelligence, represents not just a shift in how we work out, but a reimagining of the entire fitness experience. It's important to note that situational intelligence, while utilizing data and insights, differs from traditional artificial intelligence, as it focuses on understanding the specific context and needs of the individual in real-time.