Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Add nutrition tracking to a workout app after users asked for it in the survey
Early read: users doing both convert and stay much more; no numbers yet
What they did
What happened
- Effort
- Roughly a year-long build, bigger than usual projects
In their words
The Art of Driving Retention Through Product – Ben Gammon, Ladder
David BarnardYeah. How are things going with that? I mean, it's a funny thing too, and I talked about this in one of the other minisodes for the state of subscription apps report is that sometimes users are saying like, "We really want this, we really want this, we really want this," and then they don't actually use it. So, how have things been going with nutrition?
Ben GammonYeah, it's been going very well. I mean, that's where, to your point, there are times where people say stuff that doesn't map to reality, right? And this is one, it's basically crossed a hundred days since we launched. And so, when you're starting to map things to retention, it's pretty tough. So, you have to really compress it. So, what is week two, week three, week four retention? And we're starting to get really in the weeds of, okay, if you can go upstream, if you just think about nutrition as a standalone product, how do they log? Do they log consistently in day one, day two? Those are like those indicators. And I think thus far we've had a lot of really good signal that not only has it been effective for people who are tracking macros.
Ben GammonBut if you think about how it works throughout the entire Ladder ecosystem or the platform, we call them hybrid users. Those who are using both the workouts and nutrition, they're driving conversion if they're new, right? So, the percentage of those who are converting are much higher, they're using both. And then those who are using both as well are also much more retentive. They're staying on the platform. So, those two are true early on, 100 days in, but it's super exciting for us as a business after such a long journey and big bet.
David BarnardYeah. When you invest so much into something, it's great to see it paying off. And something we talk about a ton on the podcast is finding and unlocking that kind of secondary product market fit. And again, of course, strength training and nutrition, like they go so hand in hand and it's hard for a lot of apps to find that secondary product market fit, but when you do, it's that whole new lever of retention. And so, it can be such a powerful …
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More from this episode
- Read your five-star reviews to find the result users want, then target 3 workouts a weekBecame the goal the whole product is built around; no retention numbers given
- Let users log reps and weights, then suggest next weights and show their progress70-75% of users now log every workout; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Have coaches tell users to log their weights mid-workout, not in a help pageJournal use climbed to 70-75% of workouts; guest calls it 10x more effective than FAQs
- Add a home-screen calendar widget that lights up workout days, and show how to install itAbout a third of users have it; guest sees it correlate with retention
- Give a check mark per workout and a weekly streak for 3 of themGuest says it reinforces the 3-a-week habit; no numbers
- Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
Tags: second-product, nutrition, leading-indicators