Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Ask goal questions up front, then pair each user with a matching coach
Converted a host who thought the app wasn't for him
Workedonboardingproduct-activation
What they did
Onboarding asks many questions about who you are and what you want from a workout app, then pairs you with a specific coach whose style fits; different coaches serve different jobs (e.g. host vs his wife). Coach pre-selects the week's workouts, which can be customized in seconds.
What happened
Host, a former Fitbod user who assumed Ladder wasn't for him, activated after the onboarding and coach match.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Boost Conversion and Retention with Jobs to Be Done — Daphne Tideman, Growth Advisor“So what they do is they ask you all these different questions and then they pair you with a specific coach.”
Related topics
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New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Ladder
All 12 Ladder tactics- Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
- 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
- Target serious runners with training plans that adapt after every runWon the race-training niche; later bought by Strava
- 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
- 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
More from this episode
- Run the same image with different job-focused text as Meta ads to pick your messageBig click-through differences between angles; winners then rolled into app messaging
- Ask dog owners in the park to try the app for a free yearFound many onboarding issues in one to two hours
- Pay for interviews with people using other solutions, hiding the right answer in a list
- Ladder: Let other users cheer you on live while you work outGetting cheered correlated with higher retention; exact numbers not recalled
- Cal AI: Pay creators to show the app in passing in day-in-the-life TikToksApp has been blowing up; no numbers
- Welltory: Pull in the user's health data and show insights during onboarding
- Add a $20/year tier using free Apple weather data next to the $40 plan
- Tallow and Ash: Boost a post apologizing for a product flaw and showing the fix
- Coopah: Run ads where a creator shows her stuck results, then the win with the app
- Headspace: Ask the user's main goal and show different content for each