Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Have coaches tell users to log their weights mid-workout, not in a help page
Journal use climbed to 70-75% of workouts; guest calls it 10x more effective than FAQs
Workedonboardingproduct-activation
What they did
A 'welcome workout' where the coach voiceover explains the exercise and why, and also tells users to pop up the journal, swipe up and input weights, and why it matters. Coaches keep dropping reminders in regular workouts ('check your journal for last week's weight'). Same approach used to drive widget adoption. Push/email come after as outer layers.
What happened
Journal usage grew to 70-75% of users per workout; guest claims in-the-moment coaching is 10x more effective than educational content.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Art of Driving Retention Through Product – Ben Gammon, Ladder“we have what's called a welcome workout. And that's where the coaches are able to voice over not only the instruction of like, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? But also layer in those pieces to say like, "Hey, pop up in that journal, swipe up, input those weights, here's why."”
“But if you're able to communicate that while they're in the motion of doing it, that is 10X more effective.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Ladder
All 12 Ladder tactics- Target serious runners with training plans that adapt after every runWon the race-training niche; later bought by Strava
- Ask goal questions up front, then pair each user with a matching coachConverted a host who thought the app wasn't for him
- Let other users cheer you on live while you work outGetting cheered correlated with higher retention; exact numbers not recalled
- Sign a celebrity like Hilary Duff for brand adsBig influx almost at once, secondhand; ROI hard to measure
- Borrow up to 80% of ad spend, repaid from each month's new usersUsed by Ladder; 10% yearly interest, no equity given up; only for big proven apps
More from this episode
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: 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
- Ladder: Give a check mark per workout and a weekly streak for 3 of themGuest says it reinforces the 3-a-week habit; no numbers
- Ladder: Run a big yearly user survey and use AI to read the answers7,500+ responses in a year; led directly to the nutrition feature
- Ladder: Add nutrition tracking to a workout app after users asked for it in the surveyEarly read: users doing both convert and stay much more; no numbers yet