Ladder · B2C · strength training app
Read your five-star reviews to find the result users want, then target 3 workouts a week
Became the goal the whole product is built around; no retention numbers given
Workedproduct-activationretention
What they did
Went through all five-star reviews; the common theme was 'getting results'. In fitness, results = consistency, so they set a north star of 4 workouts a week, later ratcheted down to 3 (backed by science). Product ethos 'don't make me think': user opens app, presses play, does the workout. Check marks, streaks and widget are all built around hitting 3 per week.
What happened
Guest says consistent 3 workouts/week is what 'ladders up to retention'; no numbers.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Art of Driving Retention Through Product – Ben Gammon, Ladder“We went through all the five star results, all the people that were just hands up saying, "This is really striking a chord." And that was the underlying theme.”
“And our ethos became, and still is today, don't make me think. Get that person in there, they press play, they do the workout.”
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 47 Ladder tactics- Offer non-converted trial users their first month for $5, then $29.99About half stay into month two at full price; consistent across cohorts
- Ask new visitors 15 fitness questions, then recommend three matching programsA million people have taken it in 18 months; fixed confused cold-traffic users
- Survey 500 users on price and talk to 100 non-payers, then cut $60 to $29.99Clearing price was ~$29 across cohorts; January 2022 became the best month yet
- Run a new coach's TikTok for them, using only videos already on their phone250K followers in 45 days, with million-view videos every week
- End TikToks with on-screen text like 'We start Monday, link in my profile'Founder says viewers follow explicit instructions; no numbers
- Send every TikTok ad click to a web quiz and track answers that mark ideal usersTargeting tightened within a week; payback in low single-digit months
More from this episode
- 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: 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
- 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