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 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: 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