TLDR: WATCH THE VIDEO (click above)
Don’t get me wrong: I love Peloton. There’s no way I’m getting through a day without some 10-minute core workouts. And in my first Peloton teardown, I looked at some things the app really nails, like streaks and incentives. But I wouldn’t be friend if I didn’t point out some hidden potential – so today we’re exploring where Peloton could improve.
It boils down to one word: habits.
3 things you’ll learn from watching this:
What an empty state is and how Peloton could avoid one by helping me exercise my intention to… EXERCISE 🏋️♀️
How Peloton could use the "you are what you measure" strategy to get me to explore the app
What Peloton could learn from credit card companies about incentives
And now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my pop country run! 🏃♀️ Up next: Peloton part 3. 🎬 You’ll learn which future Peloton features I’m most excited about.
Note: This is a NEW series of product teardowns. Subscribe below to get future ones. Hit “subscribe.”
👂 Transcript:
There are also things that Peloton could improve on, and this really goes back to helping people create habits. So habits are very hard to form, and in order to form them, you have to have an intention to do the thing. So after you have a habit, you don't really need the intention to do it because it's a habit. By definition, it's automatic.
But before you start the habit, you have to have an intention to do it. This is part of building that muscle. So then it just becomes automatic, and this is kind of where the gap in Peloton is. In order for me to exercise, if I were to try to fit in a 10-minute core today, in the future, it's just going to be so automatic that I do it in between meetings.
But today I'm going to have to plan it. I have to think about it. I have to figure out how I'm going to sneak it in and where my workout clothes are. And Peloton does a not-so-great job with the planning part of this. So if you click on their schedule section, they do have a schedule. But what you'd want me to do is think about when I'm going to do it in my day, how long I'm going to do it.
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I could even pick the classes that I'm going to do, and that's kind of what you have to do if you're going to a gym or you're signing up for a class. You have to pre-plan it. But you could imagine that if it's just a 10-minute workout, you're like, I could just get it in whenever and whenever is typically never.
So this is called an empty state, by the way. This is a terrible empty state. In most empty states, what you want is to have a button to say "schedule class." So how do I take advantage of this wonderful feature if I just don't know what to do now. Of course, these live and encore classes are really nice and it seems like I could probably add them to my schedule, and that's kind of what they're thinking.
They're like, look, people are going to go to these live classes and put them on their schedule. The thing that would really take Peloton to the next level is if I could come to my workout, I could say, okay, I'm going to do a 20-minute pop country run. By the way, how do they know me so well? I love pop country.
I could just schedule it. And it seems like you can do that, right? I can schedule it here. But this is buried in the app. You'd have to know the calendar button. This is the essence of exercise. This is it. This is how you get people who are not exercising to exercise: help create intentions.
And so while this seems like a good feature for Peloton to have, I would probably argue it is the feature for people who don't exercise as much as they want to to really start thinking and having intentions about how they will fit it into their day.
The second way that Peloton could explore increasing my habits is really getting me to explore the app. So personally, I am a creature of habit and I will filter all day for 10-minute core strengths exercises, right? I figured out what I like and I'm going to stick to it. I know my routine. And the question is really, is that good? If Peloton has an endless amount of 10-minute core exercises, that maybe is okay, but the likelihood that I would get tired of Olivier or Rebecca and they don't have as many new classes should concern Peloton.
And so what they want to do is incentivize me to try lots of instructors, try lots of activities, try different core upper body, strength, meditation, cardio, but really the app doesn't do that. The most thing they're doing is trying to get recommended for me, showing me some pics, full body strength, not too bad.
If I were them, I would do the "you are what you measure" strategy, which is just showing me "You've done zero meditations. Try to do one meditation this month." And giving me a goal post to aim for about how I can explore this app versus really just kind of giving me a browse category of what I could do.
So the thing that we could learn and how they could actually execute this is taking a page from how credit cards onboard you. Yes, I said credit cards. So basically when you're doing a new credit card, if you spend $1,000 dollars, if you spend $3,000 in the intro period - sometimes that's three months, sometimes that's one month - if you make that spend, then you get all these points and it's so clever because what they're doing is in the beginning period when I first get my card, I have to use it. If I don't use it, I lose all those points that I could have to get me the airline miles, which is kind of why I signed up for the card anyway.
And so what they're doing is forcing you to use the card in the very beginning of your experience with the card. And it's probably what Peloton could do here too: give me some intro period, incentivize me with this "we are what we measure," and giving me a reason to do something in the very beginning to explore the app. Because afterwards, it's going to be hard to get me to do a 20- minute HIIT ride because I'm really stuck on that 10-minute core.
Peloton: Product Teardown, Part 2 of 3