Karan Mhatre

My Role and the Design Process

We needed to understand the Health and Fitness related video industry in India. Then, we needed to find our product niche, and craft an iterative plan for launch.

1. Discovery Phase (Strategic)

• 1.1. User interviews and Surveys
• 1.2. Competitor Analysis
• 1.3. Trial Videos
• 1.4. Insights and feature prioritisation

2. Design Phase (Tactical)

• 2.1. MVP
• 2.2. GOQii Play v2.0.
• 2.3. GOQii Play v3.0.
• 2.4. GOQii Play v4.0.

1. Discovery Phase

We started by interviewing existing GOQii users.

1.1. User Interviews

We conducted 10 user interviews to understand user behaviour and current trends. The insights from these interviews helped us craft a more objective survey that we sent to 500 GOQii users as well as 1000 non-GOQii users. Below are some of the questions discussed in these interviews and surveys.

• Do you ask questions on YouTube videos?
• Do you exercise at home or at a gym?
• Do you watch any online videos for exercise?
• Do you currently seek exercise advice from your GOQii health coach?
• Who would you like to get in touch with to discuss and talk about your health?

1.2. Competitor Analysis

I studied the current live streaming platforms in the market. These had a lot to offer in terms of what designs users were already familiar with. I looked at YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Instagram Live.

Drawbacks of current online exercise videos

• One-sided communication
• No Personalisation in the content
• No accountability

Drawbacks of Physical Class

• High inertia to visit a class
• Expensive in terms of time, effort, and money
• Learning from local experts (May not have access to the best in the country)

1.3. Trial Videos

To test the concept further, we started to conduct Live Classes on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. We marketed it in the GOQii app and monitored click rates. We tested with multiple banners and messages. We saw promising results. This helped us build more faith in our direction, and understood the type of content that worked well before investing in getting more coaches on board.

We also hoped to get some early learnings from this experiment. This allowed us to get real learnings as soon as possible.

1.4. Insights and Feature Prioritisation

At the end of the Discover Phase, we had a workshop with all the key stakeholders to analyse the research data and come up with a product plan.

Insights

• Users are interested in online exercises.
• Users do not currently attend any Live exercise classes online because they are not aware of them.
• Users are keen to get health content in their regional language.
• Users often ask questions online but rarely get a good reply.

The decision on feature prioritisation was made based on user insights as well as a feasibility analysis carried out by the engineering team.

Features and product ideas

• User can view the schedule of upcoming classes (MVP)
• User can attend the class on the app (MVP)
• User can post comments during the class (MVP)
• User can "follow" a coach to review notifications
• User can rate and review a class
• User can watch older/completed classes
• Users can browse by video categories
• Users can search by video titles or coach names
• Individual Coach Profiles

We also shared our suggestions and recommendations for the curriculum design team (who were in charge of designing the activities and training material for the group classes).

2. Design Phase

It was time to get tactical and put pen on paper (metaphorically, of-course).

2.1. MVP

We kept it basic. Enough to test our concept and get some additional engagement on the platform.

We trained some of the in-house coaches to take video classes. We had them stream from a third party RTMP supporting app, and read user comments on a temporary web page we had created for each class.

We ran simulations with a test audience before releasing on the app.

Metrics

One week after launch we had,

• 10% of the GOQii app DAU joining in for at least one live video class.
• Out of all the users that clicked the video notification, about 12% watched atleast 5 minutes, and 5% reached the end.
• We also noticed a problem that 19% users were dropping off even before the video had loaded for them.

Feedback

We called 10 users to get feedback.

• Users thought the classes were too long
• Users wanted more content in their regional language
• Users wanted to rewatch some of the videos
• Users wanted cooking videos, more home work out videos, and videos on mental wellness.

2.2. GOQii Play v.2.0.

After bug fixing and some minor releases it was time to build version 2 of the product. We narrowed down the scope to the following items,

• Introducing coach subscriptions/following
• Collecting feedback after class
• Showing archived/completed classes
• Coach side app for viewing schedule, hosting classes, and reading comments

Metrics and Feedback

The ratings we collected were given to the coaches, and this helped them improve class completion rates from 5% to 12% in 2 months.

We saw a steady increase in the GOQii Play DAU, improvement in the adoption rate (with the help of notifications, emailers, and YouTube promotions, and we started tracking our retention rate on the feature.)

2.3. GOQii Play v.3.0.

The focus of version 3 was to improve the discovery and browsing experience of the users. We finalised on the below feature set for the next release,

• Categories and Search
• Coach Profile
• Showing archived/completed classes
• Coach side app for viewing schedule, hosting classes, and reading comments

Metrics

After the launch of version 3.0. we saw major uptick in our metrics,

• Ratings went from 4.1 to 4.4 in 2 months.
• Consumption of archived content improved with the introduction of search and categories.
• Minutes of Video consumed rised from 2.6 to 4.5 mins per active user.

Operational dashboards

I set up a coach-wise metrics board for the entire team including the operations team. This helped team give prompt feedback to coaches and understand which coaches were over performing and under performing.

• Comments: This is a good indicator of the personal touch the coach is able to provide. We had coaches that engaged more with their audience and got a high comment count. We encoraged all our coaches to do the same.
• Views: This is a good indicator on whether the content/thumbnail was good enough. Clickthrough tell us whether the user was interested in the video to begin with.
• Rating: Rating is the most important indicator for user feedback. This guides us on coach performance.
• Average Minutes per View: This tell us if the video was sticky enough for the users, are did users end up leaving too quickly.
• Total minutes: Shows total engagement we received.

All these parameters helped us curate better content over time.

2.4. GOQii Play v.4.0.

The feature had lead to increased time spent on the platform. Users that watched videos on average made more purchases on the platform and showed better renewal rates. 6 months after launching GOQii play, it was now time to monetise the feature.

• We used the in-app currency called “GOQii Cash” to allow users to purchase “Priority Questions”. These questions would be highlighted to the coach (this ensured that the question would get answered.)
• We also launched a new subscription plan and made commenting a paid feature in the app.

Metrics and Feedback

The priority functionality did not receive instant acceptance from the users. Users did not see the value in this feature.

The new subscription plans required some pricing adjustments until we saw uptick in sales.

Highlights, overall impact, and future scope

We invited prominent Indian elebrities to conduct shows on the platform such as India's men's hockey team ex-captain Sardar Singh, and Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar.

Over 6 months we,

• Improved time spent on the GOQii app from 2 minutes to 7 minutes (35% increase) per day per active user.
• Improved Daily Active Users on GOQii by 12%
• Sold 1,000+ GOQii Play subscriptions
• Got many positive reviews for the app on the Google Play Store
• And, helped India become healthier