Katalyst Fitness
Improving the onboarding experience for a first-of-its-kind, at-home fitness platform.
I worked with the team, leadership, and customers to map out the architecture and user flow for the Katalyst platform. By initially investing considerable time in understanding the user, their fitness journey, and their interactions post-purchase, I built an empathetic and user-centric structure that served both the customer and the business.
Using heuristic evaluations and customer feedback, I identified key points of friction that could impact the out-of-box and initial use experience. This information guided the design of an intuitive, seamless architecture that would guide the user from unboxing through to first workout. Each step was consciously designed to be straightforward and engaging, keeping users excited about their new fitness journey, setting the stage for a positive long-term relationship with the product.
Previously, there was no relationship between purchasing a Katalyst EMS suit and the first run experience with the software (a key piece of the platform that controls the impulses sent to muscle groups during a workout). Any one could just download the app in the app store, create an account, and be completely frozen without a suit and impulse pack connection.
The first order of business was to tie the purchase identification to the initial software experience. It took some engineering heavy lifting across systems but I was able to sell the clear customer benefits. We did still leave the app open to download for anyone but set the stage for it being another customer acquisition channel for hardware purchases. Surfacing information about the product, targeted content, and a path to purchase.
The initial version of the Katalyst software experience was just a wall of general workouts not tied to any customer data. I created a seemingly simple, yet integral profile creation experience as part of a customer's first run that collected key data. This helped to set their starting intensity (gender, age, etc.) as well as their self-assessed fitness level and preferred activities (Strength level 1 or 2, Yoga, rehabing an injury (Katalyst is amazing at treating muscle and joint injuries), etc..
"Kevin brought maturity, perspective, and passion to evolving our products at Katalyst. In addition to refining our design language, Kevin revamped our onboarding experience with our product. What I appreciated most was Kevin's end to end thinking, mapping out the user journey from when they see our product from the first time outside of the app all the way to completing their first workout. He partnered directly with our engineers to bring the designs to life, balancing the engineering cost and design changes to ensure we build and ship experiences on time. Finally Kevin brought maturity to our design process through establishing design crit and consistently gathering and addressing feedback from all stakeholders in the company."
VP of Product, Katalyst
The Impulse Pack is the heart of the Katalyst system. It's what connects wirelessly to a customers iPad and controls the impulses sent to muscles during a workout. Without it, you are left with a heavy strapped down suit that does little.
Previously, there was no ability to do over-the-air firmware updates. I worked on the design for a system to support these. Previously, the first impulse pack connection was after you wet all the pads on the suit and strapped it on. If something went wrong it left a catastrophic taste in customer's mouths about the product.
Instead, on first run for a hardware customer, we prompt to connect the pack immediately to check for any firmware updates and to make sure everything is functioning.
The Katalyst experience is one most people have never felt. You take out a vest, arm straps, and shorts that have to be buckled tight to your body. But first, you have to wet down all the pads inside that send impulses to muscles. Previously, onboarding was done in-person at demos or via Zoom calls. As the company and customer base grew, this was clearly not a scalable solution.
I worked with the team to develop a walkthrough experience for unboxing, suit prep, setup, and checks to make this as efficient as possible in a self-service experience. Rather than a single long video, we built a simple UI around it so users could easily skip, pause, or just read through the instructions.
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