Challenges with building fitness tech products

Looking to scale your fitness coaching business with tech? 💪📱

At Devika, our mission is “enabling people with technology in mind”, and in this blog, we want to enable you by diving into the top challenges we’ve seen time and time again in the fitness tech space. Oh, and of course, we’ve included some tips on how to manage these during your own app build!

Is this your first time hearing about Devika? We’ve helped 100+ entrepreneurs build and launch their digital products across fitness, health and many other sectors. We’ve launched #1 fitness apps and collaborated with some of the best athletes in the world. Want more details? Check out our work here.

Okay, onto the challenges (not workout challenges, this time)!

Challenge 1: Custom Business Model

Many of our fitness clients have built successful existing businesses by offering something unique, and with that comes a unique business model. For example, a 10 week challenge that runs 3 times a year. Or check-ins that are twice a week for the first half of the challenge, and then once a week for the rest. The downside? This has to be manually managed: manual invoicing, manual check-ins etc etc. As you probably know, this isn’t scalable (Don’t fear, a tech product can help… 😎).

♾️ TIP: Where possible, try to streamline your operations such as sticking to generic billing terms, and this will simplify your digital product when you get around to building it.

🤝 TIP: Leverage tech products that are customizable, such as Baseline, Stripe and AWS.

🏗️ CAVEAT: This isn’t always possible, and in these cases, we can build around it. It will just take a bit longer!

Challenge 2: Content Management

If your app requires content, for example a library of “how-to” fitness videos, you will need to regularly update and maintain the content within your app. Whether it’s workout routines, nutrition plans, or instructional videos, keeping your content fresh and relevant is essential for user engagement. Content can also become outdated, for example if you change logos, branding or your workout programs change.

🤳 TIP 1: Make content part of your everyday operations. This will come naturally to many fitness influencers who are always recording for social media anyway! Otherwise, set a schedule to pre-record content in batches.

📅 Tip 2: Pick tech that can help you share content in an easy format, such as Baseline with a CMS and LMS.

Challenge 3: Observability and Support

Consider this: your app launches, you acquire 100,000 users on launch day, it’s a dream come true. BUT, 1% of these people accidentally subscribe to the wrong workout plan or enter the wrong onboarding information and need help. This is 1,000 people with issues. How will they contact you? How will you monitor for problems and proactively respond?

If you don’t have a plan in place, users may turn to social media to complain, affecting brand reputation and revenue.

📞 TIP: Prioritize observability to maintain control and transparency over your app’s performance and user experience. Consider implementing built-in support features such as in-app messaging, like Intercom, or customer service channels to enable users to easily reach out for assistance or report issues.

Challenge 4: Product Offering and User Experience

Heard the saying “less is more”? We’re sure you have, and for a good reason: it works. It may be tempting to include every feature you can think of in your app. BUT, this is both costly for you, and potentially confusing for your end users.

✍️ TIP: Work with your tech partner to minimize friction points during the onboarding process, such as putting the payment at the end of onboarding, or having one question per screen as opposed to all questions in a long list on the one screen.

🤝 TIP: Don’t worry too much about this. Just come prepared with how you’re creating value for your customers, and we’ll help with the UX and product design.

For more information on how Devika can Assist, contact us.