The Coach Experience Platform (CXP) is a coach-centered web application designed to enhance in-person workshop efficiency and establish a foundation for personalized coaching services.
Launched July 2023 in North America on desktop and tablet.
Led end-to-end product design: discovery, concept development, UX/UI design, and MVP definition
Facilitated coach research and feedback sessions
Collaborated cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Research, Service Design, and Instructional Design
Drove iterative testing, pilot observations, and design iterations leading up to launch
Putting our coaches at the forefront
WW has a unique advantage with their network of knowledgeable in-person coaches who play a crucial role in supporting members on their weight loss journey. Yet, outdated tools limited their ability to personalize interactions and foster deeper connections with members.
This is where the Coach Experience Platform (CXP) comes in.
Introducing the Coach Experience Platform (CXP)
CXP is a coach-centered, self-service application that improves current workshop efficiency while also enabling flexible coaching experiences and services in the future.
The North Star of the CXP is to enhance the foundation of our coaching experience while providing value for both members and coaches.
Envisioning the future
To kick off, I conducted a competitive assessment and created a series of blue sky sketches to visualize the ideal future-state coaching experience. These sketches explored opportunities for personalized communication, efficient workflows, and coach-member relationship building.
I shared these concepts with Product, Service Design, and Engineering to align aspirations with technical feasibility early on.
Co-designing with coaches
WW coaches have historically been overlooked, which created a layer of complexity and uncertainty in our team's understanding of their needs and pain points. To address this, I updated the sketches based on feedback and facilitated user research sessions with coaches. The objective was to understand the current experience with coaches and gather their feedback on possible features for CXP.
I recruited 8 coaches from across the United States and conducted hour and a half semi-structured interviews. We split the interviews into three different activities. This approach allowed the team to delve deep into the current experience and gather valuable feedback on our concepts.
Mapping the current experience
To better understand a coach’s current workflow, pain points, and needs
Reacting to future concepts and feature
To understand the perceived value of potential concepts and features we’re exploring and how coaches envision using it or not using it
Ideating the homepage of CXP
To brainstorm with coaches on what the homepage of CXP could look like
03
New CXP concepts
Coaches expressed excitement about the chat concept, but had mixed reactions to other concepts due to concerns about complexity, authenticity, and competition among coaches.
02
Relationship building
Coaches rely on their memory and attentiveness to establish meaningful connections with members, but restrictions on external communication limit their ability to build upon these relationships.
01
Current workflows
Coaches value and utilize WW's workshop materials, while also personalizing them to their own style and the needs of their members.
Designing the MVP
With insights in hand, I translated findings into concrete user flows and designs for the MVP:
Designing within constraints
While designing the CXP experience, I collaborated closely with Engineering in weekly reviews, addressing technical constraints posed by legacy technology at WW and making necessary revisions to the MVP designs.
In parallel to finalizing MVP designs, we also needed to ensure a successful launch by testing CXP in actual workshop settings.
Launching a pilot
Recognizing the potential impact of CXP on members' workshop experience, it was crucial to gather real-world insights before the nationwide launch. To achieve this, a cross-functional team, including Product, Engineering, User Research, and myself, embarked on a trip to Detroit, MI, and Windsor, Canada. During this visit, we attended workshops and closely observed coaches as they interacted with CXP. This hands-on approach allowed us to address any major issues and make necessary improvements before the full-scale launch.
Testing in the wild
Within the first two days, coach feedback and real-world observations led me to:
Rapidly implement 3 design updates
Collaborate with Engineering and QA to identify 15 enhancement opportunities, prioritizing 5 for immediate development
Getting first hand feedback and ideas
Additionally, during our time in Detroit, I collaborated closely with my UX Research partner as we co-led a coach focus group with five participants. Our objective was to gather valuable feedback on CXP, including their overall impressions after using it for a few days, their thoughts on the blue sky concepts, and any future ideas they had for enhancing the experience.
Getting to know your members
Aims to deepen the coach-member relationship, enabling coaches to gain insights into a member's in-app and in-real-life behavior.
Personalized events
Empowers coaches to create customized event experiences for members, using past event statistics and recommendations.
Coach community
Brings coaches together in a collaborative space where they can share resources and learn from one another.
Future vision + next steps
Beyond the MVP, the North Star vision for CXP includes:
Getting to Know Your Members: Deeper insights into member behavior both in-app and IRL.
Personalized Events: Tools for coaches to tailor experiences using event stats and recommendations.
Coach Community: A dedicated space for coaches to collaborate, share resources, and support each other.
Reflections
Importance of seeing designs in the wild
The pilot made me realize the importance of observing designs in real-life scenarios. While we can envision various use cases, the situational and contextual factors can rapidly alter the design landscape. This realization emphasized the need for early observation, co-design, and testing with the intended audience to ensure optimal outcomes.
Good intentions ≠ good impact
During the design process for the Member search experience, close collaboration with engineering led us to implement a solution where search was limited to email addresses on the homepage. This decision aimed to provide coaches with quick and accurate results, given our existing database constraints. However, our time in Detroit revealed a different story. We discovered that this approach negatively impacted the workshop experience by causing delays during check-ins. Members often struggled to recall their email addresses, and when they did, they would hastily spell them out, surpassing the coach's typing speed on the tablet. As a result, coaches relied on the secondary search option based on a member's full name and zip code. Due to this, the team decided to add the secondary search to the homepage for easier access.
