In my role as Product Design Coordinator at Smart Fit, my main goal was to ensure a strategic design vision, aligned with the experience delivered to our users. This translated into understanding the needs of the teams well and allocating the right designers for the mapped challenges. Empathy and collaboration were crucial here, as they allowed me to connect with different teams and understand their demands, creating an environment where everyone could contribute with ideas and solutions.
Part of my job involved recruiting and selecting new talents. Together with the People and Management team, I sought not only technical skills but also a good cultural fit, so that our team was aligned not only in competencies but in the values of Smart Fit. I made sure to apply assertive communication and objectivity during this process, ensuring that all those involved were on the same page regarding expectations.
It was my responsibility to assess the performance of the designers, and here fairness and respect were essential. In addition, I worked with them on development plans, which required active listening and a proactive stance to identify areas for improvement and offer the necessary support. All this while keeping an analytical eye on the team's performance, measuring and sharing our achievements with Managers and Product Managers.
I promoted a collaborative environment, encouraging alignment and joint work among designers. This involved removing impediments, something that required good problem resolution and flexibility to adapt processes when necessary. In addition, I developed rituals and routines that helped maintain the quality of the experience delivered to users.
The creative part of the job involved translating product visions into tangible prototypes, which required strong storytelling and conceptualization skills. I advocated for the needs of our users, always focusing on providing a high-quality experience, using our design principles as a guide. Interaction with peers and stakeholders was constant, seeking alignment and support to enable initiatives that solved design or experience problems within the squads.
Finally, the evaluation of my performance was a reflection of the performance of my team, the results generated, and the initiatives delivered. This encouraged me to maintain a committed, responsible leadership stance, always open to feedback, aiming at continuous improvement at both the individual and collective level.
I started my performance at Smart Fit as Specialist Product Designer, working in the Personal Trainer, Coach, and later, Training squads.
I was responsible for the initial explorations regarding the crowding of gyms and how the digital product area could help solve this problem.
Despite what the detractors say, Smart Fit is extremely concerned with the utilization of its units and dissatisfied students. Students who don't train quickly become brand detractors and end up canceling their enrollments. Therefore, keeping these people active with the gym and the company's digital channels are major focuses of the entire product design area, as LTV is one of the most relevant metrics for the business model.
Through quantitative research and analysis of internal data from satisfaction surveys, app stores, and social networks, the relationship between unit crowding and students' dissatisfaction with the services provided by the gym became clear. However, due to the lack of digitization of the units themselves (entry, exit, and equipment use data), drawing a direct relationship between use and crowding was unfeasible, despite the collected signs.
My proposal to tackle this problem was to redefine the problem itself.
Different students have different degrees of tolerance regarding gym crowding, and often this perception is not about the unit or its entirety, but about specific equipment and the need for rotations. Therefore, the crowding experience is much more individualized and subjective than objective with specific causalities.
First version
When I suggested that we change the problem to "Perception of Crowding", the scope of possible solutions changed and we were able to address the issue more intelligently.
After studying the dynamics of a workout prescription (from the physical education point of view) I was able to suggest a solution that, through digital products, could reduce the perception of crowding. Thus was born the Exercise Swap feature, through which students can self-serve when a piece of equipment is crowded.
When a student encounters rotations to perform an exercise, they can open the app where their workout was prescribed, access the exercise, and look for another one that works the same muscle group on another machine or using free weights.
As a positive side effect, the app penetration was also affected.
Among the most relevant deliveries for the team, I was the first designer to hold a focus group with gym teachers, focusing on discussing their specific needs regarding the workout prescription journey.
I used the 5-second test as the starting point for the discussion, showing two interfaces (an old one and a new one with minor improvements based on heuristics and previous feedback) and allowing discussions to arise. Many valuable data and insights emerged from this dynamic.