How would you launch a social fitness device?

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How would you launch a social fitness device?

Asked at Google over a year ago

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nehagupta · Answer 1 · 2021-07-11T13:26:35+0000

This is one of the more detailed Google product launch interview questions you'll receive, but the framework below will help.

Scope
1. Overview - As per my understanding a social fitness device would be one which is a smart device - may be a watch or some other wearable which trackes ur activity like steps, calorie burned, heartbeat moniter. ALong with added features like various exercise rountines which users can opt for. It would also have feature to share updates with friends since it is a social devide. Also read updates from other users in the network.
2. As per my understanding this is a device which will be integrated with Facebook so that users can share updates on their facebook network.
3. Users -
  1. Fitness enthusiasts who are also technology savvy - age 20 to 45 yrs.
4. In today's scenario where physical activity is reducing and people are becoming more obese and lifestype diseases are on the spike, it becomes very imp if there can be some product which helps then track their activity, help them set targets, remind them to do phiscal activity and excersises. Also help user to share these details with friends and family so that they are encouraged to excercise.
5. Now when we are talking about launching this device so I have certain clarification questions:-
  1. Is this a new product or an existing one being launched in a new geographic location? New product so lets confine its launch to one location where FB has its max customers i.e. India.
6. Competitors :- this space has few competitors like fitbit, nike fan cub, pumpup etc.
7. Price point of the product? Also price in comparison to competitors?
Assumptions:- MVP launched, Beta test done and now full V1 version of the product is being launched.
Goal: Any specific goal u have in mind? Since its a new product being launched the goal can be considered:- Considering the business model is already a tried and tested one thus no need to validate the same again.
1. Increase awareness
2. Drive adoption.
3. Gather customer feedback
Strategy:
1. Prior to building the product, market research would have been done to identify the most interested user segment and a target segment would also have been identified. For the launch would want to focus on the target segment so that we can get early feedback and quickly iterate over the MVP. Target segment :- customers aged 20 to 45 as that is age bracket which is tech savvy mostly and is interested in keeping themselves fit and also want to compete with others on fitness.
2. Target market:-
  1. Tech savvy, high social media usage -> india where awareness is high but penetration of devices is not that high and offline metro cities can also be targetted as high no. of tech savvy people.
3. I would also like to spend a minute on the potential risks, which we shd closely monitor :-
  1. Users want to keep their social media interactions and fitness related interactions seperate and do not want to share these details on Facebook.
  2. As it involves a physical device, the device is available on stores (online/offline) on the day of launch - distribution is critical and should not have gaps leading to poor experience.
Now regarding the launch would like to divide the activities into pre, during and post launch activities:-
1. Pre launch:-
  1. Partnerships : As this is a fitness device, would like to get partnerships from various local fitness institutes both online and offline to take advantage of their apps, websites and offline presence to announce the launch of this device and method to purchase. They can have some banner in their app from where customer can land on a blog page which explains the product, features, mechanism to buy etc.
  2. Distribution:- Distribution channels need to be aligned. Whether it is going to be available only online or offline as well. In phase 1 if we want to go only online first, then we should decide whether it will be an exclusive launch on one platform or it will be available across online platforms. Pros and cons of going exclusive with a platform :- If it is exclusive then we might get a platform sponsered discount on the product but in this case channel is restricted so we need to ensure that it is one of the top ecomm platform like amazon or flipkart.
    1. Also the account manager should know the launch date so that even the portal can plan for heavy traffic and align courier partners, system stabality etc.
  3. Marketing:-
    1. Before the product launch we should plan to create a buzz around the product so that customers are excited and we can get leads. Buzz can be generated via:-
      1. Public relation communication regarding upcoming launch of the product in the market.
      2. In bound marketing :-
        Coordinate with marketing team to decide on product messaging for value props and then get blog post ready which the customers can go though on the website.
        Create Facebook page, launch event and post interesting stuff about the product to gather leads.
        Give pre order option to the customers so as to generate leads in advance
        Partner with fitness influenzers and give them access to your product in advance so that they can give u early reviews.
        Social media campaigns to generate buzz like certain discount coupons on fitness classes if they tweet about the product launch.
      3. Outbound marketing: prior to launch?
  4. Pricing:
    1. Since it is an online exclusive launch with a top ecomm portal, u can discuss a launch discount on the product - this will help in further nudging the customers to opt for your product.
  5. Defining KPIs to determine whether product was successful in achieving the goal
    1. Measuring awareness:
      1. Via measuring performance of social media campaigns.
        Organic (over defined time period like month post launch)
        Page views
        Engagements/page views -> over here a CTR of ` 1 to 1.5% can be considered as success as this as per market standards..
        Paid via social media campaigns
        Reach
        Impressions
        CTR
        Visits on your blog page
        No. of pre orders placed/clicks - 20% can be considered as success.
      2. Measuring adoption as in buying the product
        We can do a funnel conversion analysis split by source.
        Via social media platforms, a funnel conversion of 10% can be considered a success. Click to buy.
      3. Cost of acquisition of the product to ensure whether it is making business sense
  6. Launch date: Based on discussion with engg team, stakeholders, marketing come up on a final launch date that is aligned and feasible so that there are no last minute changes and a good quality product with proper testing is released to the end users.
  7. Ensure customer support is ready with all the required material for supporting customer queries.
2. During launch
  1. Plan for the marketing activities:-
    1. Discuss with marketing team on various campaigns - in house channels and paid channels, content for messaging, collateral readiness -> mailers, video, banners
    2. Planning interesting online activities among early adopters to drive adoption and awareness - like share 10 fitness updates in your network and win interesting deals with fitness brands like 20% on nike shoes.
    3. Decide on marketing channels - Social media platforms : facebook, you tube. I feel youtube is a very imp channel specially in times of pandemic since many customers are tuning into fitness videos
  2. Partnerships:-
    1. Negotiate deals with fitness companies like offers which can be provided to who so ever buys the fitness device.
  3. Distribution:-
    1. Drive awareness by ensuring awareness materail about your product at fitness centers like curefit, famous gyms, zumba centers.
  4. PR:- Announce the launch on all online medias as a event where influensers, followers, fitness brands, tech media platform like techcrunch, mashable can join it so that they can write about your product.
3. Post launch:
  1. MEasure performance:
    1. Based on the metrics decided pre launch, analyse the gathered data for those metrics during launch for a fixed duration like one month and see how much has been acheived as epr targets.
  2. Based on data analysis and discussion with all stakeholders - agree on what went right and what went wrong and decide on next steps for next iteration.

solders15 · Answer 2 · 2018-08-12T19:54:25+0000

First I will understand what the social, fitness device means?
Is it a specialized hardware that monitors fitness – say heart rate, EKG etc and then uploads it to the cloud?
Is it a sw running on your phone/smartwatch? – Assume the interviewer says this is the option.
In other words, I would understand what social and fitness mean.
Then I would understand what launch means? – Assume the interviewer says GTM.

Then I would clearly state my assumptions – Feature set has already been decided and approved. MVP has been tested out and the kinks have been ironed out and this is v1 of the product. I will make sure the interviewer is comfortable with these assumptions.

Next I would understand the goal of the product – Market share, revenue, Engagement of another product provided by the company etc.

I would then make sure that the customer segment that has been identified are targeted by the launch. Assume the target segment of customer is: Age – 20 – 45, Smartphone user, active people who exercise regularly and whose goal is to maintain their fitness and particularly people who communicate their fitness regimen among their friends.
Pre- Launch
1. Pricing issues will be decided based on the overall goal. My solution would depend on the feedback the interviewer gives.

Market share – Free with ad based revenue, or Freemium model.

Engagement of the ecosystem – Free software with potential links to other features offered by the company for example if FB wants to start a lifestyle application, I would use this to improve engagement of FB.

Revenue – Value based pricing. Look at what the market dictates for the base product and charge a premium for the features that this product offers.

Launch

2. Place – Who will be the channel partners
Since this is a sw running on the smartphone, i would create IoS and Android versions of the software and place it in the associated app stores.
If it is part of an overall ecosystem such as FB, then I would automatically enable this feature as part of the FB application.

3. Promotion – Promotion on social networking via influencers. Help improve NPS.
SEO to help gain traction for the application on the web as well as on the app store.
If it is part of an ecosystem such as FB, then I would also, based on user profile and knowledge, use a splash screen when people login to advertise their service. I will also use advertisements on their newsfeed, periodically, till they indicate preference one way or the other toward the application.

Post Launch

4. Metric tracking

Customers – How many did we target and how many of them converted to downloading the application

Cost of customer acquisition

Retention

Engagement – How long do they use the product? What features are being used. How is it improving the engagement of the ecosystem (if that is a valid option). Is it prompting to buy more accessories (if that is an valid option)

Market share – Are we meeting any of our market share goals.

NPS – Reviews? Are people recommending the service?

Feedback – How as been the feedback. Any issues with the UI?

Revenue – How many are converting from free to premium. What is the overall revenue?

I will use the feedback information and engagement information to potentially plan for v2.

PM Team · Answer 3 · 2018-08-12T19:53:54+0000

Clarifying questions:
1. What’s this device do? Is it like Fitbit with sharing capability? Or something else?
2. Is this a pilot launch to test feasibility or a full launch?
3. What’s the price point for this device? Assume $100
4. Any key feature I should be aware of?

Goal: Assuming product is ready for launch and it’s not a feasibility study type launch. Goal of the launch could be to create awareness/buzz, adoption, engagement, gather customer feedback

1. Target Customer: It will appeal to broad customer base. But can be more appealing to millennials.
2. Target Market: Pick a market where competition is less and fitness is important. India could be a good market due to increased awareness about fitness, low awareness about Fitbit and other competitor product, price point of $100 is also attractive for Indian consumers. Social networks are very popular. Tech savvy people living in large metros will find it appealing. So target offline stores in those cities.
3. MVP/Full Launch- This is a full product.
4. Collaborators: Tie up with local e-com players like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc…, tie up with major retailers like Reliance Digital and large distributors which have good distribution network
5. Buzz: Send the product to influential reviewers to get their reviews/blogs. Reviews is major fitness and mainstream magazines, social media, news, have a referral incentive etc…
6. Risks: Low adoption – Get celebrity endorsements. Privacy concerns – Clarify that in promotion to avoid any perception issues.

KPIs
1. # of units sold – Broken by month, city, SKU, vs Competition etc…
2. Customer acquisition by marketing channel
3. # of returns
4. Feedback in social media
5. Engagement especially sharing feature used
6. CSAT

Sanchit Gupta · Answer 4 · 2020-04-30T23:02:10+0000

Clarify:

-This is a hardware device that we'd launch? (Yes, new to market)
-Can we assume only US initially? (Yes)
-Why is it important to the business? (New product that the team thinks will increase revenue)
-How does the product work? (A wearable device that has smart logic on when and what to share with your network)
-How does it share with your network? Device to device or to an app? (It can do both)
-Are we taking the product 0 -> 1, aka brand new product? (Yes)
-Do we already have some of the target user base? How big (let's assume no)
-How big is our marketing budget? (You can decide what's reasonable)

Goals:
Successfully launch a new hardware product to people interested in a social fitness

Pre-launch:

Test & listen: We need to test the product before building in massive scale with alpha customers
Testimonials: Build excitement from early testers so other people can be excited
Marketing: Get the word out so people see this.
Get customers: Start collecting pre-orders
Figure out distribution channels

During launch:

Hit dates: Rally the team to hit the dates we need
Make sure everything is live properly
Listen to customers: Keep ears open to any issues
Track results: V1s often have some issues along the user journey, which is okay, but we should be able to track them

Post launch:

Collect qualitative feedback
- Reviews
- Send a survey
Look an quanatative feedback
- Track engagement of the app
- Revenue
- # of buys
- NPS
- Ratings
- # of returns
Allow referrals/ viral marketing of the product