Empowering New Product Launches at Freeletics Product Team as Interim Product Managers

Staedium: Freeletics

STÆDIUM merges functional strength training with a gaming experience to create a truly unique workout experience. By combining high-end equipment and AI-powered tracking software, it redefines workout as a chore and brings excitement and motivation to it.

It is a product developed by Freeletics, a fitness technology company. Users can engage in challenging workouts, track their progress, and achieve their fitness goals in a fun and motivating way. This product aims to redefine the workout experience and provide users with a new level of excitement and motivation in their fitness journey.

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The Mission: Interim Product Manager

At Product People, we had the opportunity to provide valuable support as interim product managers for the Freeletics Staedium team. With the team undergoing rapid expansion and the existing product manager juggling multiple responsibilities, our team of experienced product managers stepped in to ensure the team's continued progress and success. Working closely with a diverse group of professionals, including iOS developers, Android developers, front-end and back-end developers, UX researchers, and designers, we collaborated to streamline operations and achieve exceptional outcomes.

Challenges:

• Limited product management support: the Freeletic Stadium team required additional guidance and support, as the existing product manager needed more availability.
• Managing team expansion: with the large team & launching the product soon, effective coordination and collaboration among different roles became critical for maintaining efficiency.
• Prioritizing user experience: the Freeletic STÆDIUM team aimed to deliver a user-centric product, necessitating close involvement of UX researchers and designers in the product management process.
• Close collaboration with the Marketing Team as the Official Launch date was approaching.

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How We Helped

Onboarded Very Fast and Took Over Team Responsibilities

When we onboarded, the Product Lead was managing two teams. As interim product managers for Freeletics Staedium, our primary focus was to take over her responsibilities for one of the teams that consisted of 7 developers (iOS, Android, Backend, Frontend) and UX Design & UX Research, and ensure a smooth and successful product launch.

• Rituals: We took over all the team rituals, conducting backlog refinement sessions, sprint planning, and efficient release cycles to ensure timely product delivery.
• Strategic guidance: We provided strategic direction, aligning the team's efforts with the overall product vision and long-term objectives of Freeletics.
• Cross-functional collaboration: We fostered seamless collaboration among developers, UX researchers, designers, and Sales and marketing teams to ensure effective teamwork.
• Roadmap development: Through close collaboration with stakeholders and the development team, we defined a clear product roadmap, prioritizing features based on user needs, market trends, and business goals.
• Stakeholder engagement: We actively engaged with stakeholders, gathering their feedback and incorporating it into the product development process to meet their expectations.
• User flow documentation: We created different user flows for each new feature, ensuring stakeholders were well-informed about the functionality and benefits of the features. Clear communication through user flows helped stakeholders understand the value proposition and make informed decisions.

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Supported the Website Relaunch and Development

• The first main deadline was the public launch of the new App. We closely collaborated with the Marketing Team to prepare the Website Relaunch accordingly and make sure all copies and check-out processes were working as expected.
• Throughout the months, we supported the discovery and development of several features on the website in order to ensure optimized conversion rates and user satisfaction. These included: “Buy now, pay later” possibility on the website, managing returns of a user’s order in the user profile, and the Affiliate Program.

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Managed the App Development

We managed the development and ideation of several features that were to be implemented in the iOS and Android App. These included:

• Coordination with the UX Research and Design team to conduct Discovery sessions in order to agree on goals and constraints and align on user flows.
• Define the scope of features to be implemented.
• Manage the roadmap for iOS and Android releases.
• Collaborate with the Game Developers Team in order to ensure the quality of the launched/to-be-launched features.

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Mission Achievements: Delivered Outcomes

💡 Successfully launched the website for the users to order the product: One of our key achievements was successfully launching the website, allowing users to order the Freeletics Staedium product. This milestone marked the culmination of our efforts and set the stage for the product's market entry.

💡 Feature Development in the App: The next main focus was to ensure continuous development of the scoped features for the App in close alignment with the game development team and the strategic roadmap in order to ensure a high user engagement rate within the App after launch.

💡 Strategic Guidance & Collaboration: By providing strategic guidance, fostering collaboration, developing a clear roadmap, following agile methodologies, engaging stakeholders, and creating user flows, we set Freeletics Staedium on a path of success and growth.