Project Lead for Strategy, Implementation, and Launch of a Member Fitness App
My work translated member and staff needs into a technology decision. I led the organization through the operational change required to make that decision successful.
I brought people, stakeholders, operators and vendors together to implement communications and effect organizational change.
The Situation
The YMCA needed to replace its existing member fitness app and determine which technology platform would best serve the needs of both members and staff. The challenge extended beyond selecting a technology vendor. The organization needed to understand what members valued in a fitness app, identify staff operational requirements, evaluate a crowded vendor landscape, and transition everyone to a new platform.
The app touched multiple areas of the member experience, including group fitness, aquatics, youth sports, membership, childcare, counseling, operations, purchasing, and communications. The project required coordination across the organization.
The Strategy
I led an 18-month, member-informed selection and implementation process built around two principles:
- Start with user needs rather than vendor capabilities. I gathered direct input from members using a forced-rank survey that asked them to prioritize the features they considered most important in a fitness app. I conducted a parallel staff discovery process to identify the tools and functionality employees needed to perform their day-to-day work.
- Carry user requirements through the entire technology lifecycle.
I translated the survey findings into criteria for evaluating potential app providers, then led the evaluation of 18 white-label platforms. After narrowing the field to three finalists, I developed an executive-level comparison of costs, benefits, and capabilities to support the final selection. Once a provider was selected, I remained the project lead through implementation, organizational change management, and member launch.
The Success
The project took the organization from the initial question,“What fitness app should we use?” through a structured, user-informed technology selection and ultimately to the launch of a new member-facing platform.
I served as the connective point across the entire life cycle by translating member needs into requirements, requirements into vendor selection criteria, vendor selection into implementation, and implementation into organizational and member adoption.
The result was not simply a new technology platform. It was an enterprise-wide change initiative involving technology, operations, staff training, content management, member experience, communications, and marketing, all coordinated through a single project strategy and implementation plan.
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