Say Heyo
Managing boutique fitness from payroll to child’s pose.
In a space largely controlled by a single dominant player, fitness studios traditionally had few options in the way of cohesive operations software. This created an opportunity for Mariana Tek, a small but mighty startup founded by industry veterans, to enter the market.
Our plan
Create a design-forward system that slots neatly into the busy work days of fitness instructors and studio administrators. By providing a flexible and intuitive experience that simplifies operations, we undercut the incentive to stay with a ubiquitous, but comparatively clunky, option.
To begin, we led their design team through a purposeful exploration and evolution of the core product experience. Leveraging Mariana’s deep industry expertise, we outlined a strategy to correctly value and prioritize the kinds of features fitness instructors and administrators would need, and at which points during their work day they would need them.
The result: an intuitive and durable system that accounts for a diverse range of complicated use cases, all with the end-users—and their customers—in mind.
“Make&Model were absolute lifesavers. Their empathetic and human-centric approach kept us focused, sane, and smiling as we navigated our way through immensely complex business, logistical, and design challenges.”
Bob Rademacher, COO
Test, listen, and learn
With so many Big concepts to solve for - including class scheduling and administration, inventory management, accounting, reporting, and more! - we needed to become experts in the space, right alongisde the Mariana team. For that reason, prototyping, user testing, and interdisciplinary collaboration were directly at the heart of what made this project a success.
Knowing the complexities of the space, we focused on non-traditional gyms with specialized workout classes (barre, yoga, HIIT, etc...). Prior to taking the product live, we conducted a variety of in-studio user tests and interviews to better understand the individual needs of the businesses joining us as launch partners. The insights gleaned from this research prepared us to confidently address the wide-reaching implications of branching user roles and studio sizes as we fleshed out our design patterns.
With a comprehensive set of business tools at their disposal, fitness studios are now able to seamlessly provide the services they do best without worrying about dizzying technical infrastructures and brittle, confusing software. From child’s pose to payroll management, were warmed to provide both advisory and tangible design direction on this project, and are excited to see where Mariana Tek goes next.
