Designing the Future of Fitness at Tonal with Nina Samarguliani

Rob Goodman:

Hi everyone, and welcome Now What?, the podcast from Wix about how technology is changing…everything. I'm your host, Rob Goodman, and in this series we're talking all about evolution in business, design, development and beyond. Over the past couple of years, business and creative leaders have had to evolve to meet the challenges that come with this overwhelming amount of change. Here at Wix we're interested in ways the creative people are evolving to build new businesses, grow beyond their limits and shape the future of the web. So, we thought: what if we got a bunch of our friends together, leaders in design, development, eCommerce and the agency world to talk about how they're dealing with all this change and how it's affecting their careers, teams and industries. This is a place for you to prepare for tomorrow's ever-changing world and apply those lessons today.

Rob Goodman:

In this new season of the show we're diving into customer experience. As the world has rapidly transformed, customer's expectations, behavior and needs have adapted with it. Paired with the emergence of new forms of social media, digital currency, the metaverse and so much more, navigating what this means for you and your organization can be a lot. So, we're bringing you fresh interviews and new insights from leaders that are reshaping business today to better prepare you for what's ahead.

Rob Goodman:

Today’s episode was recorded in the Spring of 2022 and features Nina Samarguliani, the former Senior Director of Product Design at Tonal. Tonal is an incredible at-home personalized smart gym and trainer. At Tonal, Nina worked at the intersection of hardware and software design and led a team of multidisciplinary designers working tirelessly to help people form healthy habits. Prior to Tonal, Nina managed a team at Coinbase, where she helped bring cryptocurrency to tens of millions of users through elegant and simple-to-use products.

Rob Goodman:

In this conversation, Nina and I chat about the future of fitness, the value of strength training to your work practice and personal life, the power of design principles in guiding product direction, customer experience and why a purpose-driven career – especially these days – matters so much. You're in for a great conversation about achieving your goals and designing products with healthy habits in mind. All on today's episode of the Now What? podcast. Let's get started. Nina, welcome to the Now What? Podcast. So happy to have you here.

Nina Samarguliani:

Thanks for having me.

Rob Goodman:

So first off, tell listeners about your role at Tonal.

Nina Samarguliani:

I lead product design and research at Tonal. Hardware and software. Hardware – it's Tonal and its accessories. Software – it's our product experience from onboarding, to content discovery, to very engaging workout experiences.

Rob Goodman:

And so I feel like I have to ask you as you're building, what is becoming the future of fitness, tell me about what you think the future of fitness and wellbeing is both this year in 2022 and beyond?

Nina Samarguliani:

It's personalized, intelligent, on your own terms. Definitely, definitely incorporate strength. And it helps you achieve your goals.

Rob Goodman:

It's almost like an at-scale personal coach in a way. I guess that's just one aspect of it. People go out and get personal trainers and things like that. But that's one aspect of Tonal where you get that personalization in your training program.

Nina Samarguliani:

Yeah, absolutely. That's what we believe in. Tonal is your personal trainer. It will help you get to where you need to go.

Rob Goodman:

So I'm a runner. I love running, and I want to get stronger. I want to do these things that you're describing. Talk to me why strength in particular is so important to the future of fitness, important to people out there that are trying to improve their health and their wellness?

Nina Samarguliani:

I think strength supercharges your power to run faster, and to do all the other things that you do generally in life. It's actually like my personal strength journey has been really interesting. I think it's so seamless, and the more you do the stronger you get. And next thing you know, you are doing things better, and things are easier for you and you just feel stronger. You feel better about yourself. There are so many benefits of strength training. And honestly, our entire company, we're very excited to bring it to everyone.

Rob Goodman:

Can you start at any point? Like I haven't been weightlifting, I haven't been working out those muscles. Can you start at zero or negative one or two?

Nina Samarguliani:

Well, it's important to do it safely. And we start beginners to keep it safe. And I wouldn't start with extremely advanced moves. I would definitely follow the guidance that we provide.

Rob Goodman:

Olympic trials are not in my...

Nina Samarguliani:

I would do it safely. I would start with the beginner moves. Tonal actually helps you get stronger. And it also adapts to you. So it knows when you're ready to move to the next level. So it will help you get there.

Rob Goodman:

So Tonal as a company, as an organization has been moving at lightspeed, you've taken on funding. The company has grown and scaled. More and more people are hearing about it, are working out with Tonal. Talk to me as a product design leader. What has been an unlock for you, both in this kind of hypergrowth journey, but also over these past couple years of pandemic, remote work, stress on people and society. How have you been able to move your team and the product forward?

Nina Samarguliani:

We've grown so much in this last year. It's been an incredible journey. I think for me, it always starts with setting the vision, setting the design principles, which we have great design principles that we base our product design on. And in terms of growing a team, I really truly believe in craft and collaboration. Anyone who joins our team, they are masters of their craft. They know how to collaborate. And from there, honestly trust is given, and you can just watch great things unfold.

Rob Goodman:

That must feel good to wake up every morning and go to work, or fire up your computer and know that you have this purpose to help people in their lives, in their health and all of that. How does that play into you and your work as you think about your career?

Nina Samarguliani:

I really do love it. I think there's so much purpose in this, and not just for me, I think for my entire team too. We believe we are designing a product that is transforming people's lives. And that's just the amazing thing to be part of.

Rob Goodman:

You talked to me about this idea of surrendering, and I think a lot of leaders out there would identify with this notion of letting go, sharing your Lego pieces, as it's been said by others. How have you leaned into that surrender, and that trust, as your team grows? And maybe the things you did today are not going to be the things you do tomorrow.

Nina Samarguliani:

I really do love that concept. Honestly, it is about hiring people who are really, really good at what they do. They are the masters. And if you trust them that they will do a great job, you could just sit back and watch the magic happen. It's like: expect the best and best will happen, and they can achieve even greater things than you could have on your own. And I think that's the beautiful thing about it.

Rob Goodman:

Was there a moment where you were like, "I got to let go. I can't, this is not working. I'm holding on." Or were you just from day one like, "Yeah. Okay, great. You run with that. I'll figure out."

Nina Samarguliani:

I mean, it depends. There's definitely a time where it's like from day one. Yes. There's been other times where you just sit back and you're like, "Oh, this is going really well. I think I'm going to give it up." So it kind of depends.

Rob Goodman:

So it's a little like trust and verify-like hand off, make sure everything's going, then you kind of wave it off.

Nina Samarguliani:

I think you just have to keep that in mind, that you have to let go of certain things, and then you'll see when the time is right.

Rob Goodman:

And then as you share more of these Lego pieces, where does your attention go as a product leader? Does it go to thinking about the 3, 5, 10 year plan? Does it go to vision setting? Does it go to product roadmap? Where do you then focus in on?

Nina Samarguliani:

Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, it's all of that and more. And it's also setting everyone up for success. We have just grown, just this last year our team has grown so much, and making sure yes, letting go, but also being there to support and making sure everyone is able to do the best job that they can. And that support is definitely taking time. And I enjoy it. But also amplifying the vision, amplifying the principles and thinking about what's next. Thinking ahead is a big part of it.

Rob Goodman:

Hey, everyone. I wanted to tell you a little bit about Wix Fit, the platform to build a more powerful fitness business. With Wix Fit, you can keep up with a rapidly changing industry, make your clients feel their best and boost your productivity all from a single platform. You'll be able to build your brand by creating a lead-driving website that reflects the spirit of your business, add services your clients expect like online booking and a branded app that gives them access to online challenges, goal tracking, and more. And you can help them crush it from anywhere by taking them to the front row of the studio with live streams and on demand workout sessions.

Rob Goodman:

Wix Fit gives you the fuel to grow your business and boost your productivity. With automated marketing tools and AI-powered campaigns for Facebook and Instagram, you'll be able to capture leads and convert them into customers with a CRM solution built right into the site. Plus manage and track every one of your business goals with custom reports and detailed analytics. So you can get to know your business better and make more informed decisions about how to adjust for maximum growth. If you're ready to power up your fitness brand, visit wix.com/fitness-solution. That's wix.com/fitness-solution. Now let's get back to the show.

Rob Goodman:

You mentioned that you and your team have spent a lot of time defining these design principles at Tonal. And one of those that's core to your members is the idea of building daily rituals. You mentioned it earlier. Building habit, and that's such a huge win for so many consumer companies. Like how do you build a habit? And with social media, sometimes we've seen that's not the most productive habit potentially for people. And others, they want to get people to come back and use again, and use again and be connected. So, I mean, how do you think about building habit for users, especially in a world that is so filled with distraction? Both for Tonal, and then also for folks who are listening, who are like, "I need to start building these mechanisms to keep my community, my consumers close."

Nina Samarguliani:

Yeah. Our principle is: build daily rituals to achieve goals. And I really love this one. I think by default, as designers, we know how to design products that are engaging, and for the lack of a better word, addictive, and keep members coming back. And I can't think of a better product to use that on. By making this product more and more engaging, you are making people healthier. And strength training already has that going. If you’re strength training, you sort of start feeling better, better about yourself and working out in general. And then we can motivate you with achievements and celebrations, even like community engagement. There's a lot we can do from a design perspective to help people build habits. That's what we intend to do. All you have to do is show up. We will even help you show up. We will motivate you to show up. And next thing you know, it's a habit.

Rob Goodman:

I love that. I love that. Make it nice and easy. I'm just picturing myself building this strength training habit that I actually want to create. Talk to me about the importance of personalization in customer experience. You've been touching on it throughout our conversation, but why is that more and more important to customers?

Nina Samarguliani:

I mean, personalization, I mean, it's even in our tagline, like be your strongest, and empower every member to be their strongest. Your strongest is your strongest and mine is mine. And how much you can lift is not the same as how much I can lift, but we can both feel our strongest. So it even starts there. And then you go from there. It depends what goal you have, and what you want to do. What do we do that's specific to your needs, that is customized to you. So you can get where you need to go.

Nina Samarguliani:

Are you trying to get lean? Are you trying to build muscle? Are you trying to just maintain fitness, or get better at a certain sport? Exactly what are you trying to do? And even the whole intelligence around our product, how it adapts to you, it knows how much weight you can lift. And it knows when it should level it up for you and give you more weight to lift. All of this is just very personalized to each individual member.

Rob Goodman:

Yeah. I think I was telling you when we were talking, I have a certain running app device thing and attracts my steps, and I run. And the step goal just keeps increasing every day. It's like, "Oh, I see you did 10,000 steps, tomorrow, do 11." And then I'll do a long run. It's like 13. And it's like, "Now do 15." I'm like, "I don't think this is what I should be doing."

Nina Samarguliani:

I don't think you could do that. It is an intelligent product. You also have to do it very safely. You can't up, and up, and up the way. It has to be very, very safe. And safety is number one for us. You are learning how to lift weights. It has to be done safely. So you can't just up the weight. We know exactly how much to up, and how much not to up.

Rob Goodman:

Yes. I'm saying that I appreciate that about Tonal, and I yearn for it in my little running app here. What advice do you have for design and product leaders, as they're thinking about reimagining tools and platforms for today's needs? I think about, in the age of COVID, how that's reshaping society, and potentially a post-pandemic world. Talk to me about that. I mean, Tonal seems like such a great fit for that as more and more people are, or have been kind of in their homes and needing ways to draw energy and maintain health. But how do other leaders think about understanding the needs of customers today?

Nina Samarguliani:

Honestly, research unlocked some really amazing, incredible things. So understanding the customers, understanding – we call our customers members – understanding the members, know what their needs are, and designing the product accordingly. That would be my advice.

Rob Goodman:

Yeah. And how often are you all engaging with your members? Is it qualitative, quantitative? Are you, I know you're interfacing on the community boards and things like that. How do you draw in those insights?

Nina Samarguliani:

We have an incredible community on Facebook and we definitely draw a lot of insights from there. We also do a lot of testing. I mean, for hardware, we test everything – that's non-negotiable. Also for product experience, we try to stay connected with our members and understand what their needs are.

Rob Goodman:

And talk to me specifically about how you were able to bring your team together during the pandemic. And keep people motivated, keep people collaborating and keep that energy going. Even during really, really strenuous times?

Nina Samarguliani:

We try to find time to come together, and work together, and jam together and just be together as much as we can. One of the team rituals that we have that I particularly love is our Monday standup. This is just an hour where we all get together as a team. We use it for inspiration. We share highlights from the weekend. We have a rotating host and they always bring a question for the team to answer. We hold workshops during that time, guest speakers. We don't really talk about work during that time. It is mostly the time for us to come together and connect and learn from each other. I would say it definitely is one of my favorite times, one of my favorite hours of the week.

Rob Goodman:

That's amazing. Yeah, that sounds like a very nourishing time for everyone.

Nina Samarguliani:

Yeah, it's great. It really is.

Rob Goodman:

And that was consistent? You've been consistently doing that every Monday for the past, how long?

Nina Samarguliani:

Yeah. We've been doing that ever since I joined, I think. And it's every Monday, currently it's during lunchtime and it's great. It brings everyone together. And another interesting thing is that our team is big now, and we have so many different disciplines. Like we have industrial design, we have design systems, design operations, copywriters, researchers, designers and we may not be working together throughout the week. And this is the time where we all connect and we build the relationship. So later on, we can count on each other.

Rob Goodman:

Changing gears a little bit. I want to hear about a daily or weekly practice of yours, that's really helped you in your business life, your personal life. Tell me Nina, how can listeners learn from your unlocks?

Nina Samarguliani:

I try to work out on Tonal every day. I really do. During the pandemic, I think I worked out almost every day, except for the times when I wasn't at home, which I was always at home. I mean, partly because there's so many reasons. One, it does make you stronger and you feel good doing it. Two is because I want to know the product. I want to know it inside and out so we can design it accordingly. And also, I'm talking about building habits and for our members, I want to build habits for myself. I want to figure out how I can work out on Tonal every day. What are the things I need to do? Like can I meditate on day one, and do strength on day two? And it's almost like doing a little experiment on myself.

Rob Goodman:

And the experiment is going well.

Nina Samarguliani:

Yes. I would say so. Yeah. I really love this product. It's really engaging, and it makes you feel good.

Rob Goodman:

And I also have to ask, what is your go-to workout?

Nina Samarguliani:

There was this one OG workout from coach Pablo. I think it's called core crunch. I think I must have done it 20 times, maybe more. It makes me want to look up and see how many times I've done it. But there are also some strength moves on Tonal. You can do live workouts, you could also do pre-recorded workouts, you can also do custom workouts, which is you doing your own strength, move at your own pace. And some of the moves that I really love are rotational chop. I don't know if you're familiar with it.

Rob Goodman:

I don't know that one.

Nina Samarguliani:

It's a really awesome move. It's called a rotational chop. And then another one is lat pulldown. Those are my go to strength moves.

Rob Goodman:

Awesome. Nina, thank you so much for joining the show. It's been such a pleasure talking to you, learning more about Tonal, learning more about the future of fitness and personalization, and can't thank you enough for joining.

Nina Samarguliani:

Thank you so much for having me.

Rob Goodman:

That was such a fun interview with Nina Samarguliani. Thanks so much for listening. There were some standout moments for me from our conversation. I thought I'd share some of those with you. When Nina spoke about how Tonal is both adapting to the user and personalizing the experience, I couldn't help but think of how this kind of progressive goal oriented experience could apply to so many different products and platforms. It's an experience based around improving the lives of users in an ongoing cycle of momentum.

Rob Goodman:

I wonder how this might apply to other worlds of social media, eCommerce and other fitness businesses. And I really liked hearing about how much of the product development journey for Nina and her team is unlocked through research. By deeply understanding user needs, they can build the product accordingly. And how they use their social media communities, and Facebook group as a breeding ground for feedback and understanding customer needs.

Rob Goodman:

Oh, and it was fun to hear about how Nina uses herself as an experiment of sorts. Using the product nearly every day to better understand it herself, and to constantly be in the mindset of her customers. And lastly, on the team building front, hearing from Nina about her favorite part of the week, that Monday stand up that her team is kept as an ongoing ritual. A place to bond with one another, host workshops, guest speakers, offer prompts to get to know each other better.

Rob Goodman:

As she puts it, it's been a great way to connect and glue the team together through real authentic connection. The benefits of which are obvious, but it also really helps when it comes time to work together and move through those tough and challenging times as a team. Food for thought as all teams, really whether remote, hybrid or in the office are striving for better connection these days.

Rob Goodman:

This is Now What? by Wix, the podcast about how technology is changing…everything. Be sure to subscribe and follow the show wherever you're listening to get new episodes first, and please rate, review and share this show with your friends and colleagues too. Now What? podcast is produced and hosted by me, Rob Goodman, Executive Producer for Content at Wix. Audio engineering and editing is by Brian Pake at Pacific Audio. Music is composed and performed by Kimo Muraki. Executive Producers from Wix are Susan Kaplow and me, Rob Goodman. You can learn more at wix.com/nowwhat. We'll see you soon.