For me, the most rewarding part of this project was getting to drive product strategy. I have done user research before, so interviewing people and pulling out insights felt familiar. I know how to ask questions, listen for pain points, and map patterns. But this class pushed me to go past “what hurts?” and into “what are we going to build because of that?” and “how do we position it so people choose us over Apple, Oura, or Whoop?”. That is a harder skill.
The biggest challenge in this space is differentiation. Apple Watch gives you “good enough recovery” for free. Whoop is already the status symbol for people who take performance seriously. So what does FitPulse get to own? We kept coming back to the idea that most people are just tired. They work out, or they want to, but they feel sore, under-recovered, and kind of guilty all the time. They do not need another device telling them to push harder. They need something that says, “you are fine, take tonight off, here is why you are still making progress.” That shift sounds small, but it is actually a different product story. It is not “train harder.” It is “do not burn out.” It treats recovery as part of health, not an elite perk. I like that because it gives FitPulse a lane that is not fully taken.
This project also made me explore areas I have had less experience in, like competitive analysis, market sizing, and business modeling. I am used to thinking about users and behavior. I am less used to thinking in terms of “is there a real market here?” or “how would we price this?” Doing that work made me more confident in speaking about strategy, not just research. I started paying attention to how other companies talk about recovery, who they target, and what they leave out. That was new for me and actually fun.
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