NEW CASE STUDY: See how we built a custom digital platform for Melissa Wood Health
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A motivational speaker, meditation teacher, certified yoga and pilates instructor, certified health coach, and host of the Move With Heart Podcast, Melissa has built a loyal and diverse community over the years thanks to her unique approach to fitness and mindfulness.
An innate digital entrepreneur, she began filming and sharing her workouts from her living room in 2015 using only an iPhone and a simple tripod. Her practical approach to mindful movement and commitment to helping others better their connection to self resonated far and wide, leading to the launch of the first MWH app in 2019.
As MWH grew its audience, it became clear that the brand had outgrown its streaming platform. Being tethered to a third-party platform meant they lacked the flexibility needed to best cater to their members, limiting their ability to scale. It was time to build their very own platform from the ground up, and to grow the brand in a way that would allow them to give subscribers more of what they loved.
Being tethered to a third-party platform they didn’t own
In order to better serve their members and be able to scale, the team needed more control and flexibility.
The brand being synonymous with Melissa herself
With Melissa as the sole content creator, MWH was limited in the amount of content it could produce.
First, we needed to give MWH a brand identity that would allow it to stand on its own alongside Melissa as they added new creators and produced more content to satisfy member demand.
Second, it was time to build a custom platform that would give the brand ultimate control over their content and support future scaling.
Many members take advantage of the option to stream workouts from the brand’s website, so we needed to ensure the app and web experiences matched and provided an overall seamless experience.
Part of providing a seamless experience meant ensuring the transition to the new platform felt as smooth as possible for members. The new platform needed to have functional parity to MWH’s existing streaming platform while also incorporating the elevated branding and improved user experience.
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Our research aimed to uncover pain points in the existing user experience, explore desired features, and assess how the platform could best serve MWH’s community.
USER RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Understand users' needs, pain points, habits, and behaviors
Identify the optimal way to engage with members
Gather inspiration for new features
USER RESEARCH PROCESS
We conducted moderated studies with 7 MWH members via UserZoom GO, asking questions about their wellness goals, daily habits, perception of the brand, and experience using the MWH platform.
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We transcribed the video recordings and assessed the members’ interactions, assembling detailed user personas.
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Then we surveyed our notes and looked for patterns, gathering insights that ultimately helped guide the product roadmap.
With a looming launch date, it was crucial to have a crystal-clear product roadmap for all teams to align around.
A shared roadmap document tracking each feature along with its respective priority and current status ensured both MWH and Heady teams had a mutual understanding of development timelines.
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BRANDING DELIVERABLES
New color palette
Typography palette
Textures
Icons
Logo design & usage guidelines
Graphic asset library
Proposed applications for print, signage, social media, billboards, ads, apparel, packaging, stationery
Before we could delve into product design, MWH needed fresh branding to support its evolution. We dove into a rigorous discovery process kickstarted with an all-day workshop with the MWH team, focusing on alignment around the brand's voice, purpose, mission, values, and vision.
Drawing inspiration from our workshop insights as well as Melissa's Instagram, shared Pinterest boards, and user personas, we crafted a brand identity that reflects MWH’s heart and resonates deeply with their audience. We emphasized scalability and flexibility in the branding to suit various platforms and functions, rigorously testing it across multiple applications to ensure its versatility.
#1:WEB
#2:MOBILE APPS (iOS and android)
#3:design systems
While the MWH app and website are relatively simple in terms of functionality and features, ensuring these simple features operate smoothly and intuitively was anything but: We mapped out multiple user flows, as well as user journey maps, for both products to create the most intuitive and frictionless experience possible for MWH members.
A design system is a dynamic framework that serves as the backbone for design and development of a digital product. It creates a unified language and visual coherence within a product or across multiple products.
Creating a design system for MWH helped us achieve three goals:
Unification across mobile & web platforms to ensure a cohesive user experience
Creation of a shared design language and a single source of truth to streamline collaboration for internal and external teams, including devs
Optimization of workflows by granting the ability to make global design changes almost instantaneously
We Built a Dedicated Design System for MWH 
See the Case Study
At Heady we rely on usertesting.com, the industry standard for gathering user insights.
MODERATED INTERVIEW
UNMODERATED INTERVIEW
After we conducted interviews, we summarized feedback obtained through observations, participant comments, and post-task interviews, grouping similar feedback to identify any recurring themes or issues.
These insights were then used to shape future feature additions and other post-launch improvements.
The previous streaming service did not provide us with a manifest of members who had subscribed on iOS, so we had to build in a way to restore iOS purchases upon a user’s first login into the app. Because there was no way to test this solution ahead of launch, meticulous planning was needed to ensure uninterrupted access for a significant segment of members.
We set out to pinpoint the right pieces of technology that would suit MWH’s current needs and also be able to scale with them over time.
This is part of what we call the Heady Difference: We utilize our deep technical knowledge and experience to evaluate a wide range of potential partners and select the ones that position our clients for long-term success, not quick fixes.
Similar to the process of choosing a streaming platform, we evaluated several different platforms based on the MWH team’s requirements and ultimately recommended Contentstack as the best CMS to fit their needs.
As a headless CMS, it would enable the brand to manage existing content and add new content without constantly pushing out new releases.
One of our Engineering leads on the MWH project went on to become Contentstack certified, facilitating a robust implementation that leverages as many of the CMS’s offerings as possible.
MWH wanted to keep things simple and streamlined when it came to onboarding partners, and that’s why Heady recommended Iterable: As an industry-leading, all-in-one customer engagement platform, it was geared to support MWH's long-term plans for personalized, cross-channel communication including crafting email journeys and using in-app messaging and push notifications.
Learn More About How We Put Iterable to Work for MWH See the Case Study
They now have an owned platform that gives them greater flexibility and ultimate control over their digital future.
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The brand is also now fully positioned for growth from a tooling perspective, equipped with the partners and technologies necessary to facilitate future growth and enhancements.
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Profile Achievements 
In January 2023 we launched “Profile Achievements”, a dynamic app feature designed to enhance user engagement. Now, members can easily track their progress with detailed statistics such as the number of completed classes and badges earned for completing various programs. This feature also celebrates member milestones like length of membership and total classes completed. These achievements are prominently displayed in the member's profile, laying the groundwork for a more personalized identity within the app. This feature not only motivates continued use of the platform but also paves the way for future community-based enhancements, where members can share and celebrate their achievements with others on the platform.
Our collaboration with MWH exemplifies this, as we combined their content creation expertise with our technical knowledge and development resources. Standing in as both their de facto CTO and in-house design team, we fostered a relationship based on mutual trust to guide long-term, brand-enhancing decisions.
Many brands may think they can’t do what MWH did without having a full-fledged in-house technical team and CTO, but this project’s outcome is evidence of what can be achieved with the right tech partner. Heady’s involvement in key operational aspects, such as assisting in the recruitment of MWH’s Head of Product and in-house software talent, demonstrates our commitment to integrating with and elevating our clients' capabilities.
At Heady we pride ourselves on being thought partners, not just a dev shop. Our goal is to deeply understand the big picture of our clients’ business challenges in order to deliver custom solutions that not only address their current needs, but position them for long-term success in the digital landscape.
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Your phone will break before our apps do.
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