Runkeeper - User Engagement
UX Research - UX Strategy
In this case study, I’ll share my work on improving user activation and engagement for Runkeeper. The goal was to better understand why new users were dropping off early, and design a solution that would help them form lasting fitness habits.
Through research, ideation, and testing, we uncovered a key opportunity: helping users set meaningful goals earlier in their journey. This led to a redesigned onboarding experience focused on motivation, momentum, and retention, ultimately increasing engagement in the critical first weeks of using the app.
Context & Challenge
Runkeeper organically acquires millions of new users each year, but activation and early engagement were steadily declining. Less than a quarter of new users completed their first run, and by week three, engagement dropped off significantly.
The challenge:
How might we improve onboarding and encourage new users to form lasting habits that keep them running?
Our goal was to identify friction in the early user journey and design a solution that could activate, engage, and retain more runners during the critical first few weeks.
Approach & Process
We began by aligning on a measurable outcome: improving new user activation and engagement. Then we set out to understand the current state of the experience and where users were dropping off.
🎧 Research & Discovery
We combined user interviews with historical usage data to identify pain points and patterns. A major insight emerged: most users joined Runkeeper with a personal goal in mind, but very few were setting goals in the app within their first week.
We hypothesized that introducing goal-setting earlier in the onboarding process could improve activation by giving users a clearer path forward, and provide a natural entry point for personalized messaging and habit formation.
This insight led us to focus on redesigning onboarding to surface relevant goals sooner and make the process easier, clearer, and more motivating.
Solution
With team alignment around our goal-focused strategy, we moved into collaborative ideation. Through brainstorming and sketching sessions, we developed three distinct onboarding concepts, each designed to make goal-setting more accessible and inviting.
We created mid-fidelity prototypes for each direction and conducted user testing both remotely and in person. These sessions gave us fast feedback on clarity, motivation, and usability, allowing us to identify a winning direction to refine and iterate further.
The chosen design streamlined the onboarding flow and introduced simple prompts that helped users set realistic, motivating goals right from the start.
Outcome
Impact & Reflection
The new onboarding experience launched to a subset of users in early 2020. Since the soft launch, Runkeeper has seen a moderate increase in week 1 activation and a significant increase in week 3 engagement, a key success metric for building long-term running habits.
Just as importantly, we gained a deeper understanding of our users’ mindset and motivations. The project reinforced the power of early goal-setting, not just as a product feature, but as a behavior trigger that helps users commit, engage, and stay active.
With continued iteration and data collection, Runkeeper is now preparing for a full rollout of the new experience to its broader user base.
