Zwift - Acquisition & Growth Improvements

While at Zwift, I strategically led UX initiatives to elevate Zwift.com, gearing it for direct hardware sales, yearly subscriptions, and user referrals. This involved meticulous planning and execution to ensure the platform's readiness for these significant changes.

User Journeys

Page Layouts

UX Research

Discovery/Definition

Stakeholder Presentations

Eng. Support

Where we started:

At the time I joined Zwift, their website was largely geared towards new monthly subscriptions, which resulted in stalled growth. In order to foster growth, Zwift needed to start selling first-party hardware, add incentives for subscriptions, and offer additional membership packages.

What we delivered:

Addressing these complex issues required a systematic approach. I began by supporting the launch of Zwift Hub, the company's first branded trainer. Over the course of 18 months, I played a pivotal role in Zwift's success by creating landing pages and purchase/setup flows for Hub, integrating Referrals for new users, designing 1-year of Zwift + trainer bundle flows, and crafting flows & page designs for annual memberships. Each step was a testament to our problem-solving skills and commitment to overcoming hurdles.

Impact of this work:

+300
Basis Points

3-month retention increase for referred users

4x
Conversion

Referred user conversion over standard method

50k
Migrations

From monthly to annual subcribers in 1st week
(Exceeded predictions by 30k)

-12%
Cancelations

Cancellations reduced 12% YoY

Hub Purchase & Setup

Hub Purchase & Setup

Selling first-party hardware: With the Zwift Hub (Zwift's 1st branded smart trainer) coming to market, I started by creating the user journey from the homepage through checkout, focusing on the Hub landing page. In addition to building out these designs, I suggested we move the Hub setup instructions out of the Zwift Support site for a more user-friendly introduction for users setting up a trainer for the first time.

Hub Landing Page (View in Figma)

The approved page we launched for Zwift Hub

Hub Purchase Flow (View in Miro)

The initial wireframe flows for Hub Purchase included considerations for financing, variant sales, and the post-purchase experience

Hub Setup Flow (View in Miro)

After designing a custom tab component, I designed flows that introduced prospects to the Hub Setup page prior to launch, so they could learn about the ease of getting on Zwift

Hub Setup Page (View in Figma)

A fully bespoke page for the setup experience, built with custom tab components

Zwift Referrals

Zwift Referrals

Adding in Referrals: With the Hub finally launched, I next took on a relatively short project with an outsized impact: Referrals. We tackled this feature by generating a custom referral URL for each existing user. This is where I brought some customizations to the design - any prospect who clicks on a referral link would see a headline mentioning (by name) the Zwifter who invited them. This helped build a narrative around the referral process and increase conversion - as mentioned earlier, users who subscribed via referral had a 4x retention rate compared to standard subscribers.

Referrals Prospect Page (View in Figma)

The customized referral page that led to over 1000 new subscribers in the first year

Referrals - Zwifter Wireframe (View in Figma)

Initial wireframe layouts for the Referrals page from the Zwifter side. This allows existing users to send a referral to friends via email, and tracks the total number of referrals that converted to subscribers

Referrals - Zwifter Final Design (View in Figma)

This streamlined final version of the referrals page made it easy for Zwifters to share their referral link with prospects.

Referrals in Zwift Companion (View in Figma)

The designs for referrals also were ported into Zwift Companion.

Hub Bundles

Hub Bundles

Bundling subscriptions with Hubs: With Referrals and Hub fully launched, I next tackled Bundles - selling a Hub with a 1-yr Zwift subscription. This feature build would require UX to overcome significant hurdles:

  • Dealing with multiple payment options (Standard debit, Apple subscribers, ACH payments, different payment processors across regions) and the “gifting” use case

  • Shopify isn't geared toward digital products (since they have an "infinite" inventory. This meant users would have to enter their payment information twice - once for the initial bundle purchase and again after purchase to enable the 1-year subscription entitlement

  • This feature build required coordination across UX, engineering, product management, product marketing, creative, CRM, localization and C-suite teams.

To kick off this design-build, I first met with engineering and PM to determine how we would fulfill the digital subscription. Ultimately, the solution would be that users would have to make the initial Hub + subscription purchase, then receive an email directing them to claim their subscription by saving their payment info to renew when their one-year Zwift subscription expired. 

Bundles - Initial User Flows (View in Miro)

Although this design effort would eventually need tailored flows for different payment gateways, I designed this base flow as a foundation for all variants.

Designing Card State Variants (View in Miro)

Along with the bundle variants, I needed to create multiple subcription card states to account for bundle purchasers with a variety of account statuses (subscribed, canceled, not yet converted, etc.)

Annual Memberships

Annual Memberships

Layering in Annual Memberships: Now that a 1-year Zwift membership existed in some form (meaning, as part of a bundle purchase), we turned our attention to creating an annual membership that could be purchased by any user regardless of status.

End-to-end Annual Membership Flow (View in Figma)

Final visual-design versions of the full Annual Membership flow including checkout, referrals, and post-conversion profile creation

Membership Selector Page (View in Figma)

I designed a standalone membership selection page so users could learn about what Zwift offers and make a choice about the plan they wanted. We also A/B tested this page's nav title with "Pricing" being the clear winner in terms of CTR/conversion.

Alternate Versions (View in Figma)

As part of the design process I explored alternate methods of plan selection, like this version with a selector on the Create Account page.

Hear from leadership:

Manlio Lo Conte

Fmr. Chief Product Officer, Zwift

"During my time leading product at Zwift I was fortunate to have Seth walk me through several complex customer purchase flows. Often these were complicated journeys with both technical and business limitations.

Seth was always innovative in his solutions, clear in the ideal customer experience, and open to feedback and suggestions. As a result we were able to quickly and effectively give feedback and move the programs forward."