Secretive developer emerges from the shadows muttering "feedback please?"
Long time lurker here, finally breaking my silence and hoping to overcome the fear of product feedback 😨
In the past I've built many side projects for personal development which have never seen the light of day. I'm now trying to build something people actually want to use by seeking validation before committing too much work to code.
I'd really appreciate it if you can take a look at my draft landing page for my weight control/healthy lifestyle concept. Any feedback you can offer would be gratefully received - from the general look and feel of the product concept, to whether you think you would be interested in this product if you were looking to change your body weight.
Many thanks,
As someone who tracks their diets and workouts heavily, I don't really understand what it's supposed to do. Seems to offer personalized advice, but the pricing for free plan doesn't indicate anything about that.
Are users entering in foods here like a calorie counter? And then you say like "eat this whole wheat bread instead of the white bread"?
I'm guessing it's mostly still in idea phase, I'll say I like the design of the landing page.
Also: "The excess calories you have accumulated over the years will take time to pay off. "
You're trying to relate body fat to a debt or something when it's more of a bank - you need to stop putting money in, and start spending more.
Thanks for your input!
You've absolutely hit the nail on the head with the debt thing. It was an early idea of mine to try and make people understand their situation better by equating it to debt, then I realised calories are more like savings and the concept should be flipped. I think I will steer away from that analogy completely because it's just confusing. Thanks for noticing 😆
I think the space in the market I'm trying to hit is being an aggregator of fitness data and calorie data. There are apps that do each of those things well, but not both.
In terms of the advice that the system will offer - I want to build a whole library of useful tips across a range of topics. These will be delivered based on your past performance. For example, someone who thinks they are eating lower calories but is still gaining weight could be offered helpful tips how to better measure what they're eating. Someone who is nailing the dieting part but still not losing as much as they would like to, would be offered advice to start simple exercise - or more advanced exercise tips based on their level.
I guess this part is the most important part of the product. So I need to flesh it out and explain it properly on the landing page 👍
How are you getting the nutritional info from the users?
like you said, there's already apps - I use Myfitnesspal. Always been interested in this space so pretty curious. I wonder if it's possible to tap into Google and Apples health ecosystem for integration.
Alternatively, yes - integrations with existing providers would provide a simple way to track actual calorie data if my estimation idea doesn't work out.
These are the bits I'm still figuring out. I'd appreciate your input when I provide further updates soon 👍
My idea, which will obviously require some testing - is to try to remove the need to count calories. My aim is for the user to be able to input a couple of simple metrics for each meal (basically quantity and quality) plus snacks and drinks, and we can then infer the amount of calories consumed based on what is normal for them.
As I say this is an unproven method - but nobody really wants the trouble of counting calories and I think estimating with a few data points will provide enough of a picture of where people may be going wrong with their diet.
Nice work, @TommyK. Your page is professional and shows clear product examples.
How do you plan to validate your idea?
I suppose what's becoming obvious is that I need to put the product idea in front of prospective customers (people actively trying to lose weight) rather than like-minded indie hackers 🙂
I'll need to search out some groups that I can put a prototype in front of and find out if it's something they would be willing to try/pay for.
Thanks for encouraging me to think about that 👍
i like the concept in general. not 100% sure about the name- could it be a bit polarising maybe...??...
I was intrigued to know what people thought of the name. I felt it was just a light-hearted term for being a bit overweight.
I think it's a term only used in the UK as there are not many matches when you Google it, so it's easily searchable for a new product.
What were your thoughts on it?
hi, yes, agree, its normally a light hearted term for being a bit overweight....(fyi i'm from australia if that helps)- however if you are targeting females, they tend to get very very sensitive about weight- and i think people will get offended- maybe not males so much...depends who you are targeting....i would speak to more potential customers to see what others think....
This doesn't tell me much. Should get a better pitch, that's more specific, advice, does it just tell me "yes, you are fat" "no, you shouldn't eat that", "go to the gym already"?
The next paragraph isn't much better, what does it actually do/say?...
No fad diets, but yes to click bait articles "with this one simple trick"?
I don't feel that exercise vs diet image tells me match, besides forgetting Captials
Who uses kcals? is cal just the same?
"Podge is designed to help you make incremental changes to your calorie input and output over time"
So long and boring, can probably be like 4 words
"Incrementally adopt your calories"
Work on short attractive texts, get to the point with less words, what's in it for me? I don't need to read your product name over and over again with adjectives..
Thanks for taking a look and for the detailed feedback!
I agree with many of your points and I definitely agree the landing page is too wordy in its current form.
My plan is to flesh out the idea a bit more and boil down the concept to demonstrate the core principles better.
Many thanks
I like the UX and the idea in general. As an apple watch user, it would be cool if the app could import calorie data from your workouts/steps and compare it to food intake, like in that deficit screenshot you have.
Absolutely. The plan down the line would be to have integrations with all the major fitness and calorie tracking apps we can.
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Thanks!