Residential Gym & Fitness Center Stakeholders Mapping
There are internal, connected and external stakeholders. The following are the internal stakeholders only that can be found in a fitness center, residential or corporate gym (businesses, hotels). Main types of interactions between stakeholders: 1. share the same activity as the primary stakeholder of interest (friends, family members, colleagues (for corporate membership), neighbors (for residential gym), other clients... "exercises with...") 2. provide support to the primary stakeholders of interest in order to perform tasks and accomplish goal (personal trainer, dance/aerobic teacher, nutritionist, pool instructor...) 3. provide related support to primary stakeholders of interest through management, housekeeping, sales & membership (for 1st time user and last time user). This includes front desk employees, gym/pool management, residence office management, housekeeping...
NTERVIEW FIELD GUIDE ABOUT EXERCISING AT THE GYM
Use Field Study Script
Date: 19 October 2015
Author: Anna Sellem
Session length: 40 minutes
Introduction (5 mins)
"Thank you for your participation!
We would like to talk with you today about physical exercise, especially in a gym facility from your residence, business, hotel or in a specific fitness center. This study will only take a few minutes.We are a consulting and design firm called Octopus willing to get feedbacks about your experiences about working out. With this, we will hopefully be able to design better products and services for people like you. There are no wrong answers, just perceptions. We’re not evaluating or judging you in any way, we’re just trying to learn from you about how you exercise and we’re interested in hearing your stories and experiences about gym facilities.
Here’s how the discussion’s going to be. I’ll ask you few general or trivial questions about transportation. Please be candid in your responses and don’t hesitate to share with me what you have in mind at loud. Feel free to say anything that you like or don’t like. But if you are not comfortable with a question, feel free to say it and we move on to the next one.Then, I’ll ask you more specific questions to explore a little deeper your working out experience. If you don’t mind, I’ll record an audio of you. I understand that it makes it a bit formal, but the only purpose of recording your answer is to review them later. I can assure you that your information are confidential and won’t be shared with any third party.
Do you have any questions at this point?
Great! Let start!
Warm up (10 mins)
1. Can you please tell me a little about yourself - introduce with your name, what you do, your hobbies, etc.?
2. What comes first to your mind when you hear the word “ physical exercise”? (e.g. in terms of semantics)
3. How being interviewed about physical exercise make you feel? (e.g. adjectives)
4. What are, for you, the differences between exercising, working out, do sport outside and go to the gym? What do they mean to you?
5. Do you exercise and how? What is your main objective/goals when exercising?
Great! Thanks!
Now let's dive a little deeper about your work out experiences...
Specific (20 min)
6. How often did you exercise last week? And where does physical exercise take place and how long?
7. What are the activities you do to get ready to exercise?
8. Have you even been to a gym or fitness facility? If yes, which one do you prefer and why? (eg residential gym, corporate gym, fitness center, other)
9. If you can’t have [preferred choice #1], would you consider exercising with [choice #2 or #3]? Why not?
10. Let’s now consider your preferred physical exercise experience (choice #1), what do you do while exercising? And what others do, differently, based on your observations and experiences?
11. What are the best/worst things about going to the gym?
12. When exercising, do you interact with anyone? If yes, for which purpose? And how long did it last?
13. When exercising, do you use any specific tool, device or equipment? (eg device to track exercise or any equipment to facilitate your activities...) And if yes, do you own them?
14. Can you recall a time where you really enjoyed/hated exercising? What exactly happened and how did it make you feel?
Exercising in residential gym facility
15. Why didn't you choose a residence with a gym facility? (if participant does not have a gym in his/her residence)
16. Did you choose your housing based on the gym facility?
17. Would you consider it for your next housing? If yes/no, why?
18. What are the advantages/drawbacks of a residential gym compared to a fitness center?
Exercising in fitness center
19. Why do you subscribe to a gym membership?
20. What is the most frustrating/joyful part of exercising in fitness center?
21. What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center very enjoyable?
22. Let's say, now you can hypothetically have a perfect health and body shape, would you still go a fitness center? If not, what would you miss, if any, from the gym?
Future (5 min)
23. If I had a company with unlimited resources and I said I could create anything you wanted but only to make your physical exercise experience more enjoyable, what would you ask me to make you? (eg products, services, experiences, future environments, etc.)
24. I have been asking you a lot of questions. Is there anything you want to add or ask me?
Closing (2 min)
Great. Thank you very much for your time.
Here's your compensation envelope.
Submit your summary of your intercept interviews.Conditions of intercept interviews
Due to mobility issue (no transportation), all intercept interviews have been done by phone.Summary of intercept interviews
Intercept interview #1:
Jerome F is a man. He is 31 years old and lives in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
When was the last time you exercise? And what is your goal when exercising? We're Tuesday, right? (pause) Last time I exercised, was last week...(pause) I think, end of last week. I work out to lose weight and stay healthy. I also like to walk or run on the beach, it's relaxing!
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? I get dressed with working out clothes and I always get my dog with me to run on the beach. It helps to stay motivated and it is really good for my dog because he needs a lot of exercise!
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? Ideally, to work out at the gym, I will need an open roof, like a rooftop! (pause) I love to be outside, not in a closed environment. So I guess, I would love to have the same equipment but outside? It would be awesome!
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? I get dressed with working out clothes and I always get my dog with me to run on the beach. It helps to stay motivated and it is really good for my dog because he needs a lot of exercise!
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? Ideally, to work out at the gym, I will need an open roof, like a rooftop! (pause) I love to be outside, not in a closed environment. So I guess, I would love to have the same equipment but outside? It would be awesome!
Intercept interview #2:
Rejane JB is a woman. She is 28 and lives in Bordeaux, France.
When was the last time you exercise? And what is your goal when exercising? I exercise one or twice a week in a dance studio.(she did not answer exactly but I did not mention it). I go to a dance studio because I need to stay in shape, think about nothing for few hours, avoid mental stress and I love dancing.
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? I eat quite well before working out, usually a yogurt and a fruit. I really need sugar because I spend a lot of energy. I also fill my bottle of water, get dressed and go to the studio.
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? Well, to go to the gym, I would really need to have activities that would help me to forget about work and be active. I really need to enjoy and have fun! When I'm dancing, I'm having fun! It needs to make me smile or laugh... I know it's a bit abstract... But that's what is missing in a gym. I'm not sure how a gym can do that...
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? I eat quite well before working out, usually a yogurt and a fruit. I really need sugar because I spend a lot of energy. I also fill my bottle of water, get dressed and go to the studio.
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? Well, to go to the gym, I would really need to have activities that would help me to forget about work and be active. I really need to enjoy and have fun! When I'm dancing, I'm having fun! It needs to make me smile or laugh... I know it's a bit abstract... But that's what is missing in a gym. I'm not sure how a gym can do that...
Intercept interview #3:
Agathe M is a woman. She is 29 and lives in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
When was the last time you exercise? And what is your goal when exercising? Last time I exercised was about a week ago. I didn't get the chance to do it this week as I'm working a lot. I wish I could do more...
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? Well, I get ready and try to focus on how long I should work out before working out! Haha (pause) Because, otherwise, it's not effective.
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? I wish I would be less tired before working out. I would love to have extra time too! (pause) Maybe I will need to double the time I allocate to work out! (pause)I always feel like I don't have enough time to work out, after work, husband, puppy... Oh wait, I would love also to just be able to walk downstairs to get myself motivated to go to the gym and avoid transportation.
What are the main activities you do to get ready to exercise? And why you do what you do? Well, I get ready and try to focus on how long I should work out before working out! Haha (pause) Because, otherwise, it's not effective.
What are the ideal circumstances, that would make working out in a fitness center/gym very enjoyable? I wish I would be less tired before working out. I would love to have extra time too! (pause) Maybe I will need to double the time I allocate to work out! (pause)I always feel like I don't have enough time to work out, after work, husband, puppy... Oh wait, I would love also to just be able to walk downstairs to get myself motivated to go to the gym and avoid transportation.
Similarities and differences in intercept interviews
The single question that I chose to focus on was the ideal circumstances of working out. One participant is not a fan of the gym and emphasizes the fact that he would work out in the gym without rooftop. One mentioned that gym does not make her laugh and have fun, and one mentioned the fact that she needs more time and also that it is convenient to avoid transportation when going to the gym (which is related to time as it reduces timing).
Gym does provide a sufficient experience only to 1 participant out of 3 (the last one).
When asking in the middle of the conversation, "how often do you work out", most people answer "a bit every week". But when you ask, "when was the last time you exercise", then, 2 people realized it was "last week" which implies that they haven't been working out yet this week. There is an interesting difference between what people say and what people actually do (behavioral vs attitudinal).
Some people might not emphasize their inner motivations to work out and prefer to say that they "want to have fun", or "stay healthy", or "it's good for the dog!". When diving deeper into the question or building rapport, they may add why they do work out "avoid stress", "not thinking about work"...
They all have different experiences and motivations and thus, their experience working out at the gym varies a lot as some like Agathe might be more interested in the gym than Rejane who wants to have fun and enjoy or Jerome, who loves to be outside.
