Mile2Marathon.com — Dev, Design, Strategy

A WooCommerce Subscription based, custom coach matching, and athlete on-boarding business software.

When Dylan Wykes mentions managing 150’ish athletes on-boarding & monthly payments with Google Forms & Sheets, Jody throws up in his mouth a little bit.

Actually.
Narrator

But two years later, we hand the project off after the first year — $425K in total invoices. A fully automated billing system, with such refined logic and interface layers that it basically runs itself at this point. A complete success that transforms a business struggling to grow into a system capable of scaling infinitely.

A complete business overhaul … and more.

Business Strategy & Project Discovery
M2M Rebrand & Identity Design
Complete UI, UX, and Visual Design
Custom Ecommerce Software Development
Saucony Solo Series Marketing & Launch
Merchandise Fulfillment Process

Like most projects, this one is not without its challenges, but problems — ultimately — are solved in-house. Managing hurdles and outright roadblocks alike, we work through all the pain points, and produce a well oiled business — ready to scale.

Business Strategy & Project Discovery

A two part process ran synchronously with the WordPress build, as we test features in real time along the way. It works well.

The largest of the moving pieces are handled with WooCommerce Subscriptions, and I am left to build the custom email notification triggered, Athlete / Coach matching, Dashboard, and on-boarding system.

A Scapple flow chart outlining the custom Athlete on-boarding & notification driven Coach matching system. During the discovery process for the project, and throughout the build, we refine not only the system and the above user flow, but the M2M business model.

The on-boarding system sets up and initiates billing, and then guides users through various waivers and forms providing the right information to the right person at the right time. With a simple way to respond for Coaches & Admins to keep an Athlete moving through the system smoothly, it works exceptionally well reducing the Admin roles on the team to white glove very few Athletes.

M2M Brand & Identity Design

During some inspiration hunting based around the new logo we just received from the projects designer, we find every project managers nightmare … our logo.

Long story short: A stolen logo obtained on Fiverr by a hired designer leads us to finishing production of the final logo, building out a complete Mile2Marathon identity based on the new logo and provided colours already approved.

Web design support is now all in our lap as well. Scope expands, we adjust.

Custom Coach Matching, Athlete On-boarding, Monthly Billing, WooCommerce based Notification system.

That is a mouthful, but what is built for Mile2Marathon really is an all inclusive custom software solution that handles their entire business needs. Extensive research and feedback goes into the UI of the Dashboards, resulting in an UX that streamlines on-boarding.

Some screen shots below highlight key views for Coaches, Athlete Managers, and Athletes alike.

A custom dashboard that walks Athletes through on-boarding all but eliminates any friction points.

Custom forms and waivers are crucial for any coaching platform, built into the system and on-boarding flow — automated.

A full Coaching Dashboard showing nearly every stage of on-boarding, and the information the Coach has at each stage.

Saucony Solo Series — Marketing Strategy, Design, Photography

It’s COVID-19 lockdown season across the country, our delayed merchandise from Saucony has arrived, and we need a marketing strategy.

Elly and I come up with the Solo Series as a play on how everyones training and time trials feel. It also makes for easy marketing assets as I can do a lot by myself with a remote trigger and some patience.

We don’t sell the items out, but with zero in person events resulting in no opportunity to get these incredible pieces in peoples hands, it’s hard to sell the non-value items. The staples sell out, the fringe pieces we knew would be tougher sell at least 50% or better on initial launch.

J E running on the top of a downtown parkade, photographed from high above on an adjacemnt building, all black Saucony x M2M gear.

J E standing on the top of a downtown parkade in Saucony x M2M gear ready to model.

Jody showing off the M2M x Saucony Solo Series in front of the Berg Lake Glacier working down from Yexyexéscen.

When you are isolating and want a retail feel to the product photos for the e-commerce site, you get a couple prints made, and turn your bedroom wall into a boutique run store … ish.

Handoff

Nearly a year after launch, we not only have a flexible system that handles various iterations of in-person and virtual coaching as M2M dances through restrictions being adjusted in multiple provinces, but a clear funnel from workouts to athlete on-boarding provides a cohesive M2M brand experience.

A quick recap:

Complete re-brand project that runs as smoothly as your first mile race
Full modular site design reflective of the new M2M identity and business goals
A WordPress/WooCommerce based monthly subscription billing & invoicing system
Custom notification driven coach matching on-boarding & registration system
Multiple membership levels/abilities providing gated functionality throughout the site

We define the business model of M2M in the process, have a sustainable growth plan laid out for the future, and a tool to scale those memberships.

We couldn’t have even on-boarded all of those athletes by hand before.
— Elly Woods

The highlight of my work with Mile2Marathon is when Elly and I discuss the one year anniversary of going live, the $425K+ in revenue rang through the automated billing system in that year all but running itself now, and we both mention Lauren Andrews.

A new Coach with M2M, Lauren went from no athletes to a full roster of over 20 in but a couple months, maybe a bit longer. Regardless, Elly laughs when she says “we couldn’t have even on-boarded all of those athletes by hand before” … let alone do it automatically, billed monthly with zero copy pasta involved.

A beautiful thing indeed.