From 2 to 4.7 Stars: The Impact of Truly Understanding your Users

The Problem

Optavia's mobile app had a 2-star rating because it was built like an e-commerce platform when users needed a behavior change companion. Multiple outsourced rebuilds had created a frankenstein product that missed the point entirely.

Our Approach

We conducted deep user research with both coaches and clients to understand how the program actually worked. The key insight: success came from the coach relationship and lifestyle adoption, not product browsing.

The Solution

We repositioned the app from shopping platform to habit support tool:

• Habit tracking that reinforced the "Optavia lifestyle"
• Coach-client communication features
• Progress visualization that celebrated behavior change
• Product ordering became secondary, not primary

Results

• App store rating jumped from 2 to 4.7 stars
• 800K monthly active users
• Validated that understanding real user needs trumps feature assumptions

Why This Worked

We stopped building what we thought users wanted and started supporting what they actually needed. The coach-client relationship was the real product - the app just needed to strengthen it rather than compete with it.