New paywall & onboarding design

My role

As the sole Product Manager at Holodia, I owned product strategy and roadmap definition, working closely with the founders, CEO, COO, and engineering team.

I led user research and interviews, designed a new onboarding flow, built a new AR experience from scratch, and drove data-informed product decisions across growth, retention, and monetization.

My primary responsibility was identifying and unlocking the company’s largest revenue and retention opportunities.

Product

Holofit is a subscription-based VR fitness app designed for users training with rowing machines, bikes, ellipticals, or in freestyle mode.

The product combines immersive virtual environments (“Holoworlds”) with gamified workouts to increase motivation and long-term engagement.

Business & Problem Definition

By analysing Amplitude data, user feedback, and store reviews, I identified a major structural imbalance in Holofit’s growth funnel:

• Users with fitness machines converted 5x better than users without machines.
• However, ~80% of new users did not own a fitness machine.
• Freestyle & machine users struggled to understand available gameplays, progression systems, and trophy mechanics.
• Many users abandoned the app after a short first session.
• Store reviews consistently mentioned frustration with the paid subscription model and the lack of a meaningful free experience.

This meant that while Holofit performed strongly for its core niche (machine users), it was underperforming in its largest addressable market: users without equipment, where competitors like FitXR were already specialised and performing well.

As a result, the company was leaving significant growth and revenue on the table.

Strategy & Solution

My objective was to rebalance the product toward the highest-growth segment without harming performance for existing high-value users.

1. Repositioning the Free Experience

We redesigned the paywall to support acquisition and education, not just monetization.

• Tested multiple copies for the demo experience.
• Rebranded “Demo” as “Limited Free Plan”, which tested significantly better.
• Removed the 5-minute daily usage cap.
• Introduced unlimited access to two unlocked Holoworlds.
• Implemented a contextual paywall triggered after meaningful engagement.

To improve perceived value:

• Added a gameplay showcase video.
• Integrated a carousel with real user reviews.

This reframed the free experience from a short trial into a true entry point.

2. Segment-Based Onboarding

We redesigned onboarding around two primary user segments:

• Machine users
• Freestyle users

Each path:

• Highlighted the most relevant environments and gameplays.
• Explained progression systems and trophy mechanics.
• Clarified how to get value without additional equipment. -Reduced early cognitive load.

This ensured that non-machine users immediately understood how Holofit fit into their lifestyle.

Impact & Metrics

These initiatives directly addressed Holofit’s largest growth bottleneck.

• +36% conversion rate for freestyle users
• +11% conversion rate for machine users
• +117.7% increase in average time spent per user in the first 28 days (year-over-year)

Most importantly, the conversion gap between machine and non-machine users narrowed significantly, improving overall revenue efficiency and market reach.

Key Takeaways

• The biggest growth opportunities often lie in underperforming segments, not top performers.
• Product strategy must reflect market reality, not internal assumptions.
• Segment-specific onboarding is critical when user needs differ fundamentally.
• A strong free experience is a long-term growth lever, not a short-term revenue risk.
• Combining behavioral data with qualitative research enables confident prioritization.

This project helped shift Holofit from optimizing primarily for a niche audience to scaling toward its largest addressable market.