PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we bring YBC’s holistic support to every member?

YMCA BC offers more than a place to exercise. Its programs, instructors, expert guidance, and community supported many aspects of people’s wellbeing. But much of that value depended on being able to attend in person. People who lived far from a centre, had mobility limitations, or could not visit regularly had fewer ways to participate. YMCA already offered online content through Y@HOME, but a library of workout videos could not provide the same breadth of support.

THE PROJECT

Building a digital solution that connects the different offerings of the YMCA experience.

Research Approach

With the broader direction established, our research focused on three questions: what people valued, what they would pay for, and how the experience should work. We increased the fidelity of what we tested as the concept became more defined.

• Desirability + willingness-to-pay surveys with ~1,300 British Columbians across current members, former members, and non-members to understand feature interest, digital habits, and pricing

• Qualitative concept feedback interviews to explore reactions to individual features and understand the needs behind what people said they wanted

• Interactive prototype testing using Figma to test navigation, goal tracking, booking, expert support, learning, and other core flows

• In-person usability testing at 5 YMCA BC centres with 30+ members to observe how the experience worked with real members in context

• Youth research with 70 high school students to understand how the product needed to adapt for younger users

• AI-moderated interviews to scale qualitative testing and validate whether the same patterns held across a broader audience

• Content performance analysis of existing YMCA digital programming to understand what people were actually watching and completing

The combined research helped narrow a broad set of possibilities into a clearer product direction and directly informed the features, experience, and roadmap.

Key Insights

• Digital should extend the YMCA, not replace it: Members valued the community and human connection of physical YMCA centres. The digital experience needed to complement in-person services and help people stay connected between visits.

• The strongest value was in making existing services easier to access: Booking, expert support, goal tracking, and learning resonated because they made YMCA services more useful and accessible, not simply because they were digital.

• Users were willing to pay, but value had to be clear: Research showed willingness to pay for digital access and premium services, but pricing needed to remain accessible and tied to tangible member value.

• Simplicity mattered more as the platform expanded: As more features were added, clear navigation and hierarchy became critical. Testing exposed confusion between the range of offerings in the app, prompting a simpler structure and more focused home experience.

THE FINAL SOLUTION

Creating meaningful value for members and extending YMCA support beyond the branch.

The final product, “Lyve”, brought fitness, learning, bookings, goal tracking, expert support, and community into one digital platform, adding value for members with a local centre while extending YMCA support to people without easy access to one.