On Wednesday, we hosted a Virtual Think IT Panel Event on the topic of Digital Transformation. A huge thank you to Matt Heinrichs, Senior Vice President, Life Time Technology, and Angie Schulke, Vice President, Applications, Data & Business Intelligence at Life Time, for sharing Life Time’s digital transformation journey through the pandemic and how they are continuing the journey today. Thank you to everyone who joined us as well!
Over the past year, Life Time has been given the opportunity to rethink how they connect and engage with their members. While they have expanded their digital offerings greatly in that time, they realize they have just started this journey.
What does a digital transformation mean to you?
To the panelists, digital transformation means getting the content they have created out there to their members. Life Time created a mobile app during Covid that they wanted to be easily accessible to their members since their clubs are designed to be in a 30-mile radius which makes it easy for their members to get to a club. They wanted the same convivence with the app.
What changes have you made in technology to support this transformation?
Life Time really relied on technology during this transformation. People used to not realize when systems were down because they didn’t need as much technology for them to get into the club. Now, it’s important that all systems stay up and running because that’s what the members rely on to use all of the club’s services.
What has been the hardest part of the transformation?
Life Time has a great culture and a great agile spirit. They were fortunate to have such strong leadership buy-in during the transformation. The hardest part for Life Time was how they were going to define and measure success. Another challenge was all the durations of different role-outs. They had a lot of fast releases, which with that comes some errors. A top priority was still to meet member expectations.
When is the transformation complete? Are we digital yet?
No, according to the panelists, Life Time is not digital yet. The industry has been doing these types of digital transformations for years. There will always be something new to keep up with that they will want to integrate into their digital member experience. Life Time is looking at its digital transformation as a long-term project.
When looking at the big picture of Life Time’s digital transformation, the goal is to have members see their experience compared to a Disney experience. Everything they want it to be and more. Life Time continues to re-imagine a much more integrated experience for their members – one where they can support their member’s healthy way of life goals wherever they are.