Shipping Success

Tempo Studio has become a preeminent player in the home fitness category, miraculously fitting a gym into a 2.5-foot by 1-foot space. Sales have jumped 500% since pre-orders began in February 2020. When 1,300 Tempo users were surveyed recently, they said its design was one of the main factors that had inspired them to initially buy the product and subsequently become Tempo devotees.

Behind the Scenes.

What most people don’t know about Tempo is that it is one of the first products that both our studio and our clients have ever brought to market. Depending on your source, the odds of successfully bringing a product to market is around 5%. That means 95% of products fail. 

So how did our companies succeed? I think it’s a combination of three important factors:

1. Tempo’s hands-on commitment to excellence, paired with level’s design expertise

2. our clear, collaborative working process and careful attention to respectful communication

3. the project was developed in our female-founded industrial design studio

Designed to Deliver.

1. To begin at the beginning. Three years ago Tempo’s co-founders, Moawia Eldeeb and Joshua Augustin, approached us to design, prototype and develop the hardware for their idea. At the time, they had just graduated from the San Francisco-based startup accelerator Y-Combinator, and level was still a small team who had been together for just over a year. 

I vividly recall our first meeting. Moaiwia and Josh unpacked what seemed like a bottomless clown car at most... a whole gym at least. They gradually filled a corner of our studio with barbells and dumbbells, 16 weight plates, 6 collars, a yoga mat, a foam roller, and a clunky prototype with a screen.

The final piece was a computer, accompanied by an Xbox Kinnect. We watched in disbelief, wondering how we could possibly fit all of that into a single product that could live in a typical home. 

Our goal was clear- to make the Tempo Studio the most approachable in-home weight-training experience.

As we started to sketch, we looked to interior design for inspiration, which guided our instinct that Tempo needed to be in harmony with the home as a piece of “intelligent furniture” — an object that contains cutting-edge technology, but nevertheless slips seamlessly into any living space without screaming “tech”. 

Tempo’s closest competitors are permanently fixed to walls, making them unmovable. 

We wanted Tempo to live quietly within each user’s lifestyle. This developed into the concept of a freestanding unit that can be moved to wherever it’s needed and which stores the array of accessories. 

Our fabrication-first mindset put materials at the forefront, considering efficient and cost-sensitive techniques. The deliberate use of bent aluminium and minimal parts helped bring a premium, furniture-esque quality to the design. 

Despite our attention to manufacturability, Moawia and Josh recently revealed that the first time they tried to have our design fabricated the engineers said “It will never work. There’s no way this will stand up”. They told the engineers to make it anyway. It worked. Moawia himself went to grind metal on an assembly line to make certain the Tempo prototype was “just right”. 

The color, material and finish strategy was another crucial design element. A fresh, bold color palette of accessories peeks through the door’s perforations, inviting user interaction. We took influence from sports and home trends, which then set the tone for the entire brand ecosystem. 

Since its launch, Tempo has broken new ground in the home-fitness category from an industrial design perspective. 

It has removed some of the traditional barriers to entry, beginning with its low price point. This accessibility extends to its suitability for people living with disabilities, injuries or physical health limitations, as well as those who simply want to work out, and experienced athletes.

Not Just Clients, But Collaborators.

2. At level we work hard to cultivate a close connection with our clients and to ensure that the designer’s voice is there to guide decision-making throughout the process. This relationship is crucial to design products that ship. 

We guide our clients through every nuance of the design process, taking them through sketches and mock-ups, and then stewarding them through the complexities of engineering and manufacturing. 

We worked hard to prove to Moawia and Josh that they had bet on the right team by delivering stellar design throughout the process. We were a close partner through every challenge that they faced while bringing Tempo to life. 

Of course, not every step of the design process was smooth. At times a healthy tension did arise around budget, timeline shifts, or unanticipated updates.

What happened then? We talked. 

For me, one of the best methods to deal with those occasionally tricky conversations is to make sure our clients understand we’re on their team. When things felt difficult or when it didn’t seem like we were completely on the same page, we listened to Moawia and Josh and shared our perspective with them in turn. They quickly saw that we weren’t trying to push decisions because our egos demanded we put our own stamp on it, but that we were fighting on behalf of their brand.

The thrill of working on such an exciting project with an incredible client made it personal and meant our team put in tremendous effort going over-and-above to nail every detail and find workable compromises where needed. Moawia and Josh lead with passion and it was contagious. We were in continuous communication throughout the process, responding to any and all questions and requests no matter how small or seemingly out of left field.

Representation.

3. Women represent 85% of consumer spending, and are considered the primary buyer for in-home products, yet still make up less than 20% of the industrial design workforce. This gap only gets wider as we look to roles in leadership.

Tempo was developed by a female-founded industrial design studio. Being directed by a woman, level’s strategy and perspective innately considers these users, focusing on human-centred, responsible, simple and sensible design.

The Impact.

Tempo was launched on the market just weeks before San Francisco’s Shelter in Place order was mandated. Much of the country followed by shutting down, with many people staying home for most of 2020. 

As a result, the at-home fitness market experienced an unanticipated boom. 

However, we began work on Tempo a long time before this boom, because we already understood the at-home fitness industry from a personal perspective. 

From our first meeting with Moawia and Joshua, we knew Tempo had so much potential because of many everyday issues that pre-date the pandemic. Working out at a gym can make it hard to squeeze in a workout during lunch, and no one’s looking for added travel time in the morning and evening. So many gyms have problems with accessibility, or simply don’t make weightlifting interesting and appealing to people who, like me, don’t feel like they belong in the weightlifting section of a public gym. 

While Tempo is ideal for an average workout, like mine, it’s Olympic-grade equipment also satisfies the needs of experienced weightlifters and serious athletes. It’s a truly agnostic studio. 

Of course we’re thrilled with huge sales numbers, but they’re not the only metric for success. As a team, we’ve found the most joy in seeing Tempo’s community grow, both on its leaderboard and social media groups. 

People are posting photos of their new purchase in home spaces, like under a staircase, that wouldn’t accommodate competitor’s products. They’re also commenting online about the quality of Tempo’s detailing, something buyers notice the minute it arrives in their home. 

Seeing the enthusiasm new users have when they receive their unit, and the positive impact the design has on real people, is deeply rewarding especially in times like these. This is what drives us to do what we do.

The Future.

In September 2020, Tempo was awarded an Innovation by Design Award from FastCo, and an Industrial Design Excellence Award from the Industrial Design Society of America. 

With more good news on the horizon, both Tempo and level are continuing to grow together, as we maintain our creative partnership and develop a roadmap of products.

As level has evolved as a studio we have come to realize that talent only gets you so far, and ego gets you nowhere. I’m proud to have clients who trust and value our team and our communication style as we continue to evolve together, working on new and more exciting things to come. Trust is, after all, what great products are built on.

Like what you’ve read? Is it helpful? Let us know, and feel free to share, via LinkedIn.