How We Built: Self-Assembly for Peloton Bike

In August of this year, Peloton announced that the Peloton Bike, Guide, and select accessories and apparel are now available to US-based consumers in the online Amazon store. This November, Peloton announced the expansion of its collaboration to include Amazon’s UK store and the German store in the coming weeks. 

The collaboration allows Peloton to meet current and prospective Peloton Members where they already shop, making its products and accessories more readily accessible. As part of the Amazon experience, Peloton is also offering a self-assembly option for the original Bike for the first-time, in addition to the more traditional expert assembly offer. 

Offering the option of self-assembly for the Peloton Bike provides Amazon customers with the convenience and flexibility to choose their delivery preference. Amazon customers will receive a Home Assembly Kit with their Bike, designed to make the set-up process as seamless and easy-to-follow as possible. There is also an accompanying instructional video that provides step-by-step guidance for Peloton Members to follow along. 

“Given how dedicated our Members are, we anticipated there would be excitement around the idea of being able to build your own Bike and understand the inner workings,” says Andrea Hakim, Senior Manager of Peloton’s Supply Chain Development, whose team helped bring self-assembly to life.  

Phase 1: The Approach 

According to Andrea, the idea for self-assembly had been floating around for a while, with some Members expressing interest in being involved in the set-up process with their delivery team. Andrea worked closely with Travis Clifford, a Field Testing Senior Program Manager, and his team to see if self-assembly would be feasible among people with no formal training and what their success rate would be. 

First up, Travis’ team needed to field test the self-assembly Bike option. The team selected three groups of external testers to participate in three different rounds of testing over the course of six months. 

In addition to understanding how clear the self-assembly instructions were and how long the set-up process was taking people, it was also important that the experience was enjoyable. Says Andrea: “When we assessed our field testers, we looked at the overall experience, including ‘Did you enjoy this?' and ‘You may have been successful, but would you do it again?’ Overwhelmingly we found that people were positive about the assembly experience.”

Phase 2: The Field Tests

As the first round of field tests began, the Field Testing team was looking for areas where the self-assembly process and instructions could be improved, so this feedback could subsequently be relayed to the Product team. 

“One of the big things we were looking for was whether people understood the instructions and if they were clear,” said Travis. “If one step was difficult for people, we wanted to understand what led to it being challenging, so that we could work with the Product team to reduce the points of friction for an improved user experience.”

Maureen Coiro, Senior Director, Product Management, and her team were responsible for internalizing feedback from field testing and finding solutions to these challenges, to improve the self-assembly process. A few key learnings emerged among the initial round of testers.

For example, we added a rubber handle to the pedal wrench to make it easier to grip when attaching the pedals to the Bike frame. The team also reconsidered the product packaging, adding a QR code to the outside of the box to more quickly lead users to the instructions so the unboxing experience was more intuitive. Additionally, the team added a cardboard insert to the packaging for Members to lean the Bike frame on to stabilize it and accommodate the Bike’s weight when assembling the frame. Lastly, the team also used feedback from the testers to update the instruction manuals, based on common areas where people got confused or felt they were missing detail.

The second round of field tests incorporated many of these key learnings and introduced more formal assembly instructions including a more comprehensive assembly manual.

Phase 3: The Final Result

The third and final round of Member tests were a culmination of all of the key learnings throughout the process and took into account the final end-to-end user experience. Peloton sent in team members to test the Members’ assembly skills to ensure Bikes were assembled correctly. The three rounds of field testing resulted in clear instructions and video content, a new Home Assembly Kit outfitted with the right tools for the job and a finely-tuned experience designed to be enjoyable for Members. 

Maureen Coiro speaks to what it means to bring the self-assembly option to Members: “I’m excited to reach our Members in a new way. Our teams worked incredibly hard to bring this option to life, so I’m hopeful Members will be just as excited to post their own assembly videos or unboxing videos on their social channels. That would feel like a win for us!”