A proposed operational framework to harness the power of Strava's community, drive innovation, and win the next generation of athletes.
Strava's 180 million global athletes generate invaluable product insights daily, yet no systematic framework exists to capture, evaluate, and act on this innovation potential. Strava Labs addresses this gap by establishing an operational infrastructure that transforms community feedback into shipped features, demonstrating strategic product operations thinking across planning, alignment, and execution.
Strava's passionate users are a source of invaluable ideas, but there is no systematic process to capture, prioritize, and act on them, leading to a missed opportunity for co-creation. While the platform excels at tracking activities and fostering community through kudos and segments, the wealth of user insights remains fragmented across forums, support tickets, and social media—never systematically channeled into product development.
"I've been using Strava for years and have tons of ideas for features that would make it better for our running club. But I don't know where to share them or if anyone at Strava would even see them."
— Sarah M., Club Organizer, Boulder
"Overall great app. There's some functionality between the site and the app that's a miss. Analyzing the grade of a route is substantially better in competing platforms like Komoot, where it's all within the app. I find myself toggling between the two apps to find the information I want. It's also pretty annoying that we can't eliminate or delete segments from occurring in the middle of a ride. These are just some functionality features that I'd like to see. The more the app can function like the site, the better."
— Hggtj
"As a Gen Z user, I want to feel like my voice matters. Apps that let me contribute to their development earn my loyalty."
— Maya L., Trail Runner, Seattle
Strava Labs directly supports three critical strategic priorities for 2026:
Transform passive users into active co-creators, deepening engagement and emotional investment in the platform.
Meet the expectations of younger athletes who value authenticity, transparency, and participatory experiences over one-way communication.
Demonstrate continuous innovation driven by user needs, justifying premium pricing through visible responsiveness and community-powered development.
Strava Labs is a structured, four-stage operational framework designed to transform community ideas into shipped features. This systematic approach ensures every voice is heard, every idea is evaluated fairly, and every decision is driven by data and strategic alignment.
The Intake stage introduces a dedicated in-app idea submission portal, accessible directly from the Strava mobile app. The mockup shows a clean interface where athletes can submit feature requests in under two minutes. Key elements include a text field for the idea description, category tags for classification (Performance, Social, Training, Maps & Routes), and an optional attachment area for screenshots or sketches.
Operational Design: The submission form integrates with Productboard's API, automatically creating a feature request card with metadata tags. This eliminates manual data entry and ensures no idea is lost.
Every submitted idea undergoes evaluation using a transparent scoring rubric with three dimensions: Strategic Fit (1-5), User Impact (1-5), and Engineering Effort (1-5). A cross-functional Labs Review Council meets bi-weekly to score ideas collaboratively.
High-scoring ideas (12+ points) advance to experimentation
Prioritized ideas enter rapid experimentation through structured A/B testing or limited beta releases. Product managers translate community ideas into testable hypotheses, define success metrics, and coordinate with engineering to build minimum viable implementations.
Data-Driven Execution: Each experiment includes pre-defined success criteria: primary metric (e.g., 10% increase in feature adoption), secondary metrics (session duration, social sharing), and guardrail metrics (ensuring no negative impact on core KPIs).
Successful experiments graduate to full product launches with dedicated communication to the community. The Community Roadmap page shows a public-facing blog section where athletes can track the status of popular ideas.
Proposed by Hggtj • Launched Q1 2026
Proposed by Community • Expected Q2 2026
Proposed by Sarah M. • Q3 2026
Strava Labs requires robust operational infrastructure to transform community ideas into shipped features. This section outlines the technical systems and governance structures that enable efficient execution while maintaining cross-functional alignment.
The Labs workflow integrates three core systems to create a seamless feedback-to-feature pipeline:
A cross-functional governance body ensures balanced decision-making and strategic alignment:
| Role | Responsibilities | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Product Lead | Strategic fit assessment, roadmap integration, final prioritization | Weekly triage, bi-weekly planning |
| Community Manager | User sentiment analysis, communication strategy, roadmap updates | Weekly triage, monthly reviews |
| Engineering Lead | Technical feasibility, effort estimation, capacity planning | Bi-weekly planning, quarterly retrospectives |
| Marketing Rep | Launch coordination, messaging strategy, success metrics | Monthly reviews, launch planning |
Review new submissions, score against rubric, flag high-priority candidates
Prioritize validated ideas, allocate capacity, define success metrics
Publish community roadmap status, celebrate shipped features
Review program OKRs, refine processes, adjust focus
A rigorous measurement framework ensures Strava Labs delivers tangible business value while demonstrating its impact on community engagement and product velocity.
Systematically harness community innovation to accelerate product improvements and deepen user engagement.
This metric measures intake effectiveness and community participation. High-quality ideas are defined as those meeting minimum scoring thresholds across strategic fit, user impact, and technical feasibility.
This metric measures operational efficiency and cross-functional execution velocity. A 10% target balances ambition with resource constraints, ensuring ruthless prioritization while maintaining momentum.
This metric measures community perception and relationship quality. Through quarterly surveys and NPS tracking, we capture whether users perceive Strava as responsive to their needs.
The operational dashboard displays real-time metrics across three zones:
Target: 72
+4 points to goal