To: All Coaches
From: Tim Snow
Date: June 27, 2024
Subject: Roles Update, New Communication Structure, and the Future Direction of QT2 1-1 Coaching
Strength Program Overhaul and Injury Specialist Availability
Effective July 1, 2024 Coach Jennie Hansen - on a part-time basis - will be actively building out a comprehensive strength program within TrainingPeaks' (TP) new strength platform. This is something that, both, our athletes and coaches alike have long wished for, and Jennie's expertise in Physical Therapy, Functional Strength Assessment, and Injury Management make her the ideal person to spearhead this.
Additionally, Jennie will also serve as an Injury Specialist, available to all coaches, as/when/if we need help in navigating our athletes through those inevitable injuries that arise. As coaches, our goal, and primary aim, is to get our athletes to finish lines healthy and injury-free. Jennie will be here to support you in that. She will do so within a special Injury Management "team", set up within TEAMS. You can access that, HERE. It also live within your TEAMS software, now. If you are having trouble seeing/accessing it, please just let me know.
A Focus on Athlete Services and Service Differentiation
Moving forward we will be looking to better personalize the QT2 experience for our athletes, most notably our QT2 1-1 athletes. For too long the primary differentiator between QT2 1-1 Coaching and QT2 Basic Coaching (formerly known as ORR) was the inclusion of nutrition work. Once an athlete received their nutrition work, the means of service differentiation fell primarily on the Coach. As coaches we only want what is best for our athletes, so more often than not we do a poor job of creating that service differentiation, ourselves. In addition, we have not always done a very good job of ensuring that our athletes have received the Core Diet services that they were supposed to have received, as part of their QT2 1-1 Coaching. Further, these Core Diet services (most notably the Nutrition Plan) weren't really what the athlete needed, in order to get the most out of their training.
Therefore, also effective July 1, 2024 Coach Hillary Schmitt - also on a part-time basis - will focus on designing and implementing an enhancement of an athlete's experience with us. This will entail three primary focus areas:
- Initial communications/on-boarding, once an athlete purchases coaching/training with us,
- Working with Coaches and athletes, to ensure that they have the tools needed to be successful, and
- Maintaining contact with athletes, when they are not coaching with us.
Hillary's initial responsibility will be to design and build-out a base-level communication for athletes, as they enter/on-board with us, so that they can know/be aware of all that QT2 has to offer them. With this we aim to enhance the coaching experience, to make sure that the athlete feels the support of not only their Coach, but the entire LLC, as well.
Additionally, in an on-going basis, Hillary will be checking in with Coaches and athletes - with a primary focus on QT2 1-1 athletes - to identify resources needed, in order to help our athletes reach their goals. In this way, we will aim to provide the athlete with a more personalized experience, tailored to them. Each athlete's experience, and what the LLC can do to enhance that experience for the athlete and Coach, will be handled on a case-by-case basis. I believe that this will prove instrumental in providing a maximal value of service for our athletes, and a more rewarding experience for our athletes and Coaches. At the end of the day, in the realm of endurance coaching we are one of the larger businesses. As such, that can maybe create an environment where an athlete might feel a bit anonymous. With a primary - though not sole - focus on QT2 1-1 Coaching, this role will aim to make QT2 feel a little less big, so to speak. For athletes to feel maybe a little less anonymous.
New Communication Structure for Initiating Athlete Fueling Plans
We have long struggled to manage the nutrition component of our QT2 1-1 Coaching service. Has the athlete received a Race Fueling Plan? Has the athlete received a Nutrition Plan? Have we even talked to athlete about these? Historically speaking, the LLC has placed most of that onus onto the Coach to manage. And while that wasn't necessarily the wrong place for that responsibility to fall, the LLC could have played a more active role.
As part of the on-boarding structure that Hillary will be designing (mentioned above), we will be including proactive communication to the athlete, to prompt their thinking towards Race Fueling. We don't want the inclusion of Race Fueling to get lost in the fray of things, as it so often can. Especially when we have the tools to be able to execute this in an automated way.
Within the first few weeks of their on-boarding with us - and working with their Coach - QT2 1-1 Coached athletes will receive communication that will prompt them to start thinking about a Race Fueling Plan. While they will not at all be required to go about obtaining the Race Fueling Plan in this timeframe, we do want to ensure that this crucial aspect of their training does not get overlooked. As such, an automated email will be triggered by their initial coaching purchase - in the weeks after this purchase - serving as a reminder and guide for the process of obtaining the fueling plan.
In a similar manner, our QT2 Basic and single-sport athletes will receive similar messaging - not reminding them that a Race Fueling Plan is included as part of their coaching subscription - emphasizing the importance of a Race Fueling Plan, for purchase.
As athletes go about the process of obtaining a Race Fueling Plan, Reem Jishi will help to serve as the singular point of communication between QT2 and the Core Diet.
Redefining QT2 1-1 Coaching
I think that we are in a process of redefining what QT2 1-1 Coaching will look like in the future. Traditionally speaking, it has entailed a high-level of detail and attention from the Coach, as well as Core Diet services - in the form of Race Fueling and Nutrition Plans. There was a component - or an air - of that that was a little bit 'one size fits all'. In speaking with many many inquiries, over the past few years, it became clear to me that the Race Fueling Plan was almost ALWAYS of interest to them, and that the Nutrition Plan was very rarely of interest to them. With the Nutrition Plan serving as one of the primary service differentiations, it became more and more challenging for athletes to see the value in choosing QT2 1-1 Coaching, versus QT2 Basic Coaching.
As a result, and while this isn't wholly definitive - I want to spend a little bit of time "feeling it out", and allowing the Athlete Services efforts play out - I think that I am prepared to point us in the following direction, with regards to QT2 1-1 Coaching:
- QT2 1-1 Coached athletes will continue to receive the same level of detail and attention that they always have from their coach.
- ALL QT2 1-1 Coached athletes will receive a Race Fueling Plan.
- A Core Diet Nutrition Plan will no longer be advertised as something that the athlete WILL receive, as part of QT2 1-1 Coaching.
- Instead, the QT2 1-1 athlete's experience will be more tailored to them, via our Athlete Services efforts. While it MAY include a Core Diet Nutrition Plan - per their choosing - it also may not, if they are, perhaps, more interested in one of our other ancillary services, such as Run Gait, Functional Strength, or one of our other analyses. Or, potentially, something less tangible that the LLC can help to provide access to. Very much within reason, of course.
- In essence, other than the Race Fueling Plan, we will no longer attempt to pre-define the QT2 1-1 Coached athlete's experience with us. Instead, we will work with the Coach and the athlete to play a role in providing a more robust support structure, that meets their needs, as they arise.
- Wherever/Whenever we can, we will provide additional discounts to our QT2 1-1 Coached athletes on things such as apparel, Camps, Training Weekends, partnerships, etc.
More to come on this, of course, but I just wanted to begin the process of communicating where my head is pointing.
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Thank you for your attention to these updates and for your ongoing dedication to our athletes!
This, and all other internal QT2 communications can be found HERE.
