Community Tennis

A simple truth about almost everyone: it helps to be seen. We get the chance to do this–not to manipulate people, but to open a connection so we can accompany them on their journey forward.

Key finding — more than 50% of features fail to impact customers in their first iteration, making quick feedback crucial

• 📈 Six essential leading indicators to track:

  • Awareness: Do users know the feature exists?

  • Adoption: Are they trying it?

  • Engagement: Are they using it as intended?

  • Satisfaction: Are they happy with it?

  • Direct feedback: What improvement

Despite all of these innovations, what really set Midtown apart was the commitment to actively creating and teaching tennis players, not just selling memberships and court time. Alan made this perfectly clear, saying, “We love the game of tennis. We want everyone in the whole world to play tennis. We are going to create beginners.”

• Use data and concrete examples to show how the strategy is being implemented and making a difference

• Strategy documents should evolve based on new learnings and market changes – they're living documents, not static plans

Humans are wired to conserve energy, i.e. they try not to think if they don’t have to. So if you’re relying on others to come to your same conclusion, they might never get there.

Forward motion is an asset, a skill and a job title.

Initiative, desire and being willing to take responsibility are powerful because most of us don’t care enough to bring them to the table.

Going forward requires skills, attitudes and belief. A rare combination.

Seth Godin

In the wise words of Ogilvy: “The problem with market research is that people don't think how they feel, they don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.”

The world has moved on and tennis is the last to know.

The process of making something that people want is the process of learning, through experiment and error, to be the kind of person who can generate needs, wants, and jobs in other people.

Making something that people want is an alternate way of seeing the world, and of responding to it.