Introducing Oura Pulse: Personalized Daily Plans Built from Your Biometric Data
OURA
Transforming readiness insights into tailored, actionable guidance to help you optimize performance, recovery, and overall well-being.
How do people use wearable health tech?
CONTEXT
Wearable health technology has become an essential tool for individuals striving to understand and optimize their well-being. These devices offer insights into sleep quality, readiness levels, and activity trends. While some users can intuitively act on this data, many struggle to translate raw metrics into actionable steps that align with their daily goals. This gap between data and action limits the full potential of wearable technology.
Oura has already excelled in providing insights across three key areas of health tracking:
1. Sleep monitoring
2. Readiness scoring
3. Activity tracking
This gap between insights and action presents an opportunity: What if Oura went beyond tracking to deliver personalized, real-time guidance?
This case study explores how Oura Pulse could bridge that gap and transform static insights into dynamic, actionable recommendations, empowering users to optimize their performance, recovery, and overall wellness.
If Oura Pulse delivers real-time, personalized health recommendations based on data and user input, then user engagement and retention will increase, reducing churn and strengthening long-term loyalty.
HYPOTHESIS
Where is the wearable health-tech market headed?
THE MARKET
The global wearable technology market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6%, while the wearable medical devices market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 25.53%.
Sources: Grand View Research, Grand View Research
The Wearable Health Tech Landscape - What Companies compete with Oura?
Who are the users driving Oura’s growth?
THE AUDIENCE
Oura Ring users are health-conscious individuals seeking in-depth insights into their well-being, with a particular focus on sleep quality, recovery, and overall health optimization. Recent data indicates that 59% of Oura users identify as female, reflecting the company’s successful investment in women’s health features.
Oura Ring Users
Ages: Predominantly 25-45, with a notable increase in users in their twenties.
Attitudes: 70% value deep insights into sleep and recovery, with a focus on holistic health tracking.
Personas:
-Busy professionals balancing work and wellness.
-Fitness enthusiasts optimizing recovery and performance.
-Health-conscious individuals prioritizing quality sleep.
-Travelers looking for discreet, easy-to-use wearables.
Apple Watch Users
Ages: 20-50, spanning Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.
Attitudes: 65% prioritize activity tracking and connectivity, often integrating health monitoring with productivity and social tools.
Personas:
-Tech-savvy professionals using a multi-purpose device.
-Fitness enthusiasts tracking activity goals and workouts.
-Socially active individuals valuing communication features.
-Casual users seeking an all-in-one wearable.
Sources: 1. Future Fem Health, 2. Wired, 3. Start.io
What are the pain points that these users need addressed?
USER INSIGHTS
Users struggle to interpret health-data
Many users feel overwhelmed by the amount of data wearables provide. A survey found that 67% of wearable tech users want clearer explanations and actionable insights to understand their health data better.
Users seek personalized guidance
Personalization matters: 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% become frustrated when this doesn’t happen. Additionally, 76% of consumers are more likely to consider purchasing from brands that personalize communications.
Users abandon wearables without clear value
32% of users discontinue using wearable devices after six months, and 50% stop after one year. The study suggests that many wearables fail to add functional value and require excessive effort, disrupting a seamless user experience.
How do these user groups interact with their health data?
USER JOURNEY
In general, the process of using wearables like the Oura Ring or an Apple Watch follows similar steps. Both groups start by syncing their device and checking their metrics, but the key difference lies in the depth of insights provided, how often users interact digitally, and the actions users take based on their data.
Since Oura operates in a competitive wearable health tech market, we should consider how introducing personalized daily guidance could affect key user groups and stakeholders.
THE MARKETPLACE
Oura Users
Advantages
Greater engagement with the app through personalized daily plans.
Clearer actionable insights, enhancing user satisfaction and retention.
A differentiated product experience compared to competitors like Apple Watch and Fitbit.
Risks / disadvantages
Potential overwhelm for less tech-savvy users with additional features.
Risk of increased churn if the feature is not intuitive or doesn’t meet user expectations.
Dependence on user input for personalization may lead to inconsistencies in engagement.
Health and Wellness Partners (ex: Calm & Natural Cycles)
Advantages
Increased visibility through partnerships for integrated guided activities or workouts.
New revenue streams from cross-promotions or bundled services.
Opportunities to engage Oura’s user base through tailored recommendations.
Risks / disadvantages
Misaligned branding or messaging with Oura’s core focus.
Dependence on third-party integrations may complicate user experience.
Revenue-sharing agreements could impact profit margins.
Competitors
Advantages
Pressure on competitors to innovate, which can further drive interest in wearable health tech as a category.
Increased differentiation for Oura as a premium product offering superior personalization.
Risks / disadvantages
Competitors may mimic the feature quickly, reducing Oura’s competitive edge.
Market saturation could limit user growth among new adopters.
BIG TAKEAWAYS
BIG TAKEAWAYS
Oura users share similarities with other wearable tech users, but their unique focus on actionable insights creates a key opportunity for innovation.
They’re similar in age and attitudes to broader wearable users, but Oura users prioritize recovery and holistic wellness over step counts or general activity tracking.
Many Oura users report struggling to interpret their data and desire personalized, actionable insights to align with their daily goals.
The wearable health tech market is projected to grow at a high rate, and Oura’s focus on wellness and recovery positions it uniquely to differentiate itself from competitors like Apple Watch or Fitbit.
Also, the addition of a personalized daily guidance feature would not only enhance user satisfaction but also improve app engagement and retention, solidifying Oura’s leadership in the wearable health tech space.
TLDR: A personalized daily guidance feature aligns perfectly with Oura’s user needs, providing actionable insights to enhance engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction.
Increase daily active engagement and user retention by introducing a personalized daily guidance feature into the Oura experience.
THE GOAL
What should be included in the MVP?
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION & MVP DEFINITION
For a successful pilot of Oura Pulse, the following user stories are required to build.
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Oura’s current offering provides biometric insights (e.g., sleep score, readiness score), but users must interpret these insights themselves. Many struggle to translate this data into meaningful action. Oura Pulse bridges this gap by offering personalized, context-aware recommendations tailored to the user’s real-time physiology and historical trends.
Example:
• If a user’s Readiness Score is low, Oura Pulse might suggest a lighter workout, a hydration reminder, or a stress-management intervention.
• If a user’s HRV has been declining for multiple nights, Pulse might recommend adjusting bedtime or incorporating breathwork exercises.
Business Impact:
• Drives engagement: Users will check Oura daily for proactive guidance, not just retrospective insights.
• Increases retention: Users who feel guided and supported are less likely to churn.
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Oura currently tracks objective biometric data but lacks subjective user input to refine its recommendations. Self-reported data (mood, stress, energy levels) allows Pulse’s AI to create hyper-personalized suggestions that evolve based on user feedback.
Example:
• If a user reports feeling fatigued despite a high Readiness Score, Pulse can fine-tune its algorithm to factor in external stressors.
• If a user consistently feels great despite lower recovery scores, Pulse can adjust its threshold to personalize guidance.
Business Impact:
• Strengthens Oura’s AI models → More relevant and trustworthy recommendations.
• Increases app stickiness → Users are actively engaged in their wellness journey rather than passively consuming data.
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Oura’s Readiness Score is valuable, but its impact is limited if users don’t know how to apply it. Oura Pulse provides an auto-generated daily plan with clear, simple recommendations based on readiness, sleep trends, and recovery data.
Example:
• A user with high readiness might see: “Today is a great day for high-intensity exercise. Consider strength training or cardio.”
• A user with low readiness might see: “Prioritize recovery today—aim for low-impact movement like stretching or yoga.”
Business Impact:
• Simplifies decision-making → Users no longer have to interpret multiple data points on their own.
• Creates a daily touchpoint → Encourages habit formation and daily app engagement.
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Oura currently provides historical insights but lacks real-time intervention mechanisms. Many users would benefit from instant nudges when their health metrics shift significantly throughout the day.
Example:
• If a user’s HRV drops suddenly, Pulse could send a breathwork reminder to help regulate stress.
• If a user’s body temperature spikes, Pulse could suggest hydration or rest, preventing overexertion.
• If a user’s circadian rhythm aligns with an optimal workout window, Pulse can send a push notification: “Now is a great time to exercise for peak performance.”
Business Impact:
• Improves engagement → Push notifications encourage users to interact with Oura throughout the day.
• Enhances perceived value → Oura becomes an active health assistant, not just a passive tracker.
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Most Oura users already use multiple health apps, but Oura currently operates in a silo. Integrating with Apple Health, Strava, MyFitnessPal, or WHOOP enables richer insights and strengthens Oura’s role as a health hub.
Example:
• If Pulse detects a trend of poor recovery after high-intensity workouts, it can suggest adjustments based on Strava activity.
• If MyFitnessPal logs show insufficient protein intake, Pulse can recommend dietary tweaks for better recovery.
Business Impact:
• Increases user retention → More app stickiness by embedding Oura into existing workflows.
• Expands Oura’s data ecosystem → Stronger AI models from multi-source insights.
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Many users track daily data but fail to recognize long-term patterns. Pulse adds a macro-level perspective, providing trend analysis & lifestyle guidance that evolves with the user.
Example:
• If Pulse detects a consistent decline in HRV, it can recommend proactive recovery strategies.
• If sleep data shows a pattern of poor deep sleep, Pulse might suggest adjusting caffeine intake or sleep timing.
Business Impact:
• Encourages habit formation → Users stay engaged over months & years instead of weeks.
• Drives premium subscriptions → Users are willing to pay for AI-driven trend analysis & expert-backed lifestyle recommendations.
SOLUTIONS EXPLORED
Why Evolving Oura’s Capabilities Matters
Oura has established itself as a leader in biometric health tracking, providing deep insights into sleep, readiness, and activity. However, while these insights are powerful, they don’t always translate into action. Users are left to interpret the data themselves—leading to confusion, disengagement, and missed opportunities for optimizing health.
To bridge this gap, I explored three different product directions.
1. Expanding General Insights
“Your HRV is lower than usual. Prioritize parasympathetic recovery by incorporating slow, diaphragmatic breathing or a short meditation session before bed.”
While this offers slightly more direction, it remains generic and static, failing to consider real-time conditions or user context (e.g., stress levels, mood, recent activity).
2. Weekly Wellness Reports
“Over the past 7 days, your deep sleep has declined by 15%, coinciding with late caffeine intake after 4 PM. Consider shifting your last cup of coffee earlier in the day.”
While this delivers valuable retrospective insights, it lacks real-time intervention—users may read it but forget to take immediate action when it matters most.
3. Oura Pulse – Personalized, Real-Time Adaptive Health Guidance
“Your body temperature is elevated, and you logged feeling fatigued this morning. Consider a lower-intensity workout today, such as Zone 2 cardio, to support active recovery without adding additional stress to your system.”
By integrating daily check-ins, real-time nudges, and daily personalization plans, Oura Pulse helps users optimize performance and recovery in real-time. While it requires some behavioral data input, this approach maximizes engagement, improves retention, and strengthens Oura’s differentiation in the wearable health-tech market.
Which solution drives the most impact for Oura and its users?
Oura Pulse offers the highest impact by providing timely, personalized guidance, helping users take actionable steps toward better health. It also supports a premium upsell opportunity, increasing potential revenue while improving user retention.
EVALUATING SOLUTIONS
Oura Pulse: Turning Insights into Actionable Daily Guidance
FINAL SOLUTION
Oura Pulse turns tracking into transformation—guiding users from insight to impact for lasting health improvements.
Proactive Health Coaching
Users receive real-time nudges based on sleep, recovery, and physiological trends.
Personalized Daily Plans
Actionable recommendations guide users on workouts, stress management, and recovery.
Seamless Habit Reinforcement
Small, data-driven adjustments help users build sustainable wellness habits.
A premium feature that enhances engagement and monetization.
Upsell Potential
What would the User Experience look like?
Each morning, users are prompted to log their energy levels, mood, and stress through a quick check-in, a Pulse feature that helps tailor their daily reccomendations.
Morning Check-In’s with Users
Personalized Daily Plans
Biometric Insights + User Input curates a dynamic, real-time health optimization plan, providing users with actionable advice daily.
At the end of the day, users reflect on their energy levels, stress, and overall well-being, allowing Oura to track trends overtime and refine future reccomendations for improved recovery and performance.
Nightly Check-In’s with Users
By seamlessly integrating morning and evening check-ins with biometric-driven insights, Oura Pulse ensures users don’t just track their health - they actively enhance it and build sustainable habits with personalized, actionable guidance every day.
What the Science Says
A systematic review of 10 randomized control trials spanning 2,349 subjects indicates that
these interventions have a statistically significant impact on the PA habits strength …. These findings are consistent with prior research, which has also suggested that habit formation interventions can effectively promote healthy behavior habits …. Online delivery may be particularly advantageous, as it allows for more frequent and timely reminders and feedback, which can reinforce behavior change and promote habit formation
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity
Effects of habit formation interventions on physical activity habit strength: meta-analysis and meta-regression
A meta-analyses of 19 intervention studies spanning 2800 participants indicates that
“both total sedentary behavior, and occupational sedentary behavior significantly reduced after implementing a self-monitoring based intervention.”
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity
Effectiveness of interventions using self-monitoring to reduce sedentary behavior in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis
A meta-analyses of 18 studies, of which 41% used knowledge-based and data-driven approaches to automate interventions, states that
“despite the availability of PA insights and PA guideline levels, the lack of clear and actionable feedback or a recommendation tailored to the user often results in failure to achieve the recommended PA levels…. it becomes essential for interventions to be delivered at the time when the user can engage in the target activity of the intervention.”
Journal of Medical Internet Research MHealth UHealth
Personalization of Intervention Timing for Physical Activity: Scoping Review
Personalization in Motion: Scaling Smart with a Phased Rollout
LAUNCH & GTM STRATEGY
To ensure a seamless launch, Oura Pulse will roll out in phases - beginning with a beta test for regular power users, expanding to the full set of existing Oura users, and finally scaling with strategic marketing and partnership initiatives. With this approach, Oura can maximize adoption, refine the experience, and drive long-term engagement.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Pilot Metrics
NORTH STAR METRIC
Daily Active Engagement with Personalized Insights
If successful, we should see a high % of users that interact with features such as morning and evening check-ins, adaptive recommendations, and real-time nudges.
This directly correlates with habit formation, retention, and long-term health improvements - ultimately reinforcing Oura’s value beyond passive tracking.
LEADING INDICATORS
Check-In Completion Rate - % of users completing morning and evening check-ins
Daily Plan Interactions - Frequency of Users following personalized reccomendations
Real-Time Insight Engagement - CTR on adaptive nudges
User Sentiment - Early feedback on reccomendation usefulness
Feature Adoption Rate - % of active Oura users opting into Oura Pulse
LAGGING INDICATORS
Retention Rate - % of Pulse users retained compared to non-Pulse users
Churn Reduction - % decrease in churn amongst Pulse users
Subscription Upgrades - % of Oura users upgrading to premium Oura Pulse
Health Improvements - Trends in HRV, sleep consistency, stress reduction
Referral Growth - Increase in new users from Pulse Referrals
By monitoring these counter - metrics, Oura can refine pulse to provide value without adding friction or cognitive overload.
COUNTER METRICS
Check-In Fatigue
Overwhelming Insights
Opt-Out Rate
Customer Support Ticket Volumes
Reduced App Exploration
MONITORING METRICS
30-Day Feature Adoption Rate
Daily & Weekly Pulse Users
NPS (Net Promoter Score) for Pulse
Churn Rate amongst Pulse Users
Personalization Accuracy
By effectively monitoring these metrics, Oura can refine Pulse, optimize user experiences, and ensure the feature remains and continues to evolve into a valuable tool.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
SUMMARY
This case study explored how Oura Pulse can bridge the gap between biometric tracking and real-time, actionable health guidance. The goal was to determine whether integrating personalized check-ins, dynamic recommendations, and a structured daily plan could improve user engagement, retention, and long-term behavior change.
Currently, Oura provides valuable biometric data but lacks immediate, adaptive insights that help users act on their health trends. Oura Pulse enhances the experience by incorporating user input alongside physiological data, allowing for more personalized, real-time recommendations. This creates a feedback loop that encourages habit formation and deepens engagement within the Oura ecosystem.
A phased rollout strategy ensures a measured, data-driven approach, starting with a beta launch for early adopters and expanding based on user feedback and behavioral data. By gradually refining the experience, Oura can optimize Pulse’s impact while maintaining product integrity.
As a Product Manager at Oura, I would recommend launching a controlled pilot program focused on daily engagement and long-term retention metrics. By continuously iterating on user feedback and refining insights, Oura Pulse has the potential to redefine how users interact with their biometric data—moving from passive tracking to active optimization.
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF
As an Oura user, this case study felt like solving a puzzle I’ve always been curious about—how to use your biometric data to optimize every sector of your life. It pushed me to think deeper about habit formation, user engagement, and product strategy, while making me appreciate my own data in a new way. More than anything, it reinforced my passion for building products that feel intuitive, impactful, and just make sense.
If you made it all the way to the end of this, thank you very much for reading!