Hi Alice, thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

Focus on the most benefiting user. A beginner runner can in fact be the HXC if let’s say, she signed up for her first marathon. Design for people to help them make better runners, no matter what their starting point is. Help them make most progress, whether it’s for improving pace from a 7:00 min/km to 5:00 min/km or simply finish her first 5k. The latter would probably use the app just to see the distance covered or calories burned. As your app helps her get better, she’d take more benefits out of it, like checking her pace, elevation, etc. Designing for minimum benefiting users is what I would avoid. Someone who doesn’t intend to make any progress in running. Could be a fitness-freak gym regular or someone who occasionally goes for short runs. Running isn’t on their radar. They are not likely to stick with the product even if they adopt it initially.

Hope that makes sense :)