Nalu

Nalu is a fitness service that adapts to the menstrual cycle, guiding women through training that moves with their hormonal rhythms instead of against them. Fitness culture rewards consistency and linear progress. Women's bodies do not work on that model. Energy, strength, and motivation shift across the cycle, yet most platforms either ignore those shifts or track them without turning the data into guidance anyone can use. The gap leaves women measuring themselves against a standard that was never built for them, and the result is a familiar loop of frustration, guilt, and drop-off.

We started with research, because everything downstream depended on getting two things right: the physiology and the emotional stakes. We combined secondary research on menstrual physiology and fitness science, competitive analysis across FemTech platforms, user interviews, and co-creation workshops, then synthesized the findings into a service the team could test. Prototyping followed a deliberate order. Paper first, to learn whether women trusted the concept with sensitive health data at all. Conversational flows next, to test whether the guidance felt intelligent without feeling clinical. High-fidelity last, once the earlier rounds told us what was worth building. That sequence surfaced the real design problem: trust came before function. Women would not engage with the guidance until the tone and the visual system earned their confidence, which reframed Nalu around credibility rather than features alone.