Athlete-as-Lab: Co-Design Innovation
Interview your most demanding user, then build exactly what they asked for.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 83%
Long before formal 'customer discovery' was a product-design buzzword, Bill Bowerman and later Nike designers like Tinker Hatfield used elite athletes as both informants and live test subjects. Bowerman ripped apart competitor shoes and rebuilt them using his own runners — including a young, not-fast Phil Knight — as guinea pigs. Decades later, when Nike needed to win back Michael Jordan, designer Tinker Hatfield (trained as an architect, not a shoe designer) simply asked Jordan directly what he disliked about his current shoe and built the Air Jordan III to directly answer each complaint. This mental model treats the most demanding expert user as an active co-designer whose direct feedback shapes the product, rather than relying on internal assumptions about what makes a great shoe.
Origin
Rooted in Bill Bowerman's decades of experimental shoemaking on University of Oregon runners, culminating in Tinker Hatfield's direct-interview design process for the Air Jordan III in 1988.
Core principles
- 01Your most demanding expert users are your best source of design truth
- 02Ask direct, specific questions about pain points before designing solutions
- 03Test prototypes under real competitive stress, not just in a lab
- 04Present the finished product as a direct, itemized answer to stated complaints
- 05Iterate fast — sometimes overnight — when the stakes require it
How to run it
- 1
Recruit your most demanding user as an informal tester
Identify elite, high-performance users willing to試 use unfinished or experimental products under real conditions.
- 2
Observe or interview for specific pain points
Ask direct questions about what's wrong with the current product rather than guessing ('tell me what you don't like about the Jordan 2').
- 3
Translate each complaint into a design requirement
Convert qualitative feedback (too stiff, too heavy, wrong height) into concrete engineering specifications.
- 4
Prototype rapidly and test under real stress
Build and field-test prototypes in actual competitive or environmental conditions, not just controlled settings.
- 5
Present the solution as a direct answer
Reveal the finished product point-by-point against the original complaints, reinforcing that the design was built specifically for that user.
- 6
Validate at scale before full manufacturing commitment
Confirm the design holds up in mass production and varied conditions before rolling it out broadly.
In the wild
With Michael Jordan ready to leave for Adidas, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield asked Jordan directly what he disliked about the Air Jordan II, then built the Air Jordan III addressing each specific complaint: soft leather, mid-cut height, and off-court style.
→ Jordan re-signed with Nike, and the Air Jordan III became a franchise-defining shoe.
Bill Bowerman ripped apart Adidas shoes and rebuilt them with materials like snakeskin and deer hide, testing them directly on his own University of Oregon runners, including Phil Knight.
→ This experimentation habit eventually produced the nylon-upper Cortez and the polyurethane waffle sole, both foundational Nike products.
Common mistakes
Designing for aesthetics over function
The Air Jordan II was built from premium Italian leather without direct performance testing feedback, producing a stiff shoe that hurt on-court performance.
Skipping real-world condition testing
Nike's Mexico-made football cleats cracked in cold weather because they were never tested outside Guadalajara's warm climate before shipping to U.S. football markets.
Letting one designer's taste override user feedback
Rob Strasser's breakaway 'New Products Division' produced the poorly-received Air Jordan II partly by sidelining direct athlete input in favor of an internal design vision.
Is it for you?
Not ideal for
Mass-market products where no single expert user represents the broader customer base well.
From the transcript
“Bowerman actually taught himself how to be a cobbler and would take athletic shoes, usually Adidas athletic shoes, and modify them or even build his…”
“Tinker sits down with Jordan and he's like, tell me what you don't like about the Jordan 2.”
From the episode
Nike