Meeting Teams Where They Are
What we learned from this year's Winter Meetings, and why our previous model was insufficient
Every other week I write an email discussing what I learn launching and growing Reboot Motion. If you would like to receive it directly in your inbox, subscribe below.
2023 will be Reboot Motion’s 4th year operating in MLB. It will be the first year we offer various products.
When Reboot launched in 2020, we did so as mostly a consulting company. We had little software, no employees, and thanks to a global pandemic, far fewer baseball games than anticipated.
As a result, we built a pitch centered around us being part of the team. We’d do as much manual work as needed- no different than if were in the office with you.
In 2021 and 2022, as we grew our software team, our value proposition changed. Today, we have 1) a scalable biomechanics processing pipeline 2) an API 3) a dashboard, and more.
Still, even as our tech evolved, we kept our pitch to MLB team’s the same: One price and you get everything Reboot has to offer. Unlimited processing, reporting, support, meetings, etc. We are your partner.
Personally, I love this model. It allows us to be fully embedded with a club so they can take advantage of everything we offer through Biomechanics as a Service.
What I Got Wrong
However, just because I love it does not mean it is for everyone.
Different clubs are at wildly different points in their journey. Some organizations have been building out their internal biomechanics team for years and love what they’re doing. Others are just getting started.
And, while we had the tools for either end of the spectrum, or anywhere in between, we didn’t have a range of product offerings.
By only providing a single option, we forced potential partners to 1) pay for it all and 2) pick and choose what to use. This put too much work onto clubs and could leave feeling like they were paying for things they didn’t need.
With this in mind, and with the Reboot team continually calling me out on this flaw, I went to the Winter Meetings in San Diego with one major goal: learn more about team pain points and develop a suite of products to better serve them.
The 3 Stories
While I didn’t know what to expect, what emerged was three stories clear as day:
The “Building on Our Schedule” Story:
Some clubs are in the process of building their biomechanics team and doing so on their schedule. For those just getting started, they need a partner to help get to state of the art in a matter of weeks, not years.
And for those already on the journey, they want a partner that can offer continuous leverage to a growing in-house team that focuses on building proprietary models and bringing actionable insights to the field.
The “We Got This, But…” Story:
A group of teams we talked to were happy with how they’re attacking biomechanics. However, they weren’t thrilled- and likely that was the result of one of two pain points.
Pain pint 1: They struggle with scale. With limited resources and an exploding amount of data, clubs are looking for someone to take care of the infrastructure and process data at scale.
Pain point 2: They struggle with full coverage across their organization, specifically in gathering the insight they’re used to during bullpens, at affiliates, and while scouting- domestically or abroad.
The “We Know We’re Behind” Story:
Finally, some teams are behind…and know it. They know integrating biomechanics into player evaluation and development is important, but are still learning about their options. They want to dip their toes in the space and learn more about Reboot’s momentum based approach.
The 4 Options
Our goal is to solve biomechanics based pain points for MLB teams. Plain and simple.
So, after synthesizing the stories we heard, we turned our single product into four distinct offerings that meet teams where they are:
Option 1: All In
This is how we’ve always operated and nothing we learned in San Diego changed our belief in our All In model. We have seen the value it has provided some of our early partners over the years, and believe these clubs now leverage biomechanics better than their competitors- even if those competitors had a head start.
Our All In model is a great option for any organization building out their biomechanics team, as we can take a club from wherever they are to industry leading in a matter of weeks.
Then, we can grow together, with us taking care of a lot of the behind the scenes work, allowing internal biomechanists, data scientists, and coaches to focus on bringing takeaways to the field.
With this option, we offer:
Unlimited data processing of any motion capture source (HEI, KinaTrax, Simi, any mobile solution, our own mobile solution, etc.)
Unlimited data processing via MLB’s data share
Unlimited daily reporting
Unlimited custom pitching and hitting analysis
Unlimited API access
Unlimited dashboard access
Standing weekly meetings with our biomechanics team
Unlimited slack support
Daily flagging emails
TruMedia integration
Option 2: Data Only
While we love our All In model, we understand not everyone is looking for us to be their partner in all things biomechanics.
Some teams like what they’re doing. They just want a vendor to solve a single pain point (and do so at a lesser price point).
For teams that like what they’re doing, we heard two pain points over and over.
First, we heard teams worry about scale.
HawkEye and Kinatrax markerless motion capture systems are everywhere- MLB wide, minor league parks, spring training affiliates, pitching labs, and on and on. (And this is before we talk about league wide data share agreements.)
As a result, team biomechanists are spending too much energy processing and cleaning data, and not enough time doing what they were hired to do- building models and bringing actionable insights to coaches.
To solve this pain, we offer:
Unlimited data processing of all in game data (HEI, KinaTrax, etc.)
Unlimited data processing via MLB’s data share
API access to serve data processing needs
Unlimited slack support
Daily flagging emails
Option 3: Mobile Only
Within the group of clubs that were happy with their biomechanics game plan, a subset didn’t feel the pain above and had confidence in their ability to scale alongside the explosion of in game data.
These clubs had a different pain point: coverage.
Specifically, teams were looking for the same access to data in places stadium installations couldn’t reach- during bullpens, at affiliates, and while scouting- domestically or abroad.
For these teams, we offer baseballs’ best single camera motion capture.
More specifically, we offer:
Unlimited data processing and reporting from raw video
API and Dashboard access to serve mobile motion capture needs
Unlimited slack support
Daily flagging emails
Option 4: Reports Only
If options two and three were about serving the needs for those furthest along on the biomechanics journey, option four is about teams on the other end of the spectrum- the ones who realize they’re behind and need to catch up.
While Reboot would love these teams to be All In partners, we understand going from 0 to 100 is hard.
Therefore, we want to give teams a simple solution to get started- which starts with turning motion capture data into reports coaches can use immediately.
For these teams, we offer:
Unlimited daily and custom reporting of all in game data (HEI, KinaTrax)
Dashboard access to serve reporting needs
Unlimited slack supports
Daily flagging emails
(And yes, we want to prove to these clubs the value of an All In partnership down the line.)
A Moving Target
Biomechanics is going the way of advanced analytics. What is currently cutting edge will quickly become table stakes.
We need to meet the demands of teams today, as they explore momentum based biomechanics and continue to look beyond “why data” to analyze “the how”.
But we also need to build for tomorrow- when every teams is staffed with biomechanics departments receiving data in their pro park, at minor league affiliates, on the road, and abroad.
Those teams need us to empower biomechanists. And that’s exactly what we plan to do.