# S2E13 Relentless Empathy & Going Deep On Understanding The Problem | Ryan Eder

- Show: [Being an Engineer](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer)
- Published: 2021-03-19
- Length: 51m
- Episode: 13
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder
- Listen: https://teampipeline.us/relentless-empathy-and-understanding-the-problem/

## Summary

Ryan Eder, Founder and CEO of Include Health, explains how his senior thesis project, the Access Strength Machine, evolved into a hardware-agnostic digital health platform. He details his process of 'relentless empathy,' which involved renting a wheelchair and visiting gyms to understand the barriers faced by disabled users, leading to a gold-winning design. Eder describes the transition from a proprietary physical machine to an IoT sensor system that digitizes existing fitness equipment, addressing both physical and administrative barriers in healthcare. The episode highlights the challenges of integrating software into clinical workflows and the strategic decision to make the technology compatible with third-party hardware to scale impact.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=0) Introduction: Ryan Eder and Include Health
- [2:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=123) Ryan Eder's Background in Industrial Design
- [10:20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=620) Working at Priority Designs and Moonlighting on Include
- [17:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=1023) The Origin of Include Health and the Access Strength Machine
- [25:20](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=1520) Winning the International Design Excellence Awards
- [32:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=1923) Building the First Machine and Mobile Showroom
- [36:27](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=2187) Pivoting from Proprietary Hardware to IoT Sensors
- [44:44](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder#t=2684) Challenges in Clinical Workflows and Healthcare Integration

## Topics

- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)
- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [Connected products & IoT](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/connected-products-and-iot)
- [Validation & product-market fit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/validation-and-product-market-fit)
- [Starting a product company](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/starting-a-company)
- [Design for manufacturing & NPI](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/design-for-manufacturing)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Include Health (company)
- Priority Designs (company)
- Access Strength Machine (product)
- International Design Excellence Awards (other)
- Solid Works (tool)
- Peloton (product)
- Tonal (product)
- Tempo (product)
- Mir (product)
- Apple fitness plus (product)
- Cincy Tech (company)
- Lakeshore Foundation (company)
- Cincinnati Children's (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [Leveraging Digital Technology for Health and Fitness with Florian Sauter, CTO and Co-founder at EGYM](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2022-09-01-leveraging-digital-technology-for-health-and-fitness-with-florian-sauter-cto-and) (Over the Air)
- [#028 - Meet the creators of FitBit for medication, with Peter Havas of PillDrill, USA](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-05-31-028-meet-the-creators-of-fitbit-for-medication-with-peter-havas-of-pilldrill-usa) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/how-i-built-this/2022-05-02-strava-mark-gainey-and-michael-horvath) (How I Built This)
- [Ep 2: The Untold Story - 8 Years. 3 Failed Studios. 1 Real Product](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/build-2-create-hardware-founder-stories/2026-01-15-ep-2-the-untold-story-8-years-3-failed-studios-1-real-product) (Build 2 Create: Hardware Founder Stories)
- [Intrapreneurship, Internal Incubation, Spinoffs, and IoT Product Development](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/over-the-air/2021-07-06-intrapreneurship-internal-incubation-spinoffs-and-iot-product-development) (Over the Air)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-19-s2e13-relentless-empathy-going-deep-on-understanding-the-problem-ryan-eder. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Being an Engineer.