Craig Quilkey | Product & Experience
Role: Product & Experience Owner for launch phase
Duration: 18 months to launch.
Off the back of an incredible opportunity to create Kayo Sports, I was asked to attend a particular meeting. The meeting started by talking about my part of the Kayo business case and building the initial team and how much I enjoyed the experience. Then next next minute I was asked "Could you do it again?"...
BINGE, an Australian streaming entertainment service, set out to redefine the viewing experience by offering a wide range of content, from TV shows and movies to documentaries and exclusive series. As the Lead for both the product and experience teams, I played a pivotal role in transforming this vision from early ideation to successful delivery.
Its also worth nothing Binge was launched during Covid lockdown, with the 2nd half of the project being delivered purely remotely. My Boss was stuck in the United states and so i was affectively in charge of the 2nd half of the project.
How might we provide Australian streamers easier access to Foxtels content library on the same devices kayo users are on
How might we differentiate Bine from other streaming services that are already in the market
How might we leverage our existing technology stack to reduce our costs.
How might we create additional revenue streams such as introducing Advertising.
To address these problems in the most efficient way possible, I kicked off the product track focused clearly defining what we all had to draw from and what is net new. The work was divided into several phases:
Feature delta definition: What features have we already built for Kayo, Are they just a reskin or do they need to be amended to suit?
Market Research: Conducted extensive market analysis to understand customer preferences, competitor offerings, and emerging trends. Compare this to how Kayo users are already using our products
Stakeholder Engagement: We had to engage new stakeholders across the business, they had seen Kayo take shape from a distance but now it was their turn to lean in. Collaborated was key to define the vision, goals, and unique value propositions of Binge.
Business Model Validation: With the business modal development well under way by the strategy team, my team was tasked to further test and validate various considerations and present back recommendations.
User Personas and Journeys: We expanded the existing kayo user personas based on demographic data and user interviews to guide the design process. Mapped out the user journey to identify pain points and opportunities for enhancement with an existing features and outlines areas of concern for new features.
Wireframes: We created detailed UX wireframes for features across all breakpoints to see how features worked on every devices types, Allowing the visual design team to focus on key screens and flows and focus on component design delivery,
Prototyping and Testing: My Developed prototypes for stakeholders to continually review as each features was created. We used these prototypes to conduct usability testing to gather feedback and iterate on designs.
Agile Sprints: The product team Implemented an agile development process to ensure flexibility and responsiveness to changing requirements. We would aim to deliver 4 features every 2 weeks into tech. With features taking 4 sprints to be defined, Ideated, designed, tested with customers, broken down into requirements, UX, VD, tech tickets and business rules ready for dev.
MVP Launch: Each features requirements were prioritised for a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) launch, focusing on core functionalities like content browsing, personalised recommendations, and seamless playback.
Continuous Improvement: We continued our process from Kayo to established a feedback loop with users to continuously gather insights and improve features as we go. This feedback from the Live product allowed our research team to focus on the untested features with customers, speeding up the validation process.
When a product goes live the real work begins, my role continued to oversee Binge going live, but with a lot more help. Nearly 1/3 of the Binge road yet to be complete by dev and customer feedback was coming in thick and fast including the customers displeasure with the business deciding not to launch with Chrome cast (A backlash that cost us dearly for the next 6 months). We had clear operational processes to review customer data and rules on how that feed into the roadmap. Slowly but sure we got Binge on track and started to see some great results.
Leading the product and experience team at Binge was a transformative journey, from the early stages of ideation to the successful delivery of a competitive streaming platform. The collaborative efforts and user-centric approach resulted in a product that resonated with users and established a strong foothold in the market.
The product team was able to deliver all product features into tech in less then 12 months. But unfortunately tech were already under significant pressure from the release of Kayo and missed the beta deadline by nearly 5 months.
This case study underscores the importance of strategic planning, innovative design, and agile execution in bringing a vision to life. But maybe even more importantly, build one good product at a time and resist the urge to jump onto the next product too early.
