UX RESEARCH AND SERVICE DESIGN.
Laying the foundation for unified workflows and automation.
ISSUE
Netflix created its first original title in 2013 in English only for a North American release.
Since this time, the company has grown considerably. In 2018 Netflix created around 700 original shows for a global audience
When Netflix started with one title, the team was able to create and track marketing assets, and traffic ads using simple tools such as email and spreadsheets. As the company expands, more robust tools are needed.
Netflix has robust engineering teams creating tools to automate as much of the workflow as possible. However, in this engineering led company, many of these tools have been developed were developed quickly without user empathy or design input.
Design was considered the icing on the top - stylized UI only.
SOLUTION
The marketing teams wanted more 'usable' tools that would help them do their work faster. Tools were needed to be able to share information up and down the work pipeline.
Through extensive design research, including user interviews, workshops, and contextual inquiry, it was discovered that there are multiple teams creating duplicate work with duplicated effort.
There are many teams within Netflix, supported by multiple engineering groups. Content owners (such as filmmakers) are supported by one technology team and marketing teams are supported by another technology team.
While one team might be responsible for the creation of a specific tool, other teams may use it.
Also, in a company which holds People over Process there was not a common workflow to base automated tooling on. In order to create useful tools, we first had to establish unified workflows.
A thorough understanding of responsibilities and jobs to be done for each persona or archetype was needed. This set off a combined effort across technical teams to establish a common workflow, and shared resources.
IMPACT
Ongoing user research and partnerships across technology teams is now at the start of every tool being developed. The end users are also playing a large role in designing these tools to meet their needs.
STAKEHOLDER MAPS AND USER FLOWS
Created based on multiple one on one user interviews and group workshops. These visual documents are a starting point in understanding tooling needs for automated workflows.
The Campaign Managers interact with all of the other teams in campaign management. This gives us an overview of a campaign and we can go deeper into the next workflow.
AV PRODUCERS
Finish and localize all trailers and video assets associated with a campaign. Understanding the AV Producers workflow allowed for the first step in automation. This visual map also gave us a comparison point when investigation a parallel team who also created, finished and localized trailers for the Netflix Player.
SCREENING ASSETS TEAM
As Netflix shows titles in theaters or other venues for awards, promotions or simply audience pleasure, it is imperative that the highest quality experience is met. This requires sound and picture calibration onsite and verification that the venue is licensed and capable of playing the type of asset.
A dedicated screening team manages all global screenings. This includes managing venue relationships, tracking assets and managing vendors who either build out or check to ensure video quality.
To build tools to match the team's tracking needs, we needed to asses the stakeholders and their needs. The team is split into two global locations, one in Los Angeles and one in Amsterdam. In order to ensure we were listening to users outside of the USA, I ran an in person workshop as well as a virtual workshop using screenshare and a Mural Board. We were able to take our findings and create user stories for the agile design and development of the tool (in progress).
Using human icons helps establish empathy for our users as we design and build tools.