ESPN
"The Worldwide Leader In Sports" is an imprint of Disney and one of its most important (lucrative and prestigious) brands. Joining Disney provided an opportunity to collaborate with the ESPN team in Bristol, CT on several direct-to-consumer initiatives.
ESPN+ Launch
| Role | Responsibilities | Team | Timeline | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Director | Team Leadership, Design Strategy, Stakeholder Management | 3 Designers, 1 Researcher | Nov 2017 - Apr 2018 | +21M Subscribers |
The launch of ESPN+ was Disney's first time offering entertainment directly to consumers. It was also an opportunity to establish Growth Design as a center of excellence within Disney.
My team leveraged our experience building acquisition, payments, and onboarding for comparable streaming services. Some growth tactics we implemented:
- personalization in the signup flow
- reduced friction in account setup
- credit-less payments
- device native UI conventions
ESPN+ grew from 0 - 21M subscribers in its first three years of operation.
ESPN+ Pay-Per-View
ESPN's landmark deal with the UFC presented an opportunity to boost subscribers and MRR with a Pay-Per-View offer once a month.
The UI design navigated a web of payment methods across devices, payment methods, and varying entitlements consumers. These flows needed to be seamless and obvious because consumers were making this purchase under duress. 80% of sales were made during the 10 minutes before the event started.
Streaming Sports Vision
How might we watch sports 5 years in the future?
My team had the opportunity to envision ESPN's consumer product amidst a landscape of shifting consumer habits and increasingly competitive rights deals. We leaned on years of experience operating sports streaming products and novel UX research to propose a fan-centric future of the ESPN TV apps.
| Role | Responsibilities | Team | Timeline | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design Director | Design Strategy, Team Lead | 3 Designers, 1 Researcher | Nov 2019 - Feb 2020 | STAR+, 2 new features |
Full case study available on request
Outcomes
- A new streaming service in Latin America
- New features for ESPN+
STAR+
This strength of this vision, and conviction of the team, convinced Disney+ to invest in launching a new streaming service called STAR+ which leaned into sports.
STAR+ grew to 11M subscribers in two years.
ESPN SportsCenter+
We had extensive user research that suggested an opportunity to create a personally relevant, time-shifted, whip around experience for fans. Our concept was to leverage the incredible SportsCenter brand into a personalized highlight show.
The raw materials for this product all existed within the ESPN app ecosystem: live action highlights, studio commentary, UI motion for transitions, and ML personalization algorithms. The net new work was a branded experience and duration controls. This made the level of effort lower than expected.