Part 2 - Design Process

The product manager explained that among Gracenote clients in Hollywood, there were frequent requests for a tool that would allow them to better plan and coordinate their video distribution among streaming video services.

• Why are we doing this?
  Customer demand coupled with a lack of such tools were the driving forces. The increasingly fragmented filmmaking world, with companies that were formerly in the business of distribution now launching their own studios, made the need for a centralized dashboard-style of tool a necessity.
• Who are we building this for?
  Existing movie studio clients were the built-in target for this tool, but this kind of data-driven offering would be attractive to the newer, up-and-coming studios as well.
• When and where will the feature/demo be used?
  As this was to be a research and planning tool, the initial decision was to focus on a desktop application, to be used most typically in an office setting.

Research revealed a dearth of tools for this kind of detailed information that Gracenote clients needed. The IMdB website was being used as a kind of stop-gap, but there was no existing comprehensive solution.

• What is the solution to the problem?
  Because of the large datasets involved, we envisioned a dashboard type of UI in which the user would be able to filter content along a set of metrics that included both movie-specific things such as cast & crew, audience, and genre, as well as business metrics such as production costs, revenue, etc. Below is an early site map showing the two pathways exploring catalogs and distribution.

Wireframes

Early wireframes explored how filter menus would work, and how we might best incorporate charts and graphs to illustrate the data.

Implementation

Because we needed to quickly produce a working demo of the tool in order to demo it to potential clients, coupled with dev resource constraints, we decided to create the MVP as a Figma prototype. Gracenote data includes a rich image library that allows the design team to enhance the visual appeal of this demo.

Release

We were able to complete the two pathways - one for catalogs, and one for distribution strategy - in a Figma prototype in a few short weeks. You can click through the Catalog pathway in the prototype at the top of this page. I would be happy to walk through this with you to provide more detail.

Part 3 - Analytics

Surveys to determine the How:

• How can we measure our success?
  Pure number analytics, e.g. pageviews or clickthroughs, are not feasible with demos of this type. Ultimately, sales of the new feature will prove the success of the demo. But immediately after a new feature is presented in a demo such as this one at a trade show, we talk to the presenters to get a sense of “lean-in” from the clients. Also, we ask how effective the demo was in allowing them to illustrate how this metadata helps the end-user make a decision to engage with the content.