NOTE: For privacy reasons, I am unable to showcase the majority of my work completed during my tenure at AT&T. However, I can provide a summary of the projects I worked on for DIRECTV NOW.
PROJECTS TYPES
Product Design, Brand Design, Design Strategy, Design Thinking
ROLE
Researcher, Designer, Strategist, Storyteller, Facilitator
MAIN GOAL
Help shape DIRECTV's next generation user experience strategy and product vision.
OVERVIEW
At the end of 2015, AT&T officially acquired DIRECTV. AT&T was looking to expand its pay-TV subscriber base. DIRECTV U.S. already had 21 million subscribers; if combined with AT&T U-verse, it would have 26 million subscribers, with revenues estimated at over $12 billion. AT&T had planned to use its significant distribution chain, such as retail stores and call centers— to help boost DIRECTV against its competition.
AT&T targeted approximately 20 million households outside the pay-TV world. DIRECTV Now* would be AT&T's over-the-top service, allowing subscribers to stream their favorite programs from cable channels without a long-term commitment.
*As of July 2019, AT&T has changed the name of the TV streaming service DIRECTV Now to AT&T TV Now.
ROLE & GOAL
As a senior UX strategist, I worked alongside a multidisciplinary team of UX/UI designers, researchers, and developers to create strategic frameworks and case studies that would foundationally support the development of DIRECTV's entertainment experience.
Based on previous successful research, ideation, design, and strategy projects*, I was requested to help define and visualize DIRECTV's next-generation product experience strategy and story. I was also asked to build a design framework aligned with AT&T's vision and the Experience Design Studio's mission. The result of this initiative was a deliverable presentation that was shared with the AT&T Entertainment Group C-Suite and other departments throughout the larger AT&T organization.
*Previous successful research, ideation, design, and strategy projects: Voice in Streaming, Kids TV, Mobile Video Consumption, TV Fandom, Immersive Video, Device Integration, Defining Premium TV, User Profile & Data, and TV Watching Modes
STARTING AT THE BASE
draft product strategy prototype
To begin this broad initiative, I thought long and hard about how we would achieve the task. Like building a cake, you start with the ingredients. Design frameworks develop from user insights, which extend into the overall product experience strategy. The product experience strategy then becomes the foundation of the product story. This sequence would become the order of design for this initiative.
The purpose of the design framework was to help designers focus their ideas when creating product features. I started my process by assessing all the previous user research, case studies, and design strategies to identify a concise base set of user needs and archetypes. I continued by interviewing multiple designers and a sample of AT&T employees across various departments to talk about workflow needs, pain points, and opportunities.
CHALLENGES, INSIGHTS, AND OPPORTUNITIES
A majority of the issues that occurred were due to communication breakdowns; some of the difficulties with communication were:
+ Not having a consistent design language across the team when presenting concepts inside and outside the studio. Lack of consistent design language made it more challenging to cultivate a unified vision between the design studio and other organizations.
+ A lack of trust in decisions made between individual designers, engineers, and product managers. This issue was due to departments outside the studio having a misconception or no ideas about how designers worked and vice-versa.
Direct interactions with designers, engineers, product managers, and marketers allowed for more conversations around our process. Not only did I gain a deeper understanding of department roles, but I was also able to hear and view the significant pain points between teams. I saw this as an opportunity to design frameworks so simple that anyone could understand them. I looked to streamline a design language and process that various organizations across AT&T could adopt.
HOW MIGHT WE...
+ HMW raise awareness of design at AT&T?+ HMW communicate the impact of design on AT&T Product Experience?
+ HMW bridge the communication gap between business, engineering, and design?
+ HMW design better and more actionable frameworks?
+ HMW Communicate the various methodologies of design. (Internal/External)
SIMPLIFYING THE STRATEGY
I laid out all the previous user research, case studies, and frameworks. I shared my findings with all the leaders throughout the Experience Design Studio. We worked together to define the studio's design process, which led to the overall product vision. I brought back designers to discover what worked and didn't work to create a more straightforward and actionable design framework. After a successful reception of the product experience strategy and design frameworks, I made the next-generation platform product story. I worked with IDEO, who was brought on to help with Product ID and System Exploration. We worked together to produce a product vision story and demonstration video.
snapshot of strategic design frameworks
product video theme
screenshot of product video
RESULTS
The outcome of this project was a presentation to various stakeholders, including the AT&T Entertainment Group C-Suite. It eventually circulated throughout the AT&T organization and became the presentation tool of the experience design studio. I continued to work directly with designers to refine presentations, design language, and various toolsets that operated in tune with the AT&T Entertainment Group organizational strategy.
TAKEAWAYS
When DIRECTV merged with AT&T in 2015, its 27,000 employees became part of an organization with more than 270,000 employees. While changing an ingrained workflow is always tricky, especially after a few significant organizational shifts, maintaining the right attitude can make all the difference. Being one of the most extended projects I worked on at AT&T, it was among the most rewarding. I am genuinely grateful for the opportunity and support from the directors and staff. I gain substantial growth in my ability to build communities and simplify ideas for a unified outcome. We developed new tools, refined existing areas, and brought strategy, research, design, and usability across multiple departments.
VIEW NEXT PROJECT: PUBLIC STORAGE: A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM
Want to see more? Check out my archive of previous projects. For additional info, email me at biz[at]dimitrialexander.com