Context:

2016 to 2017 - Yahoo7 was a joint venture between Yahoo! and Channel 7 (Australian broadcast network). The Yahoo7 network had a monthly audience of 9M unique Australians,

I led the initiative to redesign and replatform Yahoo7’s entire network of websites (News, Sport, TV, Entertainment, Plus7 and more) to optimise for mobile, improve overall user experience and maximise commercial impact.

The approach:

• Discovery - directed analytics and UX teams on surveys, focus groups, data analysis and competitor reviews. I determined a vision and success metrics for the new network so we could then assess post-launch.

• Planning - I chunked the initiative into horizontal work streams for the Product Managers in my team to execute with their scrum teams. The end result was a ‘roadmap of roadmaps’ with different teams coming on board at various stages.

• Pre-launch validation - user testing with prototypes to sense-check design decisions. Commercial teams were consulted to determine which enhancements were most valuable. Low value verticals were decommissioned and MVP was determined. 

• Execution - the agile scrum teams first horizontally built the modules necessary for MVP, then switched to a vertical approach for launch. Launch of each vertical was strategically phased (coordinated and communicated by me).

• Post-launch validation - all subsequent iterations and new features were A/B tested.

Outcomes:

• Page speed doubled.

• Simplification of user journeys led to an increase in pages per session.

• More prominent video player led to an increase in video plays.

• Ad viewability targets were hit through the introduction of persistent ad formats.

Further enhancements and future directions:

• Following launch we shifted to an agile growth model with scrum teams focused on single ‘north star’ metrics e.g. page yield, audience acquisition and user engagement.

• The new ‘discovery bar’ feature proved to be one of the most clicked modules, so we prioritised experiments on that to improve engagement (e.g. changing content, relevance, UI).