Overview
The mission of this particular work was to help people in the media/entertainment industry to find opportunities and assemble an entire production team including actors and crews in a quick and easy way. At the same time, provide them a platform to connect and collaborate with each other while growing their professional networks in the entertainment industry. To better understand how we can potentially solve the issues of our target audience me and my team started the research process to dig deeper into the field and get insights, which can guide us to making right decisions on potential product.
We chose the brand which we can collaborate with and expand their scope of work is Backstage.com. It is the number 1 resource for performers such as actors, models, and dancers, to find work opportunities. At the same time, it allows talent seekers such as casting directors to find performers.
The insights discovered from the user research basically confirmed our hypothesis that users want a mobile app platform that serves as a one-stop shop, that help people working in the media/entertainment industry to find job opportunities, assemble their production teams, and grow their professional network.
The solution is our proposed product “Roll it”. It is a centralized platform that allows anyone who wants to start a new project to cast performers (e.g. actors/models) and hire crews (e.g. cinematographer/sound editor) in a reliable and communicative environment. Performers and crews can also showcase their work and find opportunities to collaborate. Moreover, people in creative industry to connect and expand their professional networks with an integrated social feature on this one-stop shop.
The proposed product will create a larger user group including a wider range of professions and a more reliable user base. Also, it will create a more open workspace and a more vibrant and interactive community for the media/entertainment industry.
The Brand
Backstage.com has served as the #1 resource for performers to find work while helping talent-seekers move their projects forward.
They currently have 100,000+ members of entertainment professionals.
Their platform allows performers in film, theater, TV, commercials, modeling, voiceover and other mediums to customize and manage their careers.
Filmmakers and casting directors have also used Backstage for decades to find the best actors and performers.
Research Methods
Business Model Canvas
Competitive Matrix
Competitive Feature analysis
Comparative Feature analysis
Screener survey
User Interview
Affinity Mapping
Personas
Use Journey
Feature prioritization/MoSCoW
Business Model Canvas
Me and My team started our research with Business Model Canvas, because it’s a great tool to understand the business in a straightforward, structured way, which can lead us to insights about the customers our partner serve, what value propositions are offered through what channels, and how the company makes money.
Key findings:
- Target user group would be in want of jobs, networking, showcase, and hiring reliable and talented professionals.
- The key metric of success would be memberships and signup rates.
Competitive Matrix
Next step we took was competitive matrix. First, it’s a great input for strategy and looking ahead. Second, as an internal tool to help with strategy development and specifics of designing products.
Key finding:
- No other brand is a one-stop shop that includes performers, crews, job opportunities, and networking feature in the entertainment industry
Feature Analyses - Competitive & Comparative
These methods gave us an idea about features of our competitors and comparators, so we can see where we are ahead and what’s missing in our business and would be nice to have to get on top.
Potential new features could be:
Professional role status update from a user’s network (similar to Instagram);
Comments on each portfolio to create a more open community and transparent workplace;
Problem Statement
Content creators are frustrated that there is no single central platform that enables them to assemble an entire production team quick and easy. A lot of skilled talents (including performers and crews) from the entertainment industry also think it is not easy to find opportunities in the digital realm. All of them feel their lacks a social platform for them to build their personal brand and expand their professional networks in the entertainment industry.
“How might we help people working in the media/entertainment industry to find job opportunities, assemble their production teams, and grow their professional network in a one-stop shop?”
Screener Survey, User Interviews and Affinity Mapping
Me and My team Sent out a Screener Survey to identify the target audience, so we can choose the right participants for further research. We selected and interviewed 7 people from our target audience group. They have various experience in the entertainment/media industry, such as:
We received very comprehensive answers from the interviewees. We synthesized the user interview results using the Affinity Mapping method to discover any trends or patterns from the interviews in order to gain key insights of our target user group.
Survey, detailed User Interview Script, Notes and Affinity Map are attached below:
Key Findings:
People are open to inspiring projects with great ideas and want to work more often.
Money is not first priority to get involved into the project. People are willing to work for passion, recognition, networking, and future opportunities.
Networking helps people have more stable and trustworthy working relationships. A lot of professionals in the industry use personal connections and social media.
People want to have reliable and professional team players in an organized, respectful, creative and communicative working environment.
Creators would like to have a platform that enables them to assemble a whole team quickly including cast and crew.
Personas
Based on the key insights from user interviews, we created a Primary Persona and a Secondary Persona to better guide us through the Ideation and Design Process. Here are the personas:
User Journey
This user journey gives us the overall details of each step that our customer comes into contact with. As Johnny attempts to assemble a film crew for his new web series, we start to understand his thought process. We pay extra attention to his emotions as he experiences each steps when using Backstage.com so that we are able define each behavioral stage from his perspective.
First, he feels overwhelmed when he tries to assemble a team because there is only few platforms that offers networking opportunities for entertainment industry professionals. This shows that there is not that many competitors in this market. Even with Backstage dominating the market, it still has limitation where it only supports people who are the front-scene performers. Back-scene professionals such as lighting and sound support do not have a platform for them to be discovered and hired. For Johnny, he could only rely on his personal connections.
Feature Prioritization & MoSCoW Map
Based on the insights from our research using feature prioritization and MoSCoW methods can help us to define which features are the most essential and needed to be embedded into proposing platform and needed to be focused on, also showed which one will take less and high effort, and will help to solve problem statement.
API’s
Proposed Product (MVP)
Roll it:
Anyone who wants to start a new project to cast performers (e.g. actors/models) and hire crews (e.g. cinematographer/sound editor)
Performers and crews to showcase their work and find opportunities to collaborate
People in creative industry to connect and expand their professional networks with an integrated social feature on this one-stop shop.
The product will benefit the business through the following areas:
A larger user group: Now it includes a wider range of professions in addition to performers from Media/Entertainment Industry
A more reliable user base: Every profile has to be verified
A more open workspace: People can see recommendations and who they worked with before
A more vibrant community: Not just for the experienced, the platform is for everyone who wants to collaborate
A more comprehensive data: Users can see previous experience through photo, video gallery and external links to different relevant websites
User Flow
Flows focus on what our potential user needs to get done in our case it’s people who would like to collaborate into a project and how to deliver that in the most effective manner possible, and also make this experience intuitive and smooth.
1.
Scenario: Your passion for pictures, angles and being on a set helped you to pursue a career as a photographer and an actor, and you have so many works, which never were posted anywhere.
Task: Use the app and set up your profile, so people can get to know you and your talents better.
2.
Scenario: After many years of experience working as an actor, you are finally ready to start your own project and share your idea with the world.
Task: Use the app and post a casting call for your web series show.
3.
Scenario: You are an actress who had some previous acting experience, but would love to get a leading female role in a new fresh project.
Task: Use the app to find new casting calls, which fit your criteria and apply for the role.
4.
Scenario: For your new project you have a specific look of an actress, which you would like to take as your lead. You saw Jacqueline’s profile and want to ask her if she’d be interested in this project.
Task: Use the app to contact Jacqueline.
Usability Testings (Round 1)
After Research Part was done and all insights were collected and synthesized, the Design process began. With this in mind my team and I created a mid-fidelity prototype and conduct a usability testing to get insights first hands. The following chart summarizes the results
From the chart, we can see that generally the prototype performs ok. However, 4 out of 5 are indirect success for Task 1 and all 5 are indirect success for Task 4.
We gathered key insights from this round of testing and made corresponding changes:
Key Insights Design Changes
People were confused about Invite vs. Message buttons >> Incorporate “Invite” function into the messaging feature
People were overwhelmed by the profile setup process >> Ask users “yes/no” questions on the screens as a clearer guide
People were not sure how to make an acting portfolio >> Add “Tips” on the screen with the “edit” button highlighted
Confusion about “content creator” and why is it be there >> Remove “content creator” and move roles like producers under crew
Crews for film/tv and theater should be separate >> Separate Film/TV crew and Theater crew in the initial setup process
To post a castings under “opportunities” not under “dashboard” >> Add a button on the “opportunities” screen for posting a casting call
Usability Testings (Round 2)
After the design changes from the first iteration, we brought the prototype to high-fidelity and conducted a second round of usability testing to check how those changes affected user journey on the app. The following chart summarizes the results:
As it shows, Task 1, 2 and 4 have all improved. However, Task 3 has encountered hiccups. The reason is that some people went to the recommended jobs section under feed to look for the matched job postings, and some users did not notice the “Match” text due to the vibrant colors on the page.
We then made corresponding changes based on the insights from the testing:
Key Insights Design Changes
Went to the “recommended jobs” to look for the matched job postings >> Recommended jobs are also matched opportunities as well
Did not notice the “Match” text due to the vibrant colors on the page >> Make the “Match” text bigger and more prominent
Size of the lettering on the tab bar were too small and hard to read >> Make the letters on the tab bar bigger
Some wanted to have a block feature >> Add a block icon on each profile view page
Design Evolution
The process of design iterations based on our insights from 2 rounds of usability testings you can check below:
Workflow
Workflow helps you to see the steps and transitions from screen to screen. Red dots at this case imitates human touch of finger so you can visually experience the flow or each step of proposing product.
Final Prototype
Next Steps:
Conduct another round of Usability Testing on the latest prototype
Establish KPIs to track success for business including signup rates, user growth, and job application rates
Add a feature that allows professionals to find and rent venue such as studio, stage, or other filming locations