the on-demand tv streaming landscape
DRIVING INNOVATION & DESIGN
Role: Lead design researcher. Work completed while at Conifer Research
As new players continue to enter the digital streaming space, this TV/media streaming company was seeking to fundamentally understand what drives today’s consumers to watch the way they do to inform the company’s future strategies to stand out from the pack. This project focused on understanding how user preferences, brand perceptions, assessments of value and quality, and occasions influence viewing behaviors and decision making.
Methods + Approach:
Nationwide + Two markets: Participants were recruited spanning different age groups, lifestyles, and streaming habit segments to participate in an online community.
Online community: Remote data collection for a baseline of each participant. Activities included documenting details viewing occasions to paint a picture of all the factors that affect what they watch and the service they use.
Deprivation: Select participants were asked to change the way they watch content for two weeks. This deprivation exercise forced them to step out of their comfort zone and exclusively use services they were unaccustomed to or to avoid services that were integral to their routines. Their experiences provided our team with rich data about what participants look for in their ideal services and points of inertia.
In-home interviews: Following all remote data collection our team was able to further understand the complex decision making that goes into how and what people watch — the impact of moments of delight and frustration before, during, and after viewing occasions in the context of their homes.
Outcome:
Rooted in a habit loop framework, this research provided areas of opportunity and a starting point for teams across the client company, from marketing to product, for future strategic innovation and has served as a resource for senior leadership to use while moving toward larger company goals. This work was presented on-site in a full-day, multi presentation, and internal teams continued to roadshow the work.
This work launched a series of ongoing, quarterly qualitative sprint projects to continue evaluating and exploring the brand, platform experience and changes in user behavior and attitudes. A few years following this work a companion project was conducted to understand what drives viewers to make content selections.