Up until this project, next up at Prime video was only able to recommend one single program, either going into the next episode or recommending another title. On the Live event side, this meant all viewers would be directed to one other title or bounced back home. This was seen as a concern given that there are millions of customers tuning into TNF and at that scale it causes major issues.
From a UX standpoint this limitation also meant users are somewhat forced into one title, which completely went against UX research findings. Users like having control over what plays next, especially when Prime Video had history with auto-playing seemingly random titles completely unrelated to the previous.
Multi-title next up recommendations was not a new concept at Prime Video when I picked it up, in fact the previous designer had spent the better half of the year exploring multiple options going through dozens of iterations and reviews. I was happy to pick up this additional workload as a side project so that they can spend time with their newborn. Little did I know I was just getting started.
After going through multiple stakeholder interviews it became clear to me the current design only considered VOD and I was already hearing talks about Live events needing something similar. At Amazon VOD & Live event teams are in separate orgs with individual Product Managers, Engineering teams, and leaders reporting to separate VPs all of which have different goals and timelines.
I was sitting in an unprecedented area, I was the common ground among separate organizations, building for an experience that could ideally work across both VOD & Live events.
It only took one working session for the 3 of us; Live Product Manager, VOD Product Manager and Myself to align and commit on creating a unified experience, it was a true WIN-WIN-WIN.
Over the next few weeks to months we partnered extensively designing and creating what the optimal next up experience would be for both and strategized how we can work backwards from there to build an MLP in time for TNF the following season.
In August 2024, a first release of the experience was launched across both Live events and VOD titles. After a title ends we can auto play into a new title, one that more clearly communicates why it's being recommended and customers have the ability to choose from 5 other relevant titles.
