My Role

As product manager I led the execution of this new feature and worked alongside product leadership to conceptualize and execute the strategy. This feature was launched in a two-phased approach: first at a free level available to all users. After learning and making adjustments/improvements after that release, we then released the second phase of 2gb hosting for Premium users.

The Project

Before this feature could be built with the team it first needed to go through some competitive and strategic analysis. This feature was needed from a competitive view point but is an expensive feature to host and build. Working alongside the CTO and VP Product, I helped to do a cost analysis to select the appropriate vendor. We also did a second round of analysis to ensure that we created competitive options (for the premium plan) while also not bankrupting the business should they be used.  

The first phase of this project was designed and launched within 6 weeks. The team worked together to scope this phase of the project to be small enough that we could ship it quickly and then learn from it and enhance the final version of the feature.

Working with a vendor, I managed the back-end complexities of hosting large video files and then worked with the designer to create a user experience that solved for all edge cases and complexities.

Learnings

This was such an exciting project and I learned so much working on it. The actual technical solution for supporting over over 40 new sites without burdening the technical team was extremely complex and I learned a lot throughout the execution. We built a robust back-end management system for all the new themes which made it incredibly difficult to keep them updated going forward. The most challenging part of this project was to create the site duplication in a way that supported the complex plan and feature matrix to ensure features were properly paywalled and that duplication would not accidentally open higher tier features.

This project taught me a lot about scope management and staggered releases. Although this project was long, we were able to fit in so many smaller enhancements along the journey that positively improved the customer experience and almost enhanced business metrics. Ultimately this project taught me that anything is possible if you have a great team and a realistic plan.