Timeline 6 months
Team size 8 designers
Platform responsive web
Consultancy Grand Studio

My contributions
Cross-disciplinary stakeholder management
Cross-platform pattern libraries
Design direction and oversight
Design process education and definition
Digital product design
Development spec, support and communication
Leadership presentations
Mentorship of designers and interns
Motion design direction, oversight and development
Presentation coordination and support
Project management and planning
Requirements generation and scope definition
SOW negotiations
Staffing and resourcing of designers
Workshop planning and facilitation

NBA

A series of major internal business changes prompted an overhaul of the league’s core domestic products. The two separate sides of the NBA, domestic and international, needed to be unified across web, app and OTT platforms. However there was a large disconnect across all digital products—including design, content and technology infrastructure.

Our assignment was to unify digital products across platforms, collaborate with dozens of individuals, and be design complete within 6 months.

Our core client team for almost 2 years had been the international product group. But because this initiative affected the entire league, we included several additional groups gradually into our process.

For design, our team doubled from 4 designers to 8 and split into two tracks working in parallel. We staffed up with senior designers, additional designers and interns of varying skillsets.

During tipoff, we workshopped with stakeholder SVPs of various key groups over the course of two days. We also facilitated discussions and activities with members of editorial, development, marketing, stats, teams, product, analytics, and video.

Collectively we defined our metrics of success, product design goals and design principles to make decisions. 

Our team was given a few key tasks: merging 3 different NBA owned websites together, collaborating with internal and external technology groups, extending our previous design and thinking on apps to the flagship web experience, establishing CMS requirements through design, and navigating feedback at every level of the organization.

Sprints on key parts of the site—homepage and watch for example—began with collaborative brainstorming sessions with the NBA. We'd concept together, share out our ideas, and riff off of one another's pages.

Internally we'd synthesize concepts to find themes and unique ideas. Our team would then simplify the range in low-fidelity and present back a focused spectrum of options for conversation with the NBA team in our next review. As needed, higher fidelity wireframes would follow.

Visual design would often begin in parallel with UX. As we already had a clear design system to scale, we were able to reuse many needed elements from mobile. The overlap of efforts allowed us to present multiple fidelities of ideas at the same time that pushed the conversation forward.

The Outcome

Our team completed all work across the web experience at the end of May 2020 for an anticipated global launch in July. But due to COVID and its impact on the NBA, the launch of the revamped products across all platforms was pushed back to late October.

Once released, the unification of content, brand and messaging across all platforms on a global level streamlined the process for several internal groups. Deep tracking and analytics provided new insight into how users engaged with various parts of the products, informing future design and business decisions. Additional designs handed off throughout our sprints provided alternatives for A/B testing that the product team could leverage for further improvements. And for the first time in more than a decade, the NBA had full control over all of their content.