Role

VP Product Management
(Lead Product Strategist)

Industry

Sports Media

Duration

14 Months

Services

Product Strategy, Product Execution, User Research & Usability Testing, A/B Testing, Go To Market Strategy, Project Planning, and UX Leadership

Deliverables / Platform

iOS and Android Mobile Applications

The Challenge

When Christopher took leadership of the CBS Sports App redesign, the product was showing signs of its age.
It had strong brand recognition and millions of loyal users, but its experience was inconsistent, fragmented, and falling behind user expectations in personalization and live content.

The biggest challenges were clear:

• Confusing navigation: The app used both a slide-out menu drawer and a bottom tab bar, which changed dynamically based on the user’s location. It broke orientation and trust — fans couldn’t predict where to find what they needed.

• Shallow insights: The scoreboard was our most-used screen, yet it offered limited depth in stats, trends, or betting insights — a missed opportunity to engage and monetize a highly active audience.

• Weak personalization: Fans could mark team favorites, but those choices didn’t transform the experience or make users feel connected to their team.

• Underutilized live content: CBS Sports owns premium live rights and free streaming channels, yet those moments weren’t being surfaced effectively within the app.

Our goal was to unify design, content, and personalization into a fan-first product that delivered relevance, emotion, and performance at every tap.

Older Experience

Our Approach

1. Clarify the foundation
We started with a deep UX audit and competitive benchmarking to understand friction and opportunities. Navigation was simplified to a single, persistent bottom tab bar — creating spatial predictability and mental ease.

2. Personalize the experience
We redefined what “team favorites” meant inside the app. Fans could now customize their app experience with team colors, identity, and dynamic scoreboard views. This shifted personalization from a passive toggle to an active part of engagement.

3. Deepen sports data insights
We redesigned the scoreboard to be more than a static score. It became a live dashboard of advanced data, trends, and betting insights — delivering more value to engaged fans and supporting our strategic entry into the sports wagering space.

4. Elevate live content
We made live rights and free streaming channels a focal point during major events, introducing smart surfacing for tentpole moments (March Madness, Masters, NFL Draft). The experience turned our app into a destination for live content, not just a complement to television.

5. Align design and delivery
We partnered closely with design, editorial, and engineering to define an end-to-end product strategy and delivery rhythm. This ensured features shipped predictably, quality stayed high, and the design vision remained intact through every release.

The Solution

The new CBS Sports app delivered a bold, modern interface anchored by clarity, speed, and personalization.

• Unified navigation made discovery intuitive and consistent.

• Dynamic team pages and scoreboards created deeper engagement and emotional connection.

• Insight-driven data gave fans richer ways to understand their teams and games.

• Prominent live streaming placement increased awareness and consumption of CBS Sports HQ and event coverage.

The result was a product that felt fast, intelligent, and unmistakably CBS — built for the modern sports fan.