PRODUCT MANAGEMENT & STRATEGY WORKA unified sports experience for the living room
We re-engineered CBS Sports across seven major TV platforms — Roku, Fire TV, tvOS, Vizio, LG, Samsung, and Google TV — transforming a static video grid into an intelligent, data-driven sports destination.
Role
Vice President, Product Management
Industry
Media & Broadcasting
Duration
Multi-year (2021 - 2024)
Services
Product strategy · UX architecture · API design · Programming logic · Design standards
Deliverables / Platform
OTT & Smart TV Apps | Roku · Fire TV · tvOS · Vizio · LG · Samsung · Google TV
The Challenge
When I assumed leadership of the video platforms, the apps had strong content but lacked structure and intelligence.
They were missing the fundamentals of a premium experience:
No way to promote upcoming events
No navigation into leagues or sports
Underexposed game highlights, our most engaging asset aside from live events
No prioritization rules for marquee events
No visual hierarchy for content discovery
We needed both an editorially aware content system and a clear design standard that could scale across all devices.
The Vision | Project Farnsworth
We created a 3-to-5 year product vision for the ideal experience, unconstrained by staffing or cost.
This long-range vision guided iterative builds, ensuring every quarterly release advanced toward a premium, future-ready platform.
It demanded parallel investment in our back-end management system, allowing editorial and programming teams to configure league hierarchies, event rules, and layout logic through APIs rather than code pushes.
Our Approach
1 · Calendar as a content engine
We built a flexible promotion system for upcoming events, countdowns, and reminders that reflected live scheduling in real time.
2 · Structure for discovery
We added navigation by league, team, and sport — giving fans intuitive pathways into the content that matters most to them.
3 · Highlights that carry context
We redesigned the highlight experience around context and meaning rather than thumbnails. Each highlight now includes game scores, team identity, and outcome cues so fans can immediately recognize a buzzer beater, a comeback, or a blowout. This small shift unlocked deep emotional engagement. Fans could find and feel the moments that mattered, leading to a 70 percent increase in game highlight consumption year over year.
4 · Weighted logic for live priority
A new rules engine applied weight by league, market, and audience scale so major events like the NFL or UEFA Champions League always rose to the top.
5 · Visual standards that scale
We introduced artwork ratios, color frameworks, and typography rules that brought structure and clarity to every row.
6 · Data to decide
Unified analytics across platforms measured live starts, video hours, and highlight interactions to guide prioritization and design iteration.
The Solution
The upgraded apps delivered a service that feels alive on the couch.
A rotating hero that promotes upcoming events and new live channels | moments with one click to play
A first row that changes by daypart, major tentpoles, and user interest
Clear league navigation and major live event moments with highlights and related on demand content. Super Bowl, Masters, and March Madness would dynamically arrive in the left navigation to maximize the rights of our key tentpoles we offered
A consistent visual system for artwork and typography that strengthens recognition from row to row
Cross platform parity across Roku, Fire TV, tvOS, Vizio, LG, Samsung, and Google TV
The Results
The Takeaway
CBS Sports OTT evolved from a static app suite into a dynamic, data-informed sports service.
The experience now reacts to the sports calendar, amplifies highlights through context, and balances automation with editorial control.
Project Farnsworth unified seven unique OTT ecosystems into a single living product strategy.
By combining contextual highlights, live event intelligence, and a programmable design system, we made CBS Sports on the big screen feel as alive and intuitive as a broadcast feed - only smarter, faster, and more personal.
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