In Broadcast - July 2017 - 36

36

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 6

In

Supplement

Four Tips to Build a Better
Product Ecosystem
Verizon Digital Media Services Director
of Product Tad Ro highlights four ways
to improve the product ecosystem...

I

t's never easy to develop a new
product, let alone one that's
designed to fit into the complex
digital media landscape. The difficulty
increases even further when the
product vision is aimed toward building
an entire product ecosystem that
comprises multiple interconnected and
integrated service components.
I
experienced
this
immense
difficulty firsthand while leading the
development of Verizon Digital Media
Services' all-new Content Intelligence
System, the Verizon Media Xperience
Studio.
This service helps our customers
manage their content production
and distribution workflows, app
development, subscription services
and business analytics, all within
a single, streamlined platform. To
achieve these functionalities, we built
an aggregate suite of seven distinct
service components:
*	 MX:Orchestration;
*	 MX:Apps;
*	 MX:Subscriptions;
*	 MX:Syndication;
*	 MX:Personalisation;
*	 MX:Programming;
*	 MX:Vision.
Though each of these components
can function as a standalone
entity, their greater purpose is to
synergistically create a more cohesive
and efficient media service ecosystem.
It should come as no surprise that I
learned a lot while building something
this expansive in scope; here are four
of the most important lessons I took
away from the process.
1. Examine The Big Picture First
Before you can find the solution,
you have to understand the problem
extremely well.
For myself and all involved
teams,
this
meant
educating
ourselves on media lifecycles and
content
management
workflows,
from production to distribution to

consumption. We already offer two
core services to content publishers -
our Uplynk Video Streaming service
and our Edgecast Content Delivery
Network - that simplify the encoding,
ingestion and delivery of content.
However, we quickly realised that
there were several gaps in the chain
of content management services that
a new aggregate of products could
address.
We talked to customers and
prospects, and learned more
about the scope of their content
management needs, pain points
and concerns. We discovered that
while most large broadcasters
and studio networks were
internally capable and confident
about certain downstream aspects
of the media lifecycle process, such
as app building and subscription
services, they had more difficulty
coordinating and managing disparate
complex systems and processes on the
upstream side, including streamlining
and automating workflows. After
identifying this service gap area, we
began conceptualising and working
toward the vision that became the
MX:Orchestration component of Media
Xperience Studio.
2. Address Different Use Cases
To build a holistic media platform,
we had to consider a broad range of
customer use cases, including both
existing and prospective customers.
We've worked a lot with broadcast
networks and film/television studios,
which tend to share similar upstream
service needs. When building Media
Xperience Studio, though, we wanted
to broaden these use cases to include
over-the-top (OTT) service providers.
For example, smaller to mid-tier media
publishers require a more soup-tonuts approach, one that combines
both upstream and downstream
content management services and to
accommodate reasonable budgets.

With these types of publishers in mind,
we created MX:Apps, which allows
them to build, manage, publish and
maintain customised OTT applications.
When developing Media Xperience
Studio's initial proof of concept around
MX:Orchestration,
MX:Apps
and
MX:Vision, it was paramount for us to
show that our product suite of services
would be flexible, modular and
customisable. We also wanted to show
the ability to automate all-inclusive
workflows of complex tasks alongside
simpler ones. And, we needed to make
sure that customers could pick and
choose among the modular services
to provide a solution tailored to their
specific needs - that segways into my
next point.
3. Think In Terms Of Modularity
Of course, catering to broader
customer use cases calls for a more
flexible approach to structuring a
product ecosystem. We achieved this
by designing Media Xperience Studio
in a modular sense, rather than as one
all-inclusive platform. This approach

allows our customers to customise
their OTT solutions, utilising only
the services that fit their business
needs.
With
this
modularisation
comes the need for the MX
components to be API-driven.
Separate engineering teams work
on the various MX components,
so it's imperative they stay in
constant communication to ensure
the compatibility of our respective
APIs. For any integration of modular
products, clear, consistent and
frequent, communication between
separate and remote teams handling
each element is key.
4. Futureproof The Product
Technology is constantly evolving,
and product owners need to
account for this inevitable flux.
When
conceptualising
MX:Vision,
our aggregated intelligence and
analytics component, we immediately
recognised that shifting technologies
would impact its design and rollout.
As artificial intelligence and machine
learning advances, incorporating
learned analytics and interpreting
this data will become advantageous in
future proofing our system.
Ultimately, this ability to adapt,
whether it's to new customers,
business concerns or advancing
technologies, is key to the success of
any product design & development.

Want to learn more about Verizon Digital Media Services'
Content Intelligence System? Get in touch with us and watch our
webinar on demand to learn about Content Intelligence and the
Business of Streaming Video - www.verizondigitalmedia.com
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/webinar/content-intelligence https://www.verizondigitalmedia.com/webinar/content-intelligence
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - July 2017
