Prime Video VR
Overview
I led a horizontal content, product, and engineering team to create a new VR experience for Amazon Prime Video. In addition to building a whole new app, I was responsible for integrating our app with the numerous internal teams and systems, creating or identifying new VR content, and launching the app worldwide.
The Situation
VR was becoming all the rage in Hollywood and had massive buzz in the general gaming and media space. Our task was to extend the reach of Prime Video into this burgeoning medium of VR, future-proofing Amazon's entertainment arm.
The Work
As the leader of the VR team, I built a small team of engineers and a designer, identified and onboarded a 3P dev house to build the 3D elements. In what was unheard of for Prime Video, we built and shipped a new client with only 5 people, by building our own thin client model, giving us maximum flexibility and instant OTA updates. My work involved prioritization of features, content, and development, as well as working with 3P studios to develop their titles. I oversaw everything from pitching and wireframes to architecture, to coordination with partner teams, to user testing, to coordinating the WW launch. Then, once live, analayzing and re-rooling based on customer performance.
But it wasn't just product, I also oversaw the sourcing, licensing, contracting and development of VR-native content; 360 videos and interactive narrative and game experiences.
The Product
The product itself had several novel features: a 3D city browse experience that responds to time of day, an immerssive theater experience with the ability to size and place a screen for maximum customer comfort, light weight voice-driven search to bypass the frustrating typing experience, the ability to download titles to your device for offline viewing, and a first time user experience that orients customers.
The Results
When we launched, we quickly amassed 5 star reviews, with customers spending signifficant time in our app, and being the leading app on the platform in a number of terretories, and opened business opportunities in places Amazon had been trying to gain partnerships for years.