How Consumers Influence Streaming Tech Development
How much does consumer feedback impact streaming app and platform innovation and evolution? Matthew Durgin, Sr. Director, North American Innovation and Development Team, LG, Rema Morgan-Aluko, Vice President, Software Engineering, Platform, Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes, and Greg Barnard, Director, Content Acquisition, Vizio discuss this topic in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2023.
Durgin emphasizes that LG works diligently to involve customers in its product developments. “When it comes to our product development, our product planning team puts people from the product planning team in Korea in every market to conduct field testing as we develop innovations,” he says. “We get a ton of comments on our website and a ton of reach outs [via] customer service calls. That's all getting input into the system.” He notes that LG is known for building their brand around innovation. “The company is constantly trying to out-innovate the previous year’s innovations, both from a software perspective and a hardware perspective,” he says. “It's in the DNA of the company. We always want to provide more value to the consumer, but it helps when you have the consumer perspective in mind going into answering that question.”
Morgan-Aluko also agrees that customer input is essential to the success of new tech developments. “From an engineering perspective, we work for the consumer, and the consumer is always a partner,” she says. “When building new technologies, we're doing AB testing constantly, putting different feature sets or experiences or user flows in front of these consumers and seeing which one sticks, which one gets them to where they need to go quickly and efficiently and gets them what they want. And so we're constantly doing that. It's one of those things that is a must.”
Barnard also notes that the rollout timing for new technologies is also an essential factor to consider. “We've seen a lot of technology that comes out too early,” he says. “People aren't ready. It's not a need. [So] it's seeing what we do now and how to improve or enhance it maybe just a little bit or something that would be truly enhanced by being on the biggest screen in the house. And I know that we've looked at many things here, really cool ideas, but it just didn't make sense right now. And I think that's key as well.”
Morgan-Aluko concurs with Barnard’s points. “What makes sense on a TV, a mobile device, on the desktop, on the computer, all of that…it matters for sure.”
Learn more about streaming tech consumer research at Streaming Media East 2023.
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