UIEtips Article: Taking the Netflix Experience to a New Level — An Interview with Sean Kane
If you had a chance to build your user experience design team from scratch, what would you do? Where would you focus your resources? What would you do first?
That’s exactly the situation that our friend and second-time Web App Summit presenter, Sean Kane, now finds himself in. Sean recently left Netflix to be the founder of a new company, GetListed, where he is constructing his UX team from the ground up.
At Netflix, Sean had resources most of us could only dream of: a top-notch team, a wealth of user data, and a management team that truly understands how UX can play an important role. Under his watch, the site grew 14-fold, so he knows what he’s doing.
Yet, as many of us know, there are challenges to being in a small organization with limited resources and only a sliver of real data about who the users will be. So, we’re watching closely as Sean brings his talents, skills, and experience to his new venture.
In this issue of UIEtips, Sean shares with us his initial efforts to bootstrapping his user experience team. He talks about how he’s building the GetListed team and his initial strategy for creating a world-class design, much like he did at Netflix.
Have you assessed your team’s capabilities? What techniques have you used? Are there skills you think are important that aren’t on the list? We’d love to hear from you. Leave your thoughts below.
[Sean will be updating us on his adventure at the Web App Summit 2008, in San Diego, CA, March 26-28. We’ve already started to fill up, but there’s a few seats left. You’ll want to register soon because this event will sell out.You can see the entire program, and find out how to get your free limited-edition red iPod nano by registering by December 18th, by visiting the the Summit site.]