Post Play · North Star
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North Star · Post Play
Post Play
Making the end of a movie feel human.
Streaming Product Design
Lucas Gruber & Rebecca Moran
Agenda

Today's discussion

01 Recap of how we've been working and what we've done
02 JAM recap — ideas and tenets
03 New concepts that embody the tenets
04 PTPR plan

How our squad has been working

1We have been operating in service of the Watch Hours OKR and we're iterating and learning quickly.
2Design, Prod, Eng, and data leads meet regularly to discuss prioritizing experiments that we've had on backlog for months.
3Dedicated eng resources from each platform, data analysts, and our core leads meet daily to track progress, share demos, share designs, and ready the experiments.
Our remit

Squad Objective: Continuous Playback

We want to keep users in player. A seamless pathway to your next watch

Live Content
Episodic Content
Movies
Live Content
Episodic Content
Movies
Switching between multiple games on at the same time
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The event I was watching ended, what other events are on now?
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Live Content
Episodic Content
Movies
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Live Content
Episodic Content
Movies
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This is the area we're most excited about iterating on with you in this session.
Progress

What we've accomplished

✓Getting user immediately to the next episode
✓Lean-back autoplay — keep the TV on and play the next thing without making a decision
✓Options for the user who is ready to actively decide
✓Presenting those options sooner, during credits

We've solved the original problem of dead end in player, no way to continue watching. We were essentially forcing users back to the home screen which caused decision paralysis and friction to next watch — causing a lot of users to exit the app.

What we've done

Experiments — last 6 months

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
UNL Autoplay Playback
Autoplay Non-Seq Roku
UNL v2 BBD
Autoplay Non-Seq BBD, Web, ATV+
Autoplay Non-Seq Mobile
Auto Pivot Tray Web
UNL v2 Holdback Roku, ATV, BBD+
Hulu On/Off NCP
Shorter Autoplay NCP, Mobile, Web+
Shorter Autoplay TVOS, NCP, Mobile
UNL v2 Re-run Roku, ATV, BBD+
UNL v2 TVOS, NCP
Pivot Tray BBD, Roku
Mobile UNLV2 Android, Apple
Chromecast UNLV2 Mobile
Pivot Tray BBD, Roku
UNLV2 Android, Fire, CC
UNL v2 Mobile, Web
A/B/C/D Holdback Launch + Holdback 18 experiments · All complete
In the pipeline

Planned: Next 3 months

01
VOD Persistent Pivot Tray
VOD Persistent Pivot Tray
02
Live Post Play
Live Post Play
03
Frictionless Binge
Frictionless Binge
Where we want guidance
04
ViBE in Post Play — maybe
We want eng to start investigating this in the next few weeks to understand feasibility and technical constraints.
Considerations
Eng investigation starting soon
PTPR on 9/17

But we want to make some big bets going forward.

For end of movie and series

Post Play Jam

Let's start with a recap of our recent Post Play Jam

Right now

The movie ends. We shove the next thing at you.

Credits roll. A timer starts. Posters slide in. A few seconds later, something new just plays, ready or not.

The catch

It kind of works.
And people kind of hate it.

Sure, auto-play keeps people watching a little longer. But most say they don't even want it on. We're winning tonight, and bugging everyone while we do it.

The big idea

Stop shoving.
Start landing.

The end of a movie shouldn't feel like a push. It should feel like a good goodbye, the kind that makes you want to come back.

Auto-play wins tonight. A good ending wins next week.

01
From App Exit to App Open — Be The Connective Tissue
Success isn't about extending a watch session it's about making it easier to jump back in even after a week away
02
The Right Things at the Right Time
Smart recommendations based on your past watch behavior and many other signals. Completely personalized to you.
03
No Pressure. No Stress
We should support the lean back user without shoving new things in front of you. Should be a pleasant experience without feeling rushed.
Who we're solving for

Post Play Personas

The Lean-Back Drifter
"I don't want to decide. Just keep something good playing — I'm half asleep."
Behavior: Passive viewing. TV is on while winding down. Rarely holding the remote.
Needs: Autoplay that actually reads the room. No jarring tonal shifts. Right length for the time of night.
Decision energy
The Intentional Chooser
"I just finished that. Now I want to browse and pick what's next — give me good options."
Behavior: Active decider. Browses deliberately. Reads synopses. Might spend 10+ min choosing.
Needs: Rich options, clear categories. "More like this" vs "something different." Not a single autoplay guess.
Decision energy
The Curious Lingerer
"Wait, what just happened? Who was that actor? I need to process this before moving on."
Behavior: Grabs phone after credits. Googles the ending. Reads Reddit. Watches behind-the-scenes.
Needs: Debrief content, trivia, cast info. Space to sit with the film before being pushed somewhere else.
Decision energy
The Done-for-Tonight
"That was great. I'm good. Help me stop without guilt — and maybe save something for tomorrow."
Behavior: It's 11pm. Finished a movie. Doesn't want more. Currently has no graceful exit.
Needs: A clean stop. Permission to leave. Maybe a bookmark for tomorrow. Not a guilt-trip countdown.
Decision energy
User journeys

Critical user journeys

1
I'm not feeling this and want to see other options
I want to browse other options quickly from player — applies to live events too.
2
I finished an episode. I want the next, immediately
I completed an episode and I want to get into the next episode right away.
today's Focus
3
I completed a movie or series, now what?
This journey has 4 variations:
👋
Done for the night
I'm good — let me stop cleanly.
▶️
Just play something
I'm leaning back — don't make me decide.
🔍
Choose something else
I want to browse and pick my next watch.
🧐
Curious lingerer
I want to explore extras, cast, or related content.
The directions

Four directions that embody our tenets

01The Pivot4 distinct choices
02The White Glove ServiceHyper personalization
03The NightcapHelp me come back
04The CompanionA guiding voice
01
The Pivot
4 distinct choices.
01
The Pivot
4 distinct choices.
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02
The White Glove Service
Hyper personalization.
02
The White Glove Service
Hyper personalization.
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03
The Nightcap
Help me come back.
03
The Nightcap
Help me come back.
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"I don't stop when I'm finished. I stop when I'm in the middle to be sure I go on the following day."
— Ernest Hemingway
04
The Companion
A guiding voice.
04
The Companion
A guiding voice.
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Next steps

Okay, what's next?

While we are excited about these big ideas, we're not yet aligned across product, eng, and design. The runway is long — lots of due diligence and research to be done across new engineering teams we haven't worked with.
But we think it's still valuable to bring 1 or a few to PTPR.
We also think it would be great to bring our Full Screen Immersive Pivot Tray — ViBE concept as a next experiment. Our squad is set up to execute on it now, and it provides learnings in the short term while setting us up for some of our big ideas long term with ViBE capabilities.
We've modified it to feel less stressful with less pressure on autoplay.
PTPR Share Out · Sept 17
Playback Speed
Episode picker in player
Cast member picker in player
Immersive Pivot Tray (ViBE enhancement)
A few of the big ideas