The Sr. Product Owner of Radio at Rogers came to me with an idea for an all-in-one audio streaming app. I designed a fully interactive prototype, giving stakeholders a hands-on experience of the app’s potential then shortly after, the project was approved, and the MVP mobile app launched within 7 months of the project start date.

A new radio product

Part-way through 2023, the Senior Product Owner of Radio at Rogers Sports & Media, came to me with an idea for an all-in-one audio streaming app, combining live radio, podcasts, and the like. They had been verbally pitching this concept to the VP of Radio for nearly two years, even proposing it during their interview for the role.

Realizing that a visual approach would be more persuasive, I designed a fully interactive Figma prototype and a carefully crafted PowerPoint presentation, giving stakeholders a hands-on experience and explanation of the new app’s potential. Shortly after, the project was green-lit, and the MVP mobile app successfully launched within seven months of the project start date.

This is where things got super interesting. Although I had been through the majority of a project (product launch) life cycle for news and TV at Rogers, I had the rare opportunity to be a part of the very beginning—where the idea was still in verbal format, still being conceptualized, and then eventually revised and formed into something that had the potential of being tangible. All very exciting!

A few screen mockups for the Seekr mobile app

There were many instances where roles and job titles were missing from the day-to-day operations due to budget constraints. I found it easier and less energy-consuming to step in and fill some of those gaps, using the opportunity to learn about how things were built in order to make better-informed product decisions. From previous experiences, I had seen successful Spike and Extreme Engineering meetings lead to clear solutions rapidly, and wanted to emulate the best aspects of those approaches. Instead of waiting for others to take issues seriously, I would help rally the team together to problem solve on the spot, while taking what I learnt to the stakeholders to be able to articulate clearly why something had to be done a certain way.

You sound like an engineer.

Vitaliy Kondratiev*, Lead Mobile Developer on Seekr, ThoughtWorks

*Reference available upon request

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Seekr’s MVP app launched beyond our expectations with every feature we asked for. Everything at Rogers takes forever (to build).

Paul Kaye, VP of Radio, Rogers Sports & Media

Seekr was such a revolutionary product that even caused some controversy between teams , but at the end of the day, it was the most thrilling, fast-paced app build of my life, launching within seven months of project start date, which was unheard of at the company, and I am blessed to have helped get the app to where it is today.