Digital Fan Experience
Crafting the ultimate digital fan experience for one of the most passionate fandoms.
Delivering a fan experience die-hard potterheads are proud of.
Wizarding World was a new joint venture established in 2018 as an umbrella brand for the Harry Potter franchise, to include Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and any other future spinoffs.
Along with the incredibly talented Huge team in NYC, London and Medellín, I defined, built and delivered the Wizarding World experience across web and mobile app.
As a brand new enterprise, our clients at Wizarding World had come from publishing and film, so my role as Senior Product Manager also included establishing product-first operations for the new organization, as well as executive training and change management.
In addition to maintaining alignment with high-level Warner Bros and Pottermore executives, managing the overarching product roadmap and training our client, I also ran 2 of our 3 scrum teams, appropriately named Scrumbledore 🧙🏻♂️, Huddlepuff 🦡 and Azkanban 🪄.
Key releases and milestones.
I originally joined the Wizarding World project as coverage for a fellow PM's leave for 5 weeks. I stayed on the account for 18 months, until we handed it off to the new Wizarding World joined venture.
In those 18 months, several key milestones and flagship releases were hit.
Wizarding World Digital launch
The launch of WizardingWorld.com and mobile apps included original and new content in an immersive experience. The new website replaced the fan-favorite Pottermore.
The app included a robust back-end that supported a rich content-first experience that included games, quizzes and interactive articles.
Pottermore account integration and premium Gold account
In an effort to leverage existing fan experiences, the Wizarding World platform allowed users to transfer their previous account from Pottermore onto Wizarding World.
Users were also given the opportunity to sign up for a premium GOLD membership, which provided them with exclusive access to content and physical merchandise.
Patronus ceremony
The Patronus ceremony was an experience that replicated the cannon process of discovering which animal represents your magical guardian.
The digital experience was already present on Pottermore, and I and my team were responsible for integrating it into the new Wizarding World digital experience.
Sorting Hat VR experience
The sorting ceremony offered an immersive experience for users to discover their Hogwarts House. Based on algorithm developed by J.K. Rowling herself, the app leveraged virtual reality to create a truly mesmerizing experience.
The VR experience was developed by a partner team, and I was responsible for integrating it seamlessly within our app and ingesting the resulting House which would further customize the content the users were exposed to on the app.
Customized physical journal fulfillment
Gold users were granted a physical journal based on their Wizarding World traits, such as Hogwarts House, patronus and chosen pet.
As producer manager of the app, I was responsible for implementing the order journey which included specific requirements for users under the age of 13; as well as passing on user's traits to Wonderbly, the company responsible for printing and shipping the journals.
Unlocking premium content through physical experiences
Sharp-eyed users could find a small key on their discover tab. Said key would allow them to unlock exclusive content, either through entering special codes or scanning QR codes.
These alpha-numeric and QR codes were provided in their physical journals or other marketing materials, thus integrating the digital app experience with physical real-world properties.
Driving alignment across multiple Hogwarts Houses in-house and vendor teams.
In addition to running scrum teams Scrumbledore, Huddlepuff and Azkanban, I also oversaw the holistic company roadmap, including product launches and operations needed to support the digital product.
I led daily, weekly and month meetings across the development teams, executives, and other ops teams (such as Marketing, Customer and Legal) to ensure alignment across all teams.
For features developed by my scrum teams, I also led requirements gathering sessions, creative and technical briefs, AI and UX flows, ticket writing and development backlog to ensure delivery of overarching strategy.
