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SOCIAL GAMEPLAY
Inception: Dec 2018
Role: Design Lead (2018-2023)
Responsibilities: Design and Product Strategy, Design Delivery, Indepth Formative and Summative Research
The following project has been modified and reduced in detail to honour the NDA and Confidentiality agreement with Sporta Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Opportunity
Dream11, a leading Indian fantasy sports platform, boasts a massive user base of over 22 million users, capturing approximately 80% of the Indian market.
Recognizing the intensifying competition in the fantasy sports industry, Dream11 sought to capitalize on the social aspect of fantasy sports before IPL2019.
To achieve this, the platform aimed to develop an in-app social network.
This strategic move was driven by the desire to
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harness network effects
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foster a stronger user community and
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building a competitive advantage.
Key objectives
Approach
Dream11 integrated social features to enhance user interaction, engagement, and collaboration. Players can connect with fellow enthusiasts, join leagues, share strategies, and engage in friendly competition.
The approach can be divided in 2 phases.
Phase 1
POC, Validate and Learn
Phase 2
Assess, Re-Strategise and Evolve
Phase 1
POC and MVP Launch:
Roll out a series of POC and MVP features to establish a foundational ecosystem
Assess for Product-Market Fit:
Assess launched features to ensure they meet user expectations and needs.
Continuous User Research: Continuously research user behavior to identify experience gaps and guide feature development.
Identified and outlined the foundational pillars and components essential for a POC to gauge product-market fit, through initial research.
From Jan 2019, the fundamental components for the social network were developed over the next 8-10 months, this included Feed, Network Model, Winners (Hall of Fame), and Chat.
Feed
During IPL 2019, introduced
- Network Model
- User Generated Feed
This feed evolved from just user generated content to official pages where users could:
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Share Contests
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ShareTeams
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Share Images
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Share External Links
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Discuss, Comment and React
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Interact with Polls and Quizzes
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Watch Videos/Highlights and content
For Governance and Safety following were slowly introduced:
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Content moderation and governance - user and system generated
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Ability to block and report profiles
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Spam control and cool-off period
Feed was eventually deprecated in 2022 due to rise in compliance and governance concerns, changes in policy and introduction of Intermediary Guidelines.
Viewing/adding comments on a post
Feed page and native team component shared on Feed
Winners
(Hall of Fame)
This was aimed to build trust on the platform by reinforcing that all winners are real individuals.
It includes showcasing:
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winners of all mega contests across all matches
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ability to filter by series
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Winners and testimonials by states
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users' winning amount
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winning teams
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profiles with more info
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winners' stories and testimonials
Impact:
Winners has spun out as a separate feature, showing reduction in trust related VOC and high platform retention of feature users.
Winners or Hall of Fame section
Crorepati club, showcasing series winners from different states
Chat - MVP
Many users participate in private contests and discussions with existing circles.
The chat feature aimed to facilitate fantasy sports related conversations and foster creation of communities.
The MVP included essential functions:
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Group creation through shared links
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Sending messages, images, and emojis
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Sharing links
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Sending private contest links
Minimal governance was implemented, including:
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Image and text moderation
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Message reporting functionality
Chat - Group list and unread message counts
MVP chat window with basic features and texting ability
Phase 2
Post Phase 1 we collated all learnings from data and research data and identified gaps in our knowledge and assessed what worked and did not from our initial offerings.
Phase 2 consisted of the following:
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Contextual and behavioural research; gaming, fantasy and social networking
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Identify User Problems, Needs and Realign Business Goals
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Prioritisation of User Problems and Business Goals
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Refine Vision and Strategy
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Prepare Roadmap
Understand and Map Behaviour, Drivers and Archetypes
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Conducted contextual interviews on online gaming, social networking, and real-life sports activities.
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Identified key areas and drivers within the fantasy sports context.
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Leveraged existing ecosystem for insights.
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Mapped social behaviors and intentions.
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Developed archetypes related to fantasy sports.
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Enhanced understanding and strategic planning.
Product Gaps, Pain Points & Prioritisation
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Understood requirements and analyzed current capabilities.
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Identified key areas and mapped user pain points along with product gaps.
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Quantified issues and prioritized them.
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Brainstormed solutions.
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Crafted a well-defined product roadmap to address challenges effectively
Key Learnings
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Social gaming on fantasy sports differs from social networking.
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Standalone features may not yield optimal results; integration is key.
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Robust solutions needed for spam control, moderation, and privacy.
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Differentiate chat/texting from platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp.
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Ensure easy discovery of potential network.
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Prioritize gameplay-oriented constructs over content and discussions.
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Identification distinct social archetypes for fantasy sports:
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Competitive gamer
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Collaborative Gamer
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Anonymous Gamer
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Collaborative Influencer
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Monetising Influencer
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All the above learnings led to a pivot
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Shifted vision and strategy towards Social Gameplay from Social Network.
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Adopted MLP (Minimum Loveable Product) strategy over POC and MVP approaches.
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Prioritized experience over task completion.
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Introduced content-heavy screens necessitating changes in design language and font family across the app.
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Integrated Social Gameplay into the core flow of the Dream11 app.
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Ensured seamless integration into the overall user experience, avoiding standalone products/offers.
Revised Vision and Strategy
Bring people together and enhance the fantasy gaming experience
A. Building blocks or key areas of engagement
B. The Foundation: Fantasy gameplay and trust at the core
Social Gameplay Landscape
Know and Find People:
Profile, User Search and Phonebook Sync
Profile Feature:
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Establishes a gaming identity and displays self and comparative stats, playing behavior on 3rd person profiles.
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Facilitates network creation and trust-building through comprehensive profiles, verification tags, and display pictures.
User Search and Phonebook Functionalities:
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Improve network discovery and player identification across the Dream11 universe.
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Enable finding and connecting with friends and strangers.
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Empower users to create groups, issue direct challenges, and refer seamlessly.
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Suggest people to connect with based on played contests or similar interests.
Impact:
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Profile visits on the leaderboard and viewing match stats reduced trust and bot-related queries.
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Phonebook sync increases referrals and new groups during high-impact series like IPL and WC.
Phonebook sync nudge on Chat
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1st person Profile with Stats and Network
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3rd Person profiles with comparative stats
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User search and phonebook sync
Challenges and Contests' Creation
At the core of Dream11 gameplay are contests, with the integration of private contests and challenges enriching social gameplay:
Direct Challenges:
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Send Head to Head Challenges directly from DMs and Profiles.
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Send Challenges within Groups.
Private Contests:
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Create and share Private Contests externally and within Groups, Phonebook Contacts, and DMs.
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Easily rematch against players from completed contests.
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View all private contests across a match.
Impact:
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Easier access to Challenges and Private Contests boosted their share
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enhanced retention and engagement, especially during IPL and WC tours.
Creation and sharing of private contest after selecting a match
Rematch functionality after a completed contest
Network Tracking at Match/Contest Level
Network Integration in Gameplay:
Before the match starts:
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Utilize for social proofing to join matches and contests.
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View who is playing which match and contest.
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Send challenges directly to the network.
During live and completed matches:
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Check all teams within the network at match level.
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Access network-level leaderboard for performance assessment.
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Review and compare teams for strategy learning.
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Apply individual contest level filter on leaderboard for performance comparison.
Impact:
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Network tracking and social proofing lead to significant uplift in contests joining.
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Network filter on match and leaderboard during matches has one of the highest adoption rates among non-gameplay features.
Network Tracking and Social Proof
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At Contest Level (Before match start)
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At Match Level (Live/Completed Match)
Network Tracking/Filter on Contest leaderboard (Live/completed contest)
Network Tracking and Social Proof at Match Level (Before match has started)
This feature was deprecated due to its lower impact compared to other information on match cards.
Chat 2.0: Groups/DM
Revamped Chat Features:
Messaging Capabilities:
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Text, links, images, GIFs powered by Gify, reactions, and emojis.
Group Support:
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Supports both high-affinity and large broadcast groups.
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System moderation and user abuse reporting enhance safety.
Integrated Gameplay Features:
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Sending and joining challenges directly from chat.
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Native team sharing with copy and edit capabilities.
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Check and join contests shared in chat.
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View all contests shared in Group/DM.
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Group leaderboard with historical matchup data.
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Seamless transition between chat and contest leaderboard.
Success and Impact:
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Introduction of large and broadcast groups highly successful.
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Retention and adoption during first three IPLs increased by 2-3X.
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Group leaderboard demonstrates high retention during tier1 supply.
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Surveys indicate chat+challenges as a unique offering, serving as a competitive advantage.
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Team Share led to inception of MarketPlace/Guru Teams, a full-fledged product area.
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Chat list with leaderboard and H2H count
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Group and DMs
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Group Leaderboard and Prize Pool
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H2H info inside DM
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Contest invites before match starts
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Grop/DM entry for mapped contest
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Access of full chat list from contest leaderboard
The native team share feature on chat allows users to discuss and easily copy teams with edits, eliminating the need for screenshots and app-switching.
Privacy, Moderation and Safety Measures
Design and product approach prioritized:
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Easy access to contextual privacy controls.
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Implementation of opt-in/opt-out mechanisms for critical information.
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Regular provision of anti-hacking information with checks.
Moderation capabilities -
System level:
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API checks on all shared texts, images, including DPs.
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Implementation of a tiered system to block users after repeated offenses.
Policy Level:
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Adherence to GOI norms with regular updates.
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Provision of a redressal officer and a manual moderation panel.
User level:
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Empowerment for users to block others.
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Capability to flag/report messages and images.
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Ability to remove and block people from groups.
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Report and block Profiles
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Report messages in a Group/DM
My Info and Settings with privacy settings available from profile and hamburger menu.
Summary: Achievements and Timeline
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Achieved 2X to 3X Year-on-Year adoption and retention increase over three consecutive IPL seasons.
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Social gameplay users showed superior retention compared to non-social users.
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Integrated social features into core gameplay flows, resulting in 40% of app screens being social by 2023.
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Launch of revamped profiles and winners section reduced trust-related queries and social media posts.
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Introduction of team share and copy functionality led to Marketplace creation for enhanced collaboration.
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Dream11 Chat boasts large groups with over 10,000 members actively sharing 500 contests daily, showcasing robust community engagement.
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