02 / theScore live experiences
Designing the second screen
A portfolio of live, glanceable, and visual sports experiences that made theScore more useful while games were unfolding.
- Role
- Portfolio product leadership
- Scope
- Live Activities, Android Live Events, ScoreCast, video, community
01
Context
Sports fans already had a broadcast in front of them. The product opportunity was to add speed, context, and participation without competing for attention at the wrong moments.
02
Business problem
Traditional score updates were useful but increasingly undifferentiated. theScore needed a stronger live product thesis that could deepen engagement and create commercially valuable inventory at scale.
03
Strategic insight
The best second-screen experiences reduce effort. They surface the right information at the right moment, make live events easier to understand, and create natural reasons to return.
04
Key decisions
- Build a portfolio around glanceability, visualization, and live context.
- Use platform-native surfaces where they reduced friction.
- Create a coherent product system across sports and event states.
- Integrate monetization in ways that preserved the live experience.
05
Cross-functional leadership
I led and partnered across product, design, iOS and Android engineering, backend platforms, data, editorial, sales, ad operations, league and platform relationships, and executive leadership.
06
What shipped
- Live Activities on iOS
- Live Events on Android
- MLB and NFL ScoreCast
- Live play-by-play visualization
- Clips and video highlight experiences
07
Outcomes
08
Tradeoffs
Live products demand reliability and speed. The team had to balance platform constraints, sport-specific nuance, commercial goals, and the risk of overwhelming a fan during the moments that mattered most.
09
Lesson
A product portfolio compounds when every surface reinforces the same customer behavior and business thesis.
10
Team credit
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