Scaling Monetization and Retention Design at Peacock

Executive Summary

Led the strategic redesign of Peacock’s global monetization infrastructure, unifying four streaming platforms serving 100M+ users. By implementing a scalable, modular architecture and establishing new cross-functional design processes, we achieved an 18% increase in annual plan adoption and a 23% lift in tier upgrades, directly impacting revenue growth during a critical consolidation period.

Role: Sr. Director of Product Design

Role: Sr. Director of Product Design
Tenure: 2024 – Present
Team Scope: Monetization, Retention, and Merchandising across Global Streaming Platform (Peacock, Now TV, Sky Showtime, Showmax)
Subscriber Reach: 100M+ (Global Streaming Platform), ~40M (Peacock)

Business Context

I joined Peacock in May 2024, shortly after NBCUniversal consolidated all streaming products under its Global Streaming Platform (GSP). This consolidation presented both significant business opportunities and complex integration challenges. Peacock needed to rapidly evolve its monetization strategies to support diverse global markets while preparing for major content investments in the Olympics and NBA partnerships. My role was to lead design for monetization, retention, and merchandising across plan tiers, bundles, upsells, and churn reduction initiatives.

Strategic Challenges and Decision Framework

Challenges:

  • Newly formed team lacking shared rituals and prior collaboration
  • Disjointed legacy infrastructure for plan management
  • Growing need to support new pricing models, partnerships, and platform variants
  • Consolidation of four separate products into one global platform
  • Major upcoming initiatives with distinct business and UX needs: the Olympics, the NBA deal, and planned price increases

Decision Framework:

To prioritize our efforts, I worked with my product, data, and engineering counterparts on establishing a three-part decision framework:

  1. Revenue Impact: Focus first on initiatives that directly drive conversion, retention, or ARPU
  2. Platform Scalability: Prioritize foundational architecture that enables future flexibility
  3. User-Centered Value: Ensure all monetization experiences deliver clear value to subscribers

This framework allowed us to balance immediate business needs with long-term platform health while keeping user experience at the center of our decision-making.

Leadership Approach and Team Alignment

As a leader of a newly formed team embedded within Monetization, I focused on both team development and cross-functional alignment:

  • Team Integration: Established shared rituals, discovery practices, and KPIs for the design team, creating cohesion among designers who hadn’t previously worked together
  • Cross-Functional Partnership: Built collaborative relationships with Product, Engineering, and Business teams to ensure design had a seat at the strategy table
  • Executive Communication: Developed a consistent framework for communicating design decisions to senior leadership, connecting our work to business outcomes
  • Design Advocacy: Positioned design as a strategic partner by demonstrating how user-centered approaches could reduce churn and increase conversion

By focusing on these leadership aspects, I transformed design from a service function into a strategic driver of monetization outcomes.

Strategic Design Solutions

I led multiple high-impact initiatives spanning foundational architecture, product partnerships, and churn mitigation:

Platform Architecture Transformation

  • Future-State Evaluation: Conducted comprehensive audit of platform mechanics across four propositions to ensure readiness for new plan tiers, bundles, add-ons, trials, PPV, and grandfathering
  • Plan Picker Redesign: Rebuilt acquisition and upgrade journeys with side-by-side comparisons, personalized value messaging, and localized plan logic, creating modular templates that supported each proposition’s unique business model

Platform Architecture

Component Audit

Plan Picker Templates

User-Centered Monetization Systems

  • Crossgrade Experience: Designed seamless transitions between monthly and annual plans with logic for both immediate and deferred transitions based on user commitments
  • Essentials Tier: Launched a new low-cost plan integrated into change-plan and cancel flows to retain cost-sensitive users, informed by user research on price sensitivity
  • SVOD Bundle (Peacock + Apple TV+): Created Peacock’s first SVOD bundle experience, managing cross-platform activation and content visibility based on user needs and expectations


Crossgrading Logic


Content Sampling and Bundle Purchasing Logic

Strategic Initiatives for Business Growth

  • RSN (Regional Sports Network): Delivered DMA-based eligibility logic and UX to support regional sports access, including travel rights handling and blackout rules
  • NBA Readiness: Developed UX strategies for future-state packaging models (standalone, sports tier, or RSN integration)
  • Olympics Prep: Conducted UX audits to validate entitlement logic and platform readiness under expected peak loads

Innovation Leadership

  • AI Plan Assistant: Independently explored how conversational AI could simplify plan selection for users. Built a proof of concept using voice-based AI to guide users through plan options based on their needs and preferences, generating cross-functional interest in AI as both a commerce and accessibility tool (demo)

Measurable Business Impact

  • Scalable monetization infrastructure deployed across four global propositions
  • Modular churn-prevention flows standardized across markets
  • Launched first partner SVOD bundle with Apple TV+
  • Plan Picker redesigned to scale across unique business models and geographies, resulting in an 18% increase in annual plan adoption and a 23% lift in tier upgrades through targeted merchandising and personalization experiments
  • Embedded personalization and merchandising into change-plan and upgrade flows
  • Instilled shared rituals, discovery practices, and KPIs in a newly formed team

Strategic Insights & Future Vision

Designing for a platform that spans global markets, device constraints, and distinct commercial models requires more than templates; it requires structural foresight. At Peacock, we weren’t just designing plan pages; we were defining how the business adapts to change.

This work established a foundation for future monetization strategies that will enable:

  • Personalized pricing and offer strategies based on viewing behavior and subscription history
  • Dynamic bundling capabilities to support new content partnerships and acquisition channels
  • AI-enhanced customer journeys that reduce friction in monetization flows

By transforming monetization from feature-based thinking to systems-based architecture, we’ve positioned Peacock to scale its business model alongside its growing content offerings and subscriber base.