Bleacher Report · North-Star Vision

NORTHSTAR

I created a Northstar vision for the Bleacher Report app, exploring ways to support a paradigm shift from articles and scores into video and conversation.

01 — The exercise

Not a spec. A provocation.

This wasn't product work in the usual sense. No backlog, no requirements, no problem to solve by Friday. Bleacher Report wanted to rebuild the app around video, and I was asked to help everyone picture what that could feel like.

So I made things to react to. Three prototypes, each a swing at the same idea from a different height. A north star isn't there to be right. It gives a room something to point at and argue about.

My reframe held across all three. Video is the nexus. Live games, highlights, reactions, the people watching with you.

02 — Swing one

Start loud.

The first one was about vibes. Before anyone weighs feasibility, they need to feel how far this could go. So I went brand-forward and fast. Expressive design, scrappy community feel, bold color, big motion, video and social pushed right to the front.

It's raw and fun, and that's the point. The job here was energy, not polish.

Live games and highlights up top. A feed that moves. Reactions built in, not bolted on.

03 — Swing two

Make leadership feel it.

The loud cut did its job, so I made a grounded one. Less art piece, more product. This was the version I could put in front of product leadership to get them excited about how it might actually feel in their hands.

Dynamic, shareable video. Real communities around it. Close enough to true that people started asking when they could have it.

A concept trailer, cut to sell the feeling before the feature list.

04 — Swing three

Build the buy-in.

The last one I made with product and business leadership in the room, not just for them. By then we weren't selling the idea anymore. We were pinning down what it should be.

A full, navigable prototype of the app end to end. Live scores, live video, team spaces, the social layer, all connected. This is the one people kept opening.

Four minutes, start to finish. It's the long one, and it's worth the watch. Hit play.

05 — Where it went

The vision that became the plan.

Here's the part that matters. That last prototype became the foundation for the app the team went on to build. A speculative exercise ended up steering the real thing.

That's what these are for. Not a deck about the future. Something real enough that the next step felt obvious to everyone in the room.

Role: Design direction and prototyping. I set the framing and made the prototypes, from the first loud swing to the full clickable vision.
Context: An internal north-star exercise at Bleacher Report to reimagine the app around video, made to align design, product, and business leadership.
Outcome: The final prototype became the foundation for the redesigned app.