Built mobile broadcasting from zero to one where creators can start a stream from their phone in under 30 seconds, with moderation on from the first frame.
Problem & Opportunity
The Challenge
Streaming meant owning a desktop rig
Going live required a PC, an encoder like OBS, and a stream key copied by hand
The mobile app was watch-only and a creator holding the fastest camera they own couldn't use it
Old and outdated
Setup can take up to 30+ minutes on desktop, spread across a browser, an encoder and a help article/tutorial
Existing flow doesn't flow well and design is outdated in today's standard
Business Impact
Creator supply capped by hardware, not by demand
Losing potential mobile creators coming onto the platform
Opportunity
Make the phone a first-class broadcast device for capture, stream and publish in-app
Cut time from 30+ minutes to under 30 seconds for new or existing creators to go live
Grow watch hours outside of desktop streams to extend content coverage across the day and directly feeding viewer retention
Leadership & Strategy
Stakeholder Alignment & Discovery
End-to-End Design Leadership
Owned the 0 → 1 project across the Double Diamond: discovery → definition → delivery → go live
Provided fortnightly updates to senior leadership to align on progress and trade-offs
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partnered closely with:
Video Infrastructure team and understand bitrate ladders, reconnect behaviour, latency budgets
Trust & Safety team about age gating, category rules, in-stream moderation
Creator Operations team on how we can onboarding partners and beta cohort recruitment
Mobile Engineering team on what the project pipeline could realistically be deliver
Design Practice & Team Enablement
Set up weekly critique to close the gap between iOS and Android patterns
Mentored 4 senior and staff level designers with hands-on project ownership and feedback loops
User-Centred Research
I ran user interviews with two groups: creators who streamed on desktop, and mobile-first creators publishing on other platforms. What came out of it was that the real barrier wasn't video quality and it was setup and confidence. I also did a competitive analysis of mobile broadcasting on Twitch, TikTok Live and YouTube, which surfaced three patterns worth borrowing: a persistent pre-flight card, category and title reuse between sessions, and a connection-health indicator visible enough that creators actually trust it mid-stream.
Iterative Prototyping & Testing
KICK Go Live Redesign
Improved visual and UX to modern mobile design standard
Prioritised speed, simplicity, and stability
Optimisation on stream quality and information display to the creators
Pre-flight, not setup
One screen: camera preview, title, category, language, tags and everything else defaults from the last stream
Repeat streams start in two taps
Honest connection health
Network quality shown in creator language: Stable / Weak / Reconnecting rather than raw bitrate
Automatic quality step-down with a plain explanation instead of a silent drop
Design System Contribution
For the MVP, I worked with our engineers and PM on a deliberate constraint: we'd use native iOS and Android components out of the box rather than building anything custom, so we could ship fast and hit our public release date.
Key UX Solutions
Enhancements Included
Research Setup
12 creators interviewed for 1 week, moderated remote sessions
Mixed tiers: first-time streamers through to partnered creators
Split across iOS and Android, and across gaming, IRL and Just Chatting categories
Results
SUS score: 90 / 100
Ability to go live within 30 seconds timeframe
99.5% crash-free rate during testing
Creators consistently described the connection-health indicator as the reason they trusted the app enough to stream away from home.
Outcomes
Impact
Creator impact
Anyone with a phone can broadcast with no rig, no stream key
IRL and travel content became viable on the platform
Moderation is available in the same gesture as going live
Business Metrics (Post-Launch Measures)
Stability: crash-free session rate held above the 99.5% release gate through every rollout stage; reconnect-related crashes fell ~60% after the reconnect-state redesign
Engagement: median session length 18m → 26m, and 41% of creators streamed again within 7 days
Adoption: mobile went from 0 to 34% of new streams in the first quarter
Watch hour: 2 millions within the first month
Supply: streaming hours outside peak desktop windows (mornings, commutes, travel) up 3×
Reflection & What’s Next
What I learned
Shipping 0 → 1 meant accepting that the first release carries risk and we made that call deliberately, with a plan to monitor feedback from both creators and viewers closely. We implement every feature with data tracking so we could catch issues early and ship quick fixes as they surfaced. Next up: filters, scenes, and the ability to co-stream with other creators.
Built mobile broadcasting from zero to one where creators can start a stream from their phone in under 30 seconds, with moderation on from the first frame.
Problem & Opportunity
The Challenge
Streaming meant owning a desktop rig
Going live required a PC, an encoder like OBS, and a stream key copied by hand
The mobile app was watch-only and a creator holding the fastest camera they own couldn't use it
Old and outdated
Setup can take up to 30+ minutes on desktop, spread across a browser, an encoder and a help article/tutorial
Existing flow doesn't flow well and design is outdated in today's standard
Business Impact
Creator supply capped by hardware, not by demand
Losing potential mobile creators coming onto the platform
Opportunity
Make the phone a first-class broadcast device for capture, stream and publish in-app
Cut time from 30+ minutes to under 30 seconds for new or existing creators to go live
Grow watch hours outside of desktop streams to extend content coverage across the day and directly feeding viewer retention
Leadership & Strategy
Stakeholder Alignment & Discovery
End-to-End Design Leadership
Owned the 0 → 1 project across the Double Diamond: discovery → definition → delivery → go live
Provided fortnightly updates to senior leadership to align on progress and trade-offs
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partnered closely with:
Video Infrastructure team and understand bitrate ladders, reconnect behaviour, latency budgets
Trust & Safety team about age gating, category rules, in-stream moderation
Creator Operations team on how we can onboarding partners and beta cohort recruitment
Mobile Engineering team on what the project pipeline could realistically be deliver
Design Practice & Team Enablement
Set up weekly critique to close the gap between iOS and Android patterns
Mentored 4 senior and staff level designers with hands-on project ownership and feedback loops
User-Centred Research
I ran user interviews with two groups: creators who streamed on desktop, and mobile-first creators publishing on other platforms. What came out of it was that the real barrier wasn't video quality and it was setup and confidence. I also did a competitive analysis of mobile broadcasting on Twitch, TikTok Live and YouTube, which surfaced three patterns worth borrowing: a persistent pre-flight card, category and title reuse between sessions, and a connection-health indicator visible enough that creators actually trust it mid-stream.
Iterative Prototyping & Testing
KICK Go Live Redesign
Improved visual and UX to modern mobile design standard
Prioritised speed, simplicity, and stability
Optimisation on stream quality and information display to the creators
Pre-flight, not setup
One screen: camera preview, title, category, language, tags and everything else defaults from the last stream
Repeat streams start in two taps
Honest connection health
Network quality shown in creator language: Stable / Weak / Reconnecting rather than raw bitrate
Automatic quality step-down with a plain explanation instead of a silent drop
Design System Contribution
For the MVP, I worked with our engineers and PM on a deliberate constraint: we'd use native iOS and Android components out of the box rather than building anything custom, so we could ship fast and hit our public release date.
Key UX Solutions
Enhancements Included
Research Setup
12 creators interviewed for 1 week, moderated remote sessions
Mixed tiers: first-time streamers through to partnered creators
Split across iOS and Android, and across gaming, IRL and Just Chatting categories
Results
SUS score: 90 / 100
Ability to go live within 30 seconds timeframe
99.5% crash-free rate during testing
Creators consistently described the connection-health indicator as the reason they trusted the app enough to stream away from home.
Outcomes
Impact
Creator impact
Anyone with a phone can broadcast with no rig, no stream key
IRL and travel content became viable on the platform
Moderation is available in the same gesture as going live
Business Metrics (Post-Launch Measures)
Stability: crash-free session rate held above the 99.5% release gate through every rollout stage; reconnect-related crashes fell ~60% after the reconnect-state redesign
Engagement: median session length 18m → 26m, and 41% of creators streamed again within 7 days
Adoption: mobile went from 0 to 34% of new streams in the first quarter
Watch hour: 2 millions within the first month
Supply: streaming hours outside peak desktop windows (mornings, commutes, travel) up 3×
Reflection & What’s Next
What I learned
Shipping 0 → 1 meant accepting that the first release carries risk and we made that call deliberately, with a plan to monitor feedback from both creators and viewers closely. We implement every feature with data tracking so we could catch issues early and ship quick fixes as they surfaced. Next up: filters, scenes, and the ability to co-stream with other creators.