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Player Modernization & Design Initiative

PROJECT SUMMARY

A design-driven initiative to modernize Panopto’s embedded player for SK Group, delivering prioritized UX updates that aligned with enterprise expectations and secured renewal

SK Group, a global technology leader in Korea, is Panopto APAC’s largest enterprise customer, representing ~9% of APAC revenue. Their contract was at risk due to dissatisfaction with Panopto’s outdated embedded player design, lack of modern features and poor mobile support. To protect this contract, a customer-specific design update project was initiated and led, involving direct collaboration with U.S. Product and Development teams.

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Within five months, 2 out of 3 customer-validated feature requests were delivered, while the third was deferred due to resource constraints. This prioritization was critical in securing SK’s renewal and increasing adoption.

TIMELINE

Mar – Aug 2023 

TOOLS

Figma, MS Office, Salesforce, Jira, Confluence, Figma, Google Workspace

TEAM

Myself, HQ Product & Dev Teams

MY ROLE

Project Lead – user research, concept development, validation, cross-regional coordination, customer communication

WHAT THIS PROJECT DEMONSTRATES

  • Cross-regional collaboration to address design challenges through user-centered methods.

  • Translation of customer pain points and bottleneck items into actionable product updates.

  • Strategic prioritization under resource constraints while preserving renewal confidence.

  • Bridging cultural, linguistic, and time-zone gaps between SK and Panopto U.S. teams.

DESIGN GOAL

A new design process and perspective were required to meet the needs of a new client type.

Panopto’s focus on educational organizations—lecture capture, note-taking, and archiving—meant fewer modern updates on mobile devices compared to competitors. For enterprise customers like SK Group, ease of consumption, mobile usability, and modern playback controls on mobile devices were essential, making the mobile video player the main barrier to adoption.

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The embedded video player became the central barrier to adoption. After early discussions, SK identified three critical, not optional, feature requests:

  1. Manual video quality control (resolution/bitrate toggle)

  2. Responsive caption font size to screen demension

  3. Progress bar with thumbnail previews (Smart Seek)

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The core challenge was determining which feature was truly renewal-blocking, while balancing customer expectations against limited development resources. Delivering the most impactful features within a tight timeline became the guiding strategy.

🎯 Manual video quality control 

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PROBLEM: The only available options are adding captions or changing the playback speed. There is no option to select video quality or resolution, as it is automatically determined by the viewer’s network bandwidth.

REQUEST: Add a button for users to manually adjust the quality of the video.

RATIONALE: Unlike users from educational institutions, corporate employees and viewers consumed videos on their mobile devices. High resolution meant heavy mobile data consumption, leading to frequent complaints and reduced video access.

🎯 Scaled caption font size to screen demension

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PROBLEM: On mobile devices, caption size remained static as on desktop, often blocking large portions of the video and severely disrupting playback.

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REQUEST: Make caption size responsive and proportional to the screen so it does not interfere with the viewing experience.

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RATIONALE: Many videos were offered in multiple languages, requiring subtitles for comprehension. However, oversized captions blocked much of the visual content, leading to poor user experience and significantly reduced consumption of translated videos.

🎯 Progress bar with thumbnail previews 

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PROBLEM: The Panopto player lacked Smart Seek thumbnail previews, forcing users to scrub blindly without visual feedback. This made navigation cumbersome and reduced usability compared to modern competitors.

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REQUEST: Introduce a Smart Seek progress bar with thumbnail previews during scrubbing to improve ease of navigation.

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RATIONALE: Thumbnail previews allow viewers to quickly locate desired sections, improving efficiency and user satisfaction. For enterprise users, especially in long-form content, this functionality is considered a standard expectation and directly impacts adoption.

WHY THESE FUNCTIONS MATTERED

  • Closed the competitive gap with platforms like Vimeo, YouTube, and Netflix, which SK viewers were already accustomed to.

  • Gave users greater control and flexibility in video consumption, particularly on mobile.

  • Reassured executives who were actively evaluating alternative platforms.

  • Demonstrated responsiveness to enterprise-level expectations under time pressure.

  • Restored trust by showing that feedback would be acted upon strategically, not ignored.

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RESEARCH & VALIDATION

Through meetings with SK’s video management team, executives, and end users, all three features were initially framed as critical.

To validate and prioritize, a structured survey was designed and distributed across three stakeholder groups:

  • 3 Executives – Budget approval and platform strategy.

  • 9 Video Platform Management Team – Supervisors, developers, and project managers.

  • 50 End Users – the most engaged users (by viewing hours) over the last six months, based on analytics.

Survey Key Findings (68% response rate):

  • 70% dissatisfaction with the embedded player.

  • 80% rated Panopto outdated compared to Vimeo/YouTube/Netflix.

  • Feature priority rankings:

    • Quality Control → 45%

    • Caption Flexibility → 35%

    • Smart Seek → 20% (end users did not rank this as mission critical)

Why This Validation Was Critical

  • Provided data-driven justification to allocate resources.

  • Narrowed the scope to the two features most impactful for day-to-day use.
    Confirmed that the third feature (Smart Seek) was primarily executive-driven and less critical for the wider user base.

  • Gave the Panopto leadership evidence that renewal depended on addressing playback usability immediately, rather than waiting for a broader roadmap update scheduled 10 months later.

  • Highlighted the gap in Panopto’s enterprise offering, pushing leadership to reconsider assumptions shaped by education-focused customers.

INTERNAL ALIGNMENT
 

To ensure delivery, 13 weekly product alignment meetings were organized and facilitated between March and July for internal progress check:

Weeks 1-2: Request Alignment & Project Scoping

Internal: Shared the requests with U.S. teams, checked for overlap with existing projects

External: Customer validation via survey

Week 3: Validation &

Feature Prioritization

Presented survey results and confirmed which features were risking contract continuity

Weeks 4-7: Progress Monitoring and Resource Planning

Regular progress checks, ensuring feasibility and resource allocation

Weeks 8-10: Prototype Validation & Feasibility Checks

Internal: Confirmed working features were actionable, validated early prototypes

External: Mid check-in with customer

Week 11-13: Customer Feedback & Feature Refinement

Internal: Shared customer feedback, fine-tuned features ahead of delivery

External: Final customer presentation

​Since the U.S. Product team was balancing competing projects, there was a risk this initiative would be de-escalated. To maintain momentum, senior management was engaged: the APAC VP attended alignment meetings, secured support from the CPO, and reinforced urgency.

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Outcome:

  • Consensus to prioritize Quality Control and Caption Flexibility; defer Smart Seek.

  • Kept the project visible at leadership level, preventing delays.

  • Maintained accountability by logging updates in Jira/Confluence.

  • Ensured milestones were met and deliverables were completed before SK’s budgeting deadline.

CUSTOMER VALIDATION

Deliverables Review

Engagement with SK followed a structured process:

  • March (Kickoff): Customer outlined three requested features.

  • Week 2: Survey results confirmed Smart Seek was not mission-critical. Executives agreed that delivering the two validated features would be sufficient.

  • Week 10 (Mid-check): Demonstrated in-progress functionality to SK, previewing validated features.

  • July (Executive Review at SK HQ): Final presentation to executives, management, and end users.

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Outcome:

  • 2 of 3 priorities confirmed and accepted

    • Delivered:

      • Manual quality control (High/Medium/Low toggle)

      • Mobile-friendly caption display with adjustable sizing

    • Deferred:

      • Smart Seek progress bar, transparently explained as deprioritized due to resource limits, with potential reconsideration if global demand increases.

Customer Reaction

  • Clear understanding of Smart Seek deferment

  • Customer satisfaction restored, enabling renewal approval ahead of budgeting deadlines

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Resolution / Quality Control

  • Enabled manual resolution control (High, Medium, Low, Automatic).

  • Addressed data cost concerns in Korea, where fast networks defaulted to high bitrate

  • Prevented mobile data charges from becoming a barrier to video adoption.

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Responsive Captions

  • Font size now scales responsively to mobile screens

  • Captions resized and scaled to avoid blocking content

  • Achieved feature parity with desktop for consistent experience

  • Improved accessibility for mobile viewers

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Smart Seek / Preview

  • Originally scoped to introduce timeline scrubbing with thumbnail previews.

  • Deferred due to resource constraints, but documented and positioned as a roadmap candidate for enterprise demand.

KEY OUTCOMES

  • Delivered 2 out of 3 customer-validated priorities within five months.

  • Secured contract renewal of 9% of APAC bookings

  • Strengthened credibility in the enterprise market by demonstrating responsiveness to feedback

  • Maintained flexibility by leaving Smart Seek open for future roadmap inclusion.

LESSONS LEARNED

Cross-Regional Collaboration
This project demonstrated the impact of aligning teams across APAC and U.S. regions. By maintaining urgency, transparency, and regular communication, distributed teams were able to act as a single unit and deliver against tight deadlines.

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Balancing Specific Needs with Broader Strategy
The initiative balanced immediate renewal risks with long-term roadmap discipline. Customer-specific updates were positioned as scalable improvements for the broader enterprise market, preventing one-off fixes while still addressing SK’s top concerns.

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Future Opportunities
With additional time and resources, the project could have been strengthened by:

  • Expanding research to include more enterprise customers, validating which features had broader market impact.

  • Setting clearer expectations earlier with executives on roadmap trade-offs, reducing initial pressure.

  • Engaging Product leadership sooner to accelerate resource allocation.

  • Using prototypes earlier to give customers a clearer sense of progress.

  • Documenting the process as a repeatable playbook for handling high-stakes renewals.

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Overall, the project secured a critical renewal, influenced product direction, and rebuilt executive trust under pressure. At the same time, it surfaced opportunities to scale the approach more systematically across other enterprise accounts.

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