Research and launch the most exciting NFT project in sports

The National Football League is the most profitable professional sports league in the world. The NFL’s largest source of revenue are TV contracts, however fragmentation of audiences is growing as a result of digital. This is because fan behaviour is shifting. The future of pro sports will rely less on the games played, and more on the connected services associated to the games and its many properties. The challenge is how to keep fans engaged with sports year-round and how to increase revenue from fans.

PH1 was contracted to lead a service design and customer experience initiative to create a non-fungible token (NFT) product and collectible marketplace for the NFL, plus conduct UX research throughout the launch of the platform.

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Built the research practice for the biggest sports NFT project to launch in 2022

The genesis of this project was the success of NBA Top Shot, a digital collectible that enables fans to collect and trade moments. It led to a valuation of $7.6B for the Dapper Labs NFT ecosystem.

Our mission, as the fractional UX research division for Dapper Labs, was to support the NFL All Day design and product teams by:

Determining the behaviours, needs, and motivators of NFL fans and NFT collectors
Conducting design research to inform product and marketing decisions
Conducting market research of product names
Gathering proof of concept research from ecosystem VIPs
Creating a UX Research framework to benchmark performance weekly
Investigating problem areas and priority new feature areas
Defining and mapping customer personas and decision-making process
Conducting a quantitative evaluation of the beta product launch

PH1 was responsible for all research, recruitment, interviews/tests, surveys, and strategic recommendations. PH1’s team brings a wide range of sports experience and conducting lean research that enabled Dapper to meet their aggressive timelines.

Determine the behaviours, needs, and motivators of NFL fans and NFT collectors

As a product in a new product in an emerging space, we recruited an audience with wide interests to get their perspectives on fandom and collectibles
Audiences were recruited at large and via targeted lists, where participants were screened for representation.

Conduct design research to inform product and marketing decisions

The collectibles must make fans see this as the most important innovation to sports
Testing provided feedback on a range of designs and systems Collected insights to inform decisions about rarity and economics

Gather proof of concept research from ecosystem VIPs

As a Web3 ecosystem, input from the most active members is critical when considering a new proof of concept
VIPs were invited to participate to provide feedback on initial concepts and to discuss product decisions

Create a UX Research framework to benchmark performance weekly

Built the beta research strategy that included weekly surveys and interviews
Created a highly-collaborative and transparent reporting model to enable anyone within the org to quickly adapt based on findings

Investigate problem areas and priority new feature areas

Investigated pain points and opportunities, enabling the product team to better prioritize their roadmap
Deep-dive into systemic issues that should be escalated

Define and map customer personas and decision-making process

Conducted interviews to Investigate which factors were most associated with different personas
Created persona matrix and profiles to inform product and marketing decision

Conduct a quantitative evaluation of the beta product launch

At the end of the closed beta period, created an evaluation framework for collecting holistic feedback about the product from the customer’s perspective
Created a comprehensive survey to collect data from weighted segments