The Challenge

As Group Head of UX & Design at Genius Sports Group, I identified a significant business challenge that was creating friction between our commercial and development teams:

Our sales representatives attended over 200 events annually, showcasing our sportsbook solutions to potential clients – casinos and betting operations looking to launch or upgrade their platforms. These prospects consistently asked the same question: “What would this look like with our branding?”

The traditional solution required custom development work for each demo, pulling engineers away from critical product roadmap priorities. Each customized demo:

  • Required 2-3 weeks of developer time
  • Diverted resources from revenue-generating product enhancements
  • Created frustration between commercial and development teams
  • Resulted in missed sales opportunities when custom demos couldn’t be delivered in time

When the commercial team requested a more flexible solution, the development team initially declined due to resource constraints. However, I saw an opportunity for the UX team to bridge this gap with an innovative approach.

My Approach

I initiated a project to create a configurable demo platform that would empower our sales team without burdening development resources. My approach included:

1. Stakeholder Alignment

I facilitated workshops with sales, product, and engineering teams to:

  • Document specific sales scenarios and client requests
  • Identify the most requested customization features
  • Define success metrics for both commercial and technical teams
  • Establish boundaries for what would and wouldn’t be customizable

2. Technical Feasibility Assessment

Working with a trusted front-end developer, I:

  • Analyzed our existing sportsbook architecture
  • Explored data-driven UI approaches using JSON configuration
  • Created a technical prototype to validate our approach
  • Developed a content strategy for managing demo scenarios

3. User-Centered Design Process

I led my team through a focused design process:

  • Mapped the sales journey to identify key moments where the demo would be used
  • Shadowed sales representatives during client meetings to understand their needs
  • Created wireframes for both the demo platform and the configuration interface
  • Established a modular design system that could accommodate various brand styles

4. Lean Development Strategy

To minimize resource impact, I:

  • Negotiated for a single front-end developer to be allocated to the project
  • Designed a JSON-driven architecture that required minimal ongoing engineering support
  • Created reusable components that could be styled through configuration rather than code
  • Established a phased roadmap, starting with essential features and expanding over time

The Solution

The result was “QuickSP” – a powerful, flexible demonstration platform that transformed how our sales team showcased our products:

For Sales Teams

We created an intuitive configuration dashboard that allowed non-technical users to:

  • Upload client logos and brand assets
  • Apply client color schemes with automatic contrast checking
  • Select from pre-configured sports events and betting scenarios
  • Save and manage multiple client configurations
  • Generate unique demo URLs to share with prospects

For Potential Clients

The platform delivered a convincing, branded sportsbook experience featuring:

  • Fully-functional navigation and UI interactions
  • Real-time odds and betting simulations
  • Responsive layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile views
  • Customized promotional content and features
  • The client’s own branding seamlessly integrated

Technical Implementation

Working closely with my front-end developer partner, we:

  • Built a JSON-driven rendering engine that separated content from presentation
  • Created a comprehensive component library with parameterized styling
  • Developed a simulation layer that mimicked real betting behaviors
  • Established a content management system for maintaining sports data and scenarios

Results and Impact

The SportsDemoTM platform delivered significant business value across multiple dimensions:

Commercial Success

  • Sales cycle for new clients reduced by 35%
  • 28% increase in successful demos resulting in proposal requests
  • Sales team reported higher client engagement during presentations
  • Ability to respond to branding requests on-the-spot during events

Resource Efficiency

  • 95% reduction in developer time needed for sales demos
  • Eliminated backlog of custom demo requests
  • Engineering resources redirected to core product development
  • Self-service model empowered sales team to create demos independently

Organizational Alignment

  • Improved collaboration between commercial and development teams
  • Established UX as a strategic problem-solver within the organization
  • Created a model for future innovation projects
  • Received executive recognition for cross-functional leadership

Unexpected Benefits

  • The component system developed for the demo influenced our core product architecture
  • Sales team began using the platform for rapid prototyping of new feature concepts
  • The configurator became a starting point for actual client implementation projects
  • Several clients requested access to the configuration tool for their own internal planning

Key Learnings

This project reinforced several important principles that continue to guide my leadership approach:

Design as Business Problem Solver: By reframing a technical challenge as a design opportunity, we delivered business value that might otherwise have been missed.

Strategic Resource Allocation: With limited resources, focusing on the highest-impact components first allowed us to deliver value quickly while building toward a comprehensive solution.

Cross-Functional Leadership: Success came from my ability to translate between business and technical stakeholders, finding common ground and shared objectives.

Systems Thinking: Creating a flexible, configurable system provided more long-term value than a collection of one-off solutions, even though it required more upfront investment.

Most importantly, this project demonstrated how design leadership can transform conflict into collaboration. By understanding the constraints and objectives of both commercial and development teams, we created a solution that satisfied everyone’s needs while advancing the company’s overall goals.

QuickSP Demo

The QuickSP theme editor allowed for real-time demo customization. There were also pre-sets we could setup to allow for a quick showcase of possible themes.