Product Unleashed Brighton + Online: Behind TV Apps + When 'too easy' backfires

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Event Description:
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Welcome product enthusiasts!

We're a meet-up group that hosts regular speaking events for those interested in the world of digital products and doing things differently!
Each meet-up features new guests from some of the most influential product companies around the world, providing unique insights, tangible ideas, and new techniques to help drive change from the inside out.

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Event Format:
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This is a hybrid event, offering the option to come along in person or join us from anywhere in the world online!

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Venue:
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🚨 We are at Wrap co-working Brighton, a stone's throw from the station. We're looking forward to seeing you there! 🚨

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Our Supporters:
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Our March event is supported by MPB the world’s leading platform for buying, selling and trading used photography and videography equipment, making kit more accessible and sustainable for creators everywhere.

And as always our friends at Silicon Brighton, whose mission is to put Brighton on the map as a technology hub, spotlighting the region for talent and investment.

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Our speakers:
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Steve Down

Steve Down is a Senior Product Manager at Channel 4, specialising in building high performing streaming apps for the biggest screen in the home.

He’s spent years shaping TV experiences at major UK broadcasters, tackling platform fragmentation, performance constraints and all the quirks that make doing product on TV Apps a whole world of its own.

He regularly writes and speaks about the realities of Connected TV product development, sharing lessons from building and scaling TV apps across diverse platforms and fast changing user behaviours. His industry contributions unpack everything from platform limitations and UX challenges to experimentation gaps and the future of big screen viewing.

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About the Talk:
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Behind the Streams: The untold story of TV App Product Management

Forget what you know about doing Product Management on web and mobile - TV is a whole different ball game. You’re juggling dozens of platforms & stakeholders, designing for a lean-back user experience, and working in an environment where optimal performance is everything. Add in the giants like Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube as competitors, and standing out gets tough.

In this session, Steve will pull back the curtain on:

- What makes TV product management so different
- The skills you need to succeed in streaming
- How you can break into one of the most exciting areas in product today

If you’ve ever thought about working in streaming or just want to know what happens behind the biggest screen in the house, this talk is for you.

Raff Di Meo

Senior Product Design Manager at Optimizely.

Raff has spent over 10 years designing products across startups, agencies, and enterprise SaaS, including a startup acquisition. Today, he's a Senior Product Design Manager at Optimizely, where he leads a team of designers reshaping how marketing teams create content across the web.

He's an active speaker in the UX community and writes Some Designers on Substack, championing inclusivity and supporting designers through a profession that won't sit still.

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About the Talk:
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When too easy to use becomes a problem: from e-commerce returns to AI in design

A few years ago, Raff designed a returns flow for an e-commerce product. It was fast, frictionless, and users loved it. It also helped normalise a behaviour that cost businesses millions and generated thousands of tonnes of waste. By every metric tracked, it was a success. By every metric not tracked, it was a disaster.

Today, the same pattern is playing out. Not just in the products we design, but in how we design them. Teams are reshaping their entire process around AI tools that can't even retain their own users. We're told the old ways are dead. Move faster. Ship more. Trust the tools.

In this talk, Raff will share what the returns project taught him about the gap between a successful design and a responsible one, and how those lessons are shaping how his team is navigating AI right now: what they're using, what's genuinely working, and what they're deliberately protecting.

You'll leave with three things you can take back to your team: why understanding the problem still comes first, how to explore with AI without losing your craft, and a dead-simple habit for catching unintended consequences before they ship.

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About your hosts:
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Product Unleashed is brought to you by your hosts John Griffin and Dominic Port.

The duo have worked on the design of products of all shapes and sizes and bring their energy and enthusiasm to this unique meetup, packed with great guests and knowledge - for anyone interested in levelling up their game in the world of products.