Portfolio | Brian McConnell

Impact Projects

Launching & Scaling Disney+

2018-2020

Leading the Growth Design program that propelled Disney+ from 0 - 105M subscribers.

Directed zero-to-one Design on identity, payment, profile and account surfaces for Disney+ launch across 13 device classes and into 4 global regions.
Built a consumer-first approach with Product, Engineering, and Marketing across the enterprise to grow 105M subscribers in 2 years.
Led growth design tactics - optimization, segmentation, and expansion - that grew MRR & AARPU 25% YoY.

Case study available

Disney+ Groupwatch

2019-2020

Nurturing an innovative feature that connects guests to friends & loved ones from concept through launch to adoption.

Launched to acclaim from consumers and media for serving guests in the pandemic; adopted by 15% of Disney+ accounts (that's tens of millions of people).
Partnered with Engineering to drive innovation by integrating user research insights with novel technology.

Case study available

Disney Enterprise XD

2019-2023

Founding & leading design for Disney's streaming platform behind Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+.

Reduced operational costs by $80M annually by building products competitive with industry leaders.
Enabled a 25% increase in MRR year-over-year by building commerce orchestration, CRM, and content products.
Built high-performing design teams through organizational development that reduced attrition 50% and accelerated hiring efficiency 80%.
Established a unified design system and brand architecture across a global streaming portfolio.

Case study available

ESPN

2017-2021

Leading Growth Design for ESPN+, and a vision for the future of streaming sports in Latin America.

Launched ESPN+ and grew it to 21M subscribers in four years.
Established Growth Design as a center of excellence within Disney, hiring the team, defining the mission, and engaging with teams across the enterprise.
Oversaw the design of Pay-per-view on ESPN+ which grew revenue and subscribers.
Led the design vision for the future of Streaming Sports, the foundation for STAR+, subcribing 11M people in two years.

NHL TV & Mobile

2015-2018

Launching the NHL.tv streaming service and introducing product-led-growth for the official NHL app and website.

Bootstrapped the UX Research practice for MLB and then Disney.
Established Product-Led-Growth practices that increased video engagement 150% and ad impressions by 25%
Led the design of innovative fan-service features like GameFlow™ and Around The League boosting engagement.

Dynamo Podcast Platform

2013-2015

Leading the product, design, and engineering teams through a business transformation that drove ~40% revenue growth in subscriptions and advertising.

Drove 37% YoY ad revenue growth by architecting patented programmatic advertising platform (US20170195373A1) for targeted podcast monetization
Increased subscription revenue 42% YoY through development of comprehensive creator tools including analytics, educational content, and audio processing
Acquired by iHeartMedia for $50M.

Case study available