The Client

Chelsea Football Club, founded in 1905 and based in Fulham, London, is a football club known for its success in various competitions. The club is dedicated to competitive excellence, youth development, and engaging its international supporters. They have a digital reach of over 110m audiences, globally.

Through the agency UXSS, I was brought onto the project to assist in design discovery and research efforts to enhance the digital experience for Chelsea FC’s global fanbase. My role included collaborating with internal teams to identify pain points and goals, developing discussion guides for fan and stakeholder interviews, and assisting in fan experience workshops. My key contributions were conducting a competitor analysis on video engagement platforms, creating a structured site map to improve content navigation and performing a content audit to align existing content with fan expectations.

Problem Statement

The project was centred around the hypothesis that ‘International fans of Chelsea FC would be prepared to pay for exclusive content.’ This hypothesis aimed to explore new revenue streams and enhance fan engagement by offering premium content tailored to a global audience.

Validating this hypothesis presented several challenges. Firstly, the diverse geographical locations of the fans required coordinating research efforts across different time zones and cultures. Secondly, understanding and addressing the varied expectations and preferences of fans from different countries was complex. Additionally, logistical issues such as language barriers and technological limitations in certain regions added to the complexity of conducting comprehensive and effective research.

Approach

– Put the audience at the heart of every conversation.
– Conduct global audience engagement using an array of co-creation workshops.
– Use quant/qual data sources to identify audiences and understand their behaviours and needs.
– Blueprint Chelsea FCs digital touch points.
– Evidenced through digital artefacts, maps, canvases, and audits.

Stakeholder Interviews

I contributed to 17 stakeholder interview sessions to gather functional requirements, focusing on uncovering internal biases and assumptions needing future validation through empathy mapping. My role involved writing discussion guides, moderating the sessions, and synthesising data.

I synthesised the output into a value proposition framework, ensuring the strategy aligned the product suite with market needs. I identified audience goals from multiple stakeholder perspectives, mapping benefits, expectations, and needs, and understanding what would delight customers and increase the likelihood of adopting Chelsea FC’s value proposition.

These discussions helped stakeholders develop empathy for the audience by exploring their negative experiences, emotions, and risks. We mapped the functional, social, and emotional tasks audiences aim to perform, the problems they try to solve, and the needs they wish to satisfy.

Teams engaged:
– Communications
– Fan Engagement​
– Branding & Design (2 sessions)​
– Ticketing (2 sessions)​
– E-commerce​
– Chelsea TV​
– Social​ Media
– Marketing (3 sessions)​
– Commercial Partnerships​
– Online Supporters Clubs​
– CRM​
– Voice of Customer​
– Content Analytics

Audience Workshops

I contributed to ensuring the success of the discovery phase of the project by aligning internal assumptions regarding Chelsea FC’s key audiences. I helped plan a cross-team Audience Mapping Exercise, where participants were tasked with identifying the key audiences of Chelsea FC’s digital touch points by writing on post-it notes. This exercise produced over 40 unique variations. Through a dot-voting exercise, the group refined the output to 10 key prospects using a constraint of 3 votes each, preventing the HIPPO effect and enabling all participants to contribute equally, drawing on their expertise and opinions.

Following this, I synthesised an open but structured conversation conducted by my team, capturing key stakeholder hypotheses about what they believed their audience felt, said, and did. This was refined into 2 key audience types: Casual and Die Hard. Empathy maps highlighting goals, pains, and jobs to be done were mapped for both audience types and then prioritised into a MOSCOW to map the requirements.

Fan Engagement Interviews

We conducted fan engagement interviews to help understand the global landscape and the sentiment audiences have towards the club’s digital touchpoints. This was the first time a representative from the club engaged directly with audiences about their digital experiences.

The workshops aimed to qualify internal assumptions and understand their impact on the global share of wallet. Fans were recruited from key growth areas: Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe), Europe (UK, Spain), and the USA (Texas, California, Florida).

The output from these interviews involved mapping internal hypotheses to real qualitative user data.

Fan Experience Workshops

The workshops aimed to gather insights on Chelsea FC’s digital touchpoints from actual fans, identifying pain points, goals, and tasks to align internal assumptions with user experiences. I contributed by planning and synthesising data from these workshops.

Key insights included:

Pain Points:
– Navigation issues, particularly with finding specific content like match highlights.
– Frustrations with ticket purchase processes and the speed of the app.
– A lack of personalised content for different fan segments.

Goals:
– Fans want easy access to match information, video content, and team news.
– Desire for more exclusive behind-the-scenes content and interviews.
– Interest in more detailed statistics and player information.

Tasks:
– Viewing highlights, checking match schedules, and engaging with team news.
– Purchasing tickets and accessing the online shop.
– Keeping updated with live match scores and post-match analysis.

These insights, visualised in empathy maps, highlighted the fans’ needs and expectations, providing a foundation for refining Chelsea FC’s digital engagement strategy.

Site Audit

In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the digital landscape, I created a service blueprint and carried out a content audit. This audit focused on the templates identified within the site and app maps.

Understanding the performance of the content that Chelsea FC had previously published provided valuable insights. These insights helped determine what was necessary for enhancing future content and improving the overall information architecture.

In the process, I identified 31 unique templates that were responsive to 3 device breakpoints, all derived from 16,000 live pages. To ensure clear communication of these findings, I produced detailed documentation. This approach allowed for a thorough and effective audit.

Competitor Analysis

Video Page Snapshots

To gain insights into how Chelsea FC’s video content compares with competitors, I identified and analysed snapshots of primary video pages from both direct and indirect competitors. These snapshots, taken at a specific point in time, provide a foundation for further research into video engagement across pre-match, match day, and post-match scenarios for various teams.

The initial analysis focused on the top-level video pages accessible via the main navigation on competitors’ websites.

Video Page Tagging

Effective content tagging allows users to search, filter, and quickly identify the type of content they seek. A consistent tagging strategy enhances content organisation, enabling users to spend more time engaging with the content rather than searching for it.

Information Architecture Structure

I compiled information on each of Chelsea FC’s competitors’ sections, layouts, tags, and in-page components into a spreadsheet for further analysis. This data was then categorised into themes to identify common practices and unique strategies.

Output / Findings Matrix

The findings were summarised into a matrix comparing Chelsea FC’s video content structure with key industry competitors. This matrix highlights how Chelsea FC organises its video content relative to other football clubs.

Key findings include:

Team Sections:
Unlike competitors, Chelsea FC lacks dedicated sections for individual teams. Key competitors elevate their Women’s Team to parity with the Men’s First Team.

Subscription Services:
4 out of 7 competitors offer subscription services for exclusive content. FC Barcelona, for example, has an extensive service with live Barca TV. Chelsea FC, however, live streams events free of charge but lacks a subscription service.

Content Tagging:
While Chelsea FC’s tagging is efficient, its highlights section is very general. Competitors like Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain F.C. use more specific tags, such as player, match, and duration-based highlights.

Call to Action:
Chelsea FC uses a single call to action in their video section, featuring a ‘see all’ option and a video carousel. Competitors often use multiple calls to action to enhance user engagement.

By analysing these aspects, I identified areas where Chelsea FC can improve its video content strategy to better engage its fanbase and align with industry standards.

Lessons Learned

One key lesson learned was the immense value of direct fan engagement, which provided insights that internal assumptions alone could not reveal. Effective content tagging and clear navigation proved crucial for enhancing user satisfaction, highlighting the importance of a user-centred approach. Additionally, we learned the significance of maintaining regular feedback loops with users, which are essential for the continuous improvement of the digital experience. This iterative process ensures that the platform evolves in line with user needs and preferences, fostering a more engaging and satisfying experience for fans.