The Challenge
The combined media supply chains from the merger of Warner Media and Discovery Communications in 2022 had over 250 enterprise tools to manage content. They had overlapping functions, different perspectives of data and process status, different Uis and different front end frameworks.
How can the media supply chain move forward?
Consolidation
The internal tools product strategy was to gain efficiencies by eliminating overlapping processes, avoid “swivel chair” user experiences (having to use multiple tools to accomplish a task), and reduce the number of tools from over 250 to 50 or less.
UX Strategy
1. Branding
Create a new brand identity for the converged supply chain tools to rally all the Product Management, Development and Operational Process efforts. “Foundry” was selected to represent the forging of digital video from production company final edit to the forms needed to distribute to streaming services.
Foundry invoked the collective hard work of creating something from raw material. It provided a vessel for all stakeholders’ visions of how the media supply chain should transform into a unified, efficient, seamless experience.
Introducing…Foundry
MSC’s Foundry portfolio of enterprise tools forges the media that WBD uses to reach customers worldwide, in print, TV, movies, streaming and merchandise products.
Why “Foundry”? Webster says:
Foundry:
- an establishment where founding is carried on
Foundry:
- to melt (a material, such as metal) and pour into a mold - we mold and shape media
- to take the first steps in building - we are media’s front door into WBD
- to set or ground on something solid : BASE - we provide the building blocks for our entertainment businesses
- to establish (something) often with provision for future maintenance - we build archives and re-imagine media as technology evolves
2. Foundry Platform
Build out a platform with elements that build upon each other to set direction on how to build the future.
Foundry Roadmap
Creating the Foundry Platform
Vision: Standard platform for designing, building and managing interconnected enterprise tools
Platform Components
- Common Authentication and Authorization
- Single Sign On across all tools
- Aggregated and actionable website stats
- Content change auditing
- Expanded starter kit – React, etc.
- Common URL structure
- Accessibility reviews upon major UI releases
3. Foundry Design System
Style guide for UI design elements
Foundry design starts with three basic elements:
App Header & Footer
4. Consistent Patterns
User Experience Patterns
Patterns combine basic elements and components into a re-usable user experience
Table Date Pattern
- Zebra striped rows
- Item count and pagination
- Individual row selection
- Select all rows
- Data refine
- Column sort arrows
- Show/hide columns
- Change column order
- Action buttons
- Date format
5. Multi-framework Front End Development
The reality of different development teams using Angular and React needed a method to maintain consistency across tool Uis. Patterns were converted into front end components and published into a multi-framework set of libraries for Angular, React, Vue and web.
6. Unified Auth
A seamless experience needed to remove repeated logins into individual tools Foundry Auth created a structure to allow single sign-on to all tools, including a Role Based Access Control (RBAC) system to carry a user’s permission through their journey.
7. Unified Navigation
Unification of the tool set was accomplished through grouping tools into “families” and providing navigation by family to get to tools. Even faster for users, a universal header design was created for all tools that allowed users to navigate by the function they wanted to perform, no matter what tool it resided in.
