Spectrum Shadow

This project remains one of the highlights of my career — not just for the outcome, but for how unexpectedly it began.

I'd launched our organization's first formal internship program, hand-selecting six exceptional candidates. Each summer, interns were challenged to solve a real business problem and present their solution to leadership. One year, I designed the program as a "Shark Tank"-style experience: intern teams would research, design, and pitch a product concept to executives acting as investors.

At the time, Spectrum had recently acquired a minority stake in an emerging cloud-technology company in France. We challenged the interns to explore a cloud-based product opportunity aligned with that investment.

Over the summer they conducted extensive research — market analysis, technical feasibility, financial modeling — to evaluate whether the concept could become a viable business. On their final day, they pitched a cloud gaming platform.

Leadership approved the concept.

About a month later, my creative director called me in with surprising news.

The concept — now called Spectrum Shadow — had been added to the official product roadmap, and I was asked to lead product design. Because the interns had already established a strong research foundation and produced early mid-fidelity designs, we were able to move quickly into prototyping and validation.

Our usability testing focused on three critical questions:

• Time to first play — After onboarding, how easily can users begin playing a game?
• Onboarding clarity — Do users understand how the service works during setup?
• Storage model comprehension — Is it clear that users have a limited download capacity, and that different games consume varying amounts of space?

Internal testing showed strong interest in the concept, but users consistently questioned one aspect: the storage limitation.

This feedback revealed a gap in expectation setting. Users needed a clear explanation of the business constraints behind cloud storage allocation.

We addressed this by:

• Clarifying messaging during onboarding
• Adding contextual tooltips near storage indicators
• Improving transparency around capacity usage

Spectrum launched a large-scale beta to approximately 800,000 customers. Results exceeded expectations.

What began as an internship exercise evolved into a global product with measurable business success. For me, the project demonstrated the power of:

• Structured innovation programs
• Rapid validation cycles
• Clear UX communication for complex systems
• Trusting unconventional ideas — even ones that come from interns

And yes — it was a pretty great win.