Product Decision! Would it be better if users could pick their streaming subscriptions?

Firstly, let me start by saying if you are visiting us for the first time it may be useful to read the short description of BSC at the bottom of this entry or visit us bobstreamingclub.com

Since we started BOB Streaming Club, the question of how and who picks the streaming subscriptions each month has been somewhat of an elephant in the room. Initially, we ran a small ad campaign to see if anybody wanted to pay for what we were offering. The main bone of contention was that users had no control over the subscriptions they were getting. We waved these away for a number of reasons, the first being that people were signing up (which was good) and we considered those that were not to be simply incompatible with the product.

The second reason is that it felt like it would defeat the purpose of the service itself. We wanted to offer the user less choice and more certainty. It seemed strange to then burden them with the decision-making process that induces much of this trouble.

Finally, when this decision was made we were in the very early product validation stages. We were asking ourselves ‘Does anybody actually want this?’ We knew we wanted it, which is a good place to start but things often don’t play out the way you intend. Be that as it may, we needed to move fast (and still do) – the simplest way to do this was to curate and pick the services ourselves. Taking bespoke orders from our members was probably something we were not equipped for.

Things have changed, we have been live for nearly 4 months and the needle has moved a little. Firstly, we have members who while continuing to pay for, and enjoy, the service have made requests for platforms in particular months. This has blurred the line between those we thought incompatible and compatible with what we are offering. We take all feedback seriously – we take our paying customer feedback as Gospel. This is more important to us than anything else and if we are to grow we know that the relationship we have with our loyal users is paramount, a complete non-negotiable and nor would we want it to be. So that’s a big deal for us. Finally, our backend (where we process subscriptions and manage data) is more sophisticated now; any transition in our subscription distribution is not as daunting as it once was.

So, the question gets raised again. Is it a better user experience for our members to be able to pick subscriptions? Or maybe some subscriptions sometimes? Or do we have it right as it is by doing this on behalf of our members?

Please drop us a line to give us your thoughts. It is easiest to catch us on hello@bob.show – we read everything that comes through and like I said, this is our main source for product decision making, so please feel free to help guide us. We will be mulling this over in the coming weeks and feedback will be the difference maker.

Thanks a lot for stopping by, we will be sending a new update shorty including any feedback we recieved to this article. If you are new to the site then welcome and please send us any questions you may have. To our loyal users a big thank you and rest assured, we will continue to chip away at it.

Happy Viewing,

Stefan

BOB Streaming Club hops between streaming services each month for a flat fee. Members are given access to 3 platforms at any one time. For full details please visit The Streaming Club site: bobstreamingclub.com