My name is Caroline de Ban, and I am the Product Lead for the search experience on Sky's TV Products and Entertainment OS platform. I am based in Sky's Innovation Centre on the Osterley campus.
As the Product Lead for search, I like to say my job is ensuring customers can find the content they love, no matter how they look for it. I work on our Pay TV products; Sky Q, Glass, Stream etc.
I currently own two features; 'Voice Search', where customers can search for content by speaking into their remote or after saying "Hello Sky" into their Sky Glass. And 'Text Search', where customers can type their query to find what they're after.
Having a great search experience is the table stakes for entertainment services now. It's all about making searching as easy as possible and connecting customers with the content that matters most to them.
Describe a project, or career highlight where you were able to make a difference.
The highlight of my career at Sky has got to be the launch of our over IP products Glass and Stream. When we launched in the UK, being a part of a launch event of that scale was amazing. So many creative marketing and PR activities taking place around that time - it was exciting to feel part of something so massive even for a company the size of Sky.
These product launches were particularly great because we were allowing customers to access our entertainment without the need for a dish, or a set top box.
As part of the Voice team, we work with marketing to let customers know about our voice capabilities, including search. It was awesome to see voice search featured so heavily in all the national campaigns that have gone live since.
At Sky we’re always challenging ourselves to deliver the next big thing. Describe what that’s like and why it’s exciting
In TV Product Management, there's no denying the goal we're going after is providing world-class entertainment experiences. So it's definitely hectic!
The pace at Sky can get intense at times, but for me, it keeps every day different. For Entertainment OS, if we're not launching a new product in our own market, we're looking at taking our platform into a new country or region. This includes the recent launch of the XUMO Stream box in the US.
This has meant we've been working closer than ever before with our teams based in Philadelphia, which is really exciting.
How is Sky an inclusive place to work where you can be yourself?
I can speak about inclusivity at Sky from a gender balance perspective. Right from day one, I found the company to be welcoming, encouraging and very well set up to help you drive your career whatever your identity.
Through my own graduate recruitment process, and having been on the other side of it for several years now, I can say with confidence the most important factor in fit for Sky in the teams I have worked in is your passion for technology. Once you start, there are so many opportunities to grow both from a career perspective.
Lots of on-the-job training is provided, alongside our own in house portal Sky Learn. From a culture perspective, we have some great networks that you can join - where you can meet colleagues with a shared interest or identity as yourself.
I am a member of the Digital Ethics Network, a group of colleagues passionate about creating ethical products from conception to launch.
