Strategy
Product Strategy
& Content Organization
The Challenges
Users were coming to the PragerU home page with no clear path to discover content. Basic categorization for a video streaming service was missing. Bounce rates on video pages were >90%. No clear incentive for users to engage with the service and minimal cross-promotional opportunities were available.
Scope
Display content in a variety of ways without adding to the editorial workload. Create more incentive for users to create an account and/or subscribe. Expand the concept of video personalities to allow for multiple hosts, guests, and a full browse feature. Add cross-promotional areas to showcase new features, videos, and campaigns.
Goals
- →Increase user account creation and subscription conversions by 15%
- →Reduce bounce rate on video pages by 20%
- →Improve user content discovery satisfaction
- →Reduce the overall lift for the internal editorial team
Team
- UX Director
- 1 Offsite UI Designer
- 2 Engineers (1 Offsite)
- 1.5 Project Managers (.5 Offsite)
- Cross-team internal stakeholders (6 at various points)
The Actions
Categorize all video content to allow easier discovery and build a base for future user customization and subscription features. Provide easy methods to subscribe, join, and engage. Add cross-promotional areas on key page types. Organize the content and personalities to improve search and SEO.
Categorization
The library of over 2,000 videos was only loosely organized by series, making it difficult for users to naturally discover content by category or theme. The editorial team created topics on the fly, without moderation or documentation, resulting in more than 700 unmanageable "topics" plus unlimited keywords for each video.
I used an AI agent to analyze and categorize all 700+ topics. In the first pass, I combined the AI's output with many hours of manual review to reduce the list to fewer than 380 topics by eliminating proper nouns, hyper-specific terms, and duplicates.
This consolidation was done in close collaboration with the editorial team and producers to ensure each video's key themes were accurately and concisely represented.
I then created 20 core categories to cover the full breadth of content. Executive leadership increased this to 25 categories, and the art department designed custom icons for each. This new category structure not only improved content organization but also laid the foundation for a future "personal goals" feature for users with paid subscriptions.
Organizing Personalities and Guests
To improve discoverability of presenter content, I developed a system that enabled PragerU to clearly distinguish between three roles: Hosts (in-house talent with their own shows), Presenters (experts featured in 5-Minute Videos), and Guests (experts and newsmakers appearing in interviews).
I also introduced the ability to assign multiple personalities to a single piece of content, along with more comprehensive bios that showcase the videos each person appears in. Additionally, I oversaw updates to photos and bios — many of which had not been refreshed in over 8 years. With more than 500 hosts, presenters, and guests in total, I automated and streamlined bulk editing and updates during the most recent site redesign.
Subscribe & Cross-Promote
To boost user engagement, I added a multi-purpose section to all video pages that served two key functions.
First, for non-logged-in users, it featured a simple email collection form. Users who were impressed or drawn in by a video were 4x more likely to subscribe to email marketing when the opportunity was readily available.
Second, for logged-in users (or when designated by the marketing team), the same section dynamically promoted new content, upcoming features, and active fundraising campaigns.
Engagement and provocation
After each video, users were prompted to vote thumbs up or down. That simple signal gave content production and leadership valuable insight into what resonated, and what did not.
Supporters who voted up were encouraged to financially support more videos like the one they had just watched, creating an additional, consistent revenue stream tied directly to positive engagement.
Detractors who voted down could share more detail through a rating scale or a free-form text field. Inviting that feedback gave users a satisfying outlet to be heard, supplied PragerU with richer consumer sentiment data, and supported warm lead generation when sentiment was submitted after an email was entered. When someone did not like a given video, the flow could would cross-promote other videos they might prefer instead.
The Results
73%
Of users surveyed preferred browsing content by categories
+36%
Video page engagement when a cross-promotion was displayed
+24%
Increase in personalities linked to content and made searchable
Hello!
I'm Lisa Wilkins. I've spent 17+ years as a UX director, designer, and product strategist building things people actually want to use — across media, news, tech, and education at organizations like NBCUniversal, PragerU, and Microsoft. I live in the Sonoran Desert, which inspires me daily with its simplicity on the surface and complexity underneath. I'm adaptable, resilient, and nerdy: ask me about WCAG compliance or things equestian and you'll get the same enthusiasm. I'm most proud of raising a son full of gratitude and spoiling some very good horses.
Let's talk about what I can build with your team.