This will be my last blog before I go on a well needed holiday for a few weeks, but before that I wanted to share some of my learnings from my latest trainee period working with OTT Flow, which I’ve talked about several times now.

A few months ago, Michael Lantz wrote about how overchoice is a risk for consumers when they are presented with too many options. While all these options all probably are great, when given too many options, where does one start? This got me thinking that this might be true also for the video providers themselves, that will not only have to decide on what content to promote to the end users, but also the layout and user experience itself.

When we designed the apps for OTT Flow, we wanted to make room for as much flexibility as possible. This is a great thing and it gives us many options to really tailor the look and feel for each individual customer. With OTT Flow, basically anyone could have a video streaming service with a customisable look and feel up and running within a matter of weeks or days, without having to do any development at all. This way, at least the obstacles of choosing between a customisable solution or the possibility to go live quickly has been removed.

However, for someone that might not have a clear idea of how the apps should look and behave (including me, I’m not a designer!) it can be difficult to know where to start building up these things. While my options are many when presented with a bunch of lego pieces, I would probably not be able to build a castle without some instructions. Don’t get me wrong though – for the more creative minds there is a huge advantage to have as many options as possible, and for those that are more like me, we have a great team ready to help out and provide the instructions needed to get that castle up and running.

I believe this is true for the trainee program too. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the different options available, but with a little guidance from my mentors and the other trainees, I’m happy with the way things have turned out. And one of the biggest strengths of the program is that it is flexible enough to adapt over time, so I can rethink my plan if a new opportunity presents itself – just like I can rebuild my lego castle.