Innovation, New Tech & the Importance of the ‘Project Discovery Process’ at Sportsbet

In my role as Platform Manager, at Sportsbet, I get to work with awesome new tech all the time, and with multiple teams – a great bunch of talented, enthusiastic and technology-savvy people.

My job generally tends to involve going through what’s known as a ‘project discovery process’, which simply put, is the process of gathering information about a project to help the people involved understand its vision, goals, and scope. 

Here’s why that’s important for successful outcomes, as well as a bit more about the actual work I’m doing here at Sportsbet.

Why the project discovery process is key

This process is integral to our successful results. It helps us to identify the needs of the client, users and stakeholders from the outset, as well as define the strong and weak points of the system or app. 

This means we’re able to better identify project scope and goals and generate a more accurate estimate of what the project will entail in terms of time, resources and cost. It also allows us to make far more effective design decisions because they are based on data, not just assumptions. Altogether, it helps us ensure a higher return on investment on the project at hand.

The steps in the process are:

• Identify the stakeholders – who is the sponsor, who is the product owner, commercial owner etc.
• Identify/understand the business/commercial goal of the project and how we will measure its success.
• Check existing research and documentation.
• Identify the target audience and build a user journey.
• Perform a competitive analysis.
• Gather a solution design estimation.
• Build a timeline and roadmap.
   

A few cool recent projects

With the rise of event-driven architecture, Kafka and other event-driven solutions have been adopted heavily by Sportsbet. Data reliability and the scalability of Kafka are essential to creating great customer experiences on days like AFL, NRL Grand Finals and the Melbourne Cup, where scalability plays a critical role in our company's success.

Right now, we are also working on some new models using machine learning to predict the pricing for different events.

Last month, one of my teams worked on a great risk tooling application to enable risk profiling for our internal customers. This tooling will enable Sportsbet to manage its risk profile better and make informed decisions, and to be on the front foot. 

Another fun recent project for my team was an extension of an existing product, in which we increased our offerings during the Olympics with the aim of bringing some extra excitement to our customers.

The culture at Sportsbet

There’s an amazing team culture at Sportsbet that’s built upon a foundation of core values such as trust, collaboration, support, diversity of thought and the autonomy to solve problems. The people here are all very smart, curious, fun and passionate.

The company is very flexible too. I have a great work/life balance. I am able to spend plenty of time with my family and be there for school events, drop offs and pickups.

I also appreciate that Sportsbet allows me to try new things without fear of failure. I’ve had the opportunity to jump on things outside my comfort zone and been supported throughout my journey here. I really love it here.