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Designing a Slate Simulator for Smarter Release Planning

Amazon Studios

The mission of Studios Release Planning* is to build a suite of forecasting tools that help predict optimal launch dates for Amazon Studios’ shows and movies across 200+ global territories. I collaborated closely with Product and Engineering to define and build the Slate Simulator that slashes plan creation time from 20 hours to 1 hour.

*team name is anonymized

Contributions

UX/UI Design
Interaction Design
Design System

Team

Product Manager
Engineering Manager Engineers Design Technologist

Role

UX Designer

Duration

Oct 2022–Feb 2023

Impact

⏰ 95% reduction in plan creation time

✅ 90% feature adoption

🙂 90% positive user sentiment

⏰ 95% reduction in plan creation time

✅ 90% feature adoption

🙂 90% positive user sentiment

⏰ 95% reduction in plan creation time

✅ 90% feature adoption

🙂 90% positive user sentiment

Problem

The current manual slate visualization process was time-consuming and error-prone. Programmers lacked an efficient way to view release data across dimensions like audience segments and taste segments.

Solution

I designed an interactive, visual timeline builder that automated the creation of slate views and scheduling scenarios—replacing manual spreadsheets with a dynamic interface.

Key features

Preconfigured bucketing logic for instant visualization setup
Dynamic hiding/showing of buckets and individual releases
Inline editing of key attributes (e.g., release date, release cadence) with real-time performance impact
Flexible styling (fill/border) tied to metadata for quick scanning
Progressive save model (“save as you go”) to streamline development and reduce data loss risks
Componentized view contributed to the design system for reuse in future tools

I designed an interactive, visual timeline builder that automated the creation of slate views and scheduling scenarios—replacing manual spreadsheets with a dynamic interface.

Key features

Preconfigured bucketing logic for instant visualization setup
Dynamic hiding/showing of buckets and individual releases
Inline editing of key attributes (e.g., release date, release cadence) with real-time performance impact
Flexible styling (fill/border) tied to metadata for quick scanning
Progressive save model (“save as you go”) to streamline development and reduce data loss risks
Componentized view contributed to the design system for reuse in future tools

I designed an interactive, visual timeline builder that automated the creation of slate views and scheduling scenarios—replacing manual spreadsheets with a dynamic interface.

Key features

Preconfigured bucketing logic for instant visualization setup
Dynamic hiding/showing of buckets and individual releases
Inline editing of key attributes (e.g., release date, release cadence) with real-time performance impact
Flexible styling (fill/border) tied to metadata for quick scanning
Progressive save model (“save as you go”) to streamline development and reduce data loss risks
Componentized view contributed to the design system for reuse in future tools

Results & Testimonials

The new solution turned a time-consuming manual task into a streamlined, flexible tool for decision making. It became a key tool for greenlight meetings, slate reviews, and executive reporting.

What used to take us several hours to compile and scramble before a review meeting, we can now build in under an hour. It’s been a game changer in how we communicate release strategies across teams.

— Programmer, Programming Strategy

What used to take us several hours to compile and scramble before a review meeting, we can now build in under an hour. It’s been a game changer in how we communicate release strategies across teams.

— Programmer, Programming Strategy

What used to take us several hours to compile and scramble before a review meeting, we can now build in under an hour. It’s been a game changer in how we communicate release strategies across teams.

— Programmer, Programming Strategy