Netflix & The Power of Search

A Hypothesis for decreasing the search time on Netflix

Introduction

Hey people, I believe we all are aware that Netflix is a great product but might have faced the problem of not being able to decide what we wanna watch either when alone or with someone. I believe Netflix is constantly trying on to improve our experience for recommendations with efforts and research. Here is my hypothesis of how to improve Netlfix’s search experience for users. This is entirely a hypothesis and no research has been conducted to prove this.

Problem Statement

So reading up on a lot of articles online the problem statement

Aim

The aim of the article is to present a new direction to the existing problem

“Providing a better experience by reducing the time taken to decide on what to watch?”

What is the Power of the Search?

Google Search is a real example using the power of search in action. To provide us the best experience, the search engine asks us about the information we want. I understand that Google Search and Netflix are entirely different products in absolutely different domains, but I strongly feel that Netflix is not able to provide the recommendation because the user themselves are not clear what they wanna watch. When we as users are clear on what we want to watch than its much easier for Netflix to provide us with the best experience. So I believe that rather than trying to recommend a movie that the user might like, it can be much better to ask the user what they want to watch. I know that the search option is present but that must be given a better size and position on the screen. For the users to be clear on what they want and how is their mood, I suggest Netflix should lookout for ways to take inputs from the user in terms of genres, names, type of content, time, etc. Also, I believe in the current scenario taking input is not very easy but I suggest the focus should be on that rather than giving huge previews on the screen.