2025
Brief:
Elevate the fan experience for viewers and followers of the Womens Rugby World Cup 25.
Lead Product Designer, 90% remote
Role:
Activities:
Conducting user research with rugby fans, and relevant SMEs, defining the user experience and flow of the back end editorial app, UI design, user testing, iteration, marketing materials.
Background
As World Rugby’s innovation partner, Capgemini is focused on applying innovation to the sport to elevate players and enrich the fan experience. With the incoming Women’s Rugby World Cup, we set to work in May 2025 collating user research and sport industry insights to highlight any areas which would benefit from the application of emerging technology.
The problem
After starting with a fairly blank page, during our research we uncovered that the fan base of Women's rugby has a completely different set of requirements to that of Men's rugby. A rapidly growing audience, they want to know more about what specifically is happening in the game and to be able to connect with players and each other.
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After speaking to Stats Perform (World Rugby's data partner) we also discovered that the process of displaying insights on the live match broadcast was very manual, relying on an editorial team to craft insights by hand pre match and during matches. We identified this as an opportunity to inject some innovative thinking.
The solution
An AI-powered insights engine that democratises rugby knowledge and celebrates the players by leveraging the vast amount of data collected during a match, and processing it to deliver relevant insights at the right time. Insights are displayed via the live TV broadcast and also on the World Rugby website as a widget on the live match feed. A selection of insights were also repurposed by World Rugby marketing to create social media graphics.
I created a rich picture diagram to easily explain the data flow from raw data to rich insight.
TryZone IQ backend app
In order for insights to be displayed and transmitted to the BBC broadcast team, we designed a back-end app. This allowed us to have a human in the loop to maintain quality control and create a feedback loop so the engine can be improved continuously. Initially the branding was designed to the Womens Rugby World Cup 25 brand guidelines, but once TryZone IQ was confirmed for further tournaments, I created a separate visual identity for TryZone IQ with a rapid turnaround of a couple of hours.
Outcome
Across the tournament, 36 automated TryZone IQ insights were broadcast live on the BBC to millions of fans, with a peak of 5.8 million during the England v Canada final. Automated insights by the TryZone IQ engine went from 68.7% of the share of insights in the first round of matches, to 89.7% in the final, demonstrating that GenAI insights had reduced the need for manually curated insights.
The success of TryZone IQ has translated into further deployment for the autumn internationals which took place in November 2025. TryZone IQ will also be deployed during the 6 Nations in spring 2026.
