Building Pick6: Leading Design for a New Fantasy Sports Format
Led end-to-end design of a new fantasy sports format that lowered the barrier to entry, expanding DraftKings’ reach while preserving the competitive depth core users expect.
Type:
New Product Launch
Role:
Associate Product Design Director
Year:
2023-2024
Overview
DraftKings built its reputation on deep, competitive fantasy sports, but that complexity limited its reach. Pick6 was created to expand the audience: a simpler, pick'em-style experience designed to be more accessible without losing the competitiveness that defined the brand.
As Associate Product Design Director, I led the experience from concept to launch, setting design direction, navigating regulatory and stakeholder complexity, and aligning cross-functional partners across a tight timeline. I was promoted to Product Design Director after launch in recognition of this work.
The Challenge
Pick6 was going to enter a market shaped by simpler competitors like PrizePicks, which offered a frictionless "pick against the house" model.
DraftKings, operating under fantasy sports regulations, required a peer-to-peer contest structure. That constraint made matching that simplicity far more difficult.
This tension was most visible in onboarding. Because the experience could be perceived as sports betting, Legal required every touchpoint to be precise and defensible, turning what should have been a simple and fun introduction into a careful balance of clarity, compliance, and user trust.
Approach & Solution
I established a clear principle: design for users with no prior fantasy experience and no tolerance for friction.
To deliver on this, we:
Explored broadly, then aligned quickly
Used competitive analysis and rapid prototyping to test interaction models early, identifying patterns that felt intuitive without resembling sportsbook behaviors.
Redefined how contest entry worked
Created new interaction patterns that translated a peer-to-peer system into something lightweight and approachable, while maintaining regulatory requirements.
Worked cross-functionally at depth
Partnered closely with Legal, Product, and Engineering to align on solutions that balanced usability with compliance, ensuring constraints informed the design rather than limiting it.
Used research to drive decision-making
Onboarding became the most critical inflection point. Initial requirements called for 10 slides to meet compliance standards. Through moderated user interviews, we observed consistent drop-off and confusion. We used that evidence to reframe the conversation which ultimately resulted in three important changes:
Reduced onboarding from 10 slides to 6
Simplified and clarified key concepts
Maintained full compliance while significantly improving usability
This approach established a repeatable model for how Design and Legal could collaborate, using research as a shared source of truth.
More recently, onboarding has narrowed down even more, to just two slides.
Impact
Pick6 launched to strong reception, earning high app store ratings currently across 45,000+ reviews (4.8/5 for iOS and Android). Within its first full year the product reached nearly 1 million annual active users, peaking at 354,000 monthly active users this past September, and generated approximately $90M in annual revenue, establishing establishing Pick6 as a successful new vertical within the DraftKings portfolio.