RIVETAI · PRODUCT STRATEGY

From Indie Tool to Enterprise Platform

Using research, demonstrations, and pilots to find a more durable market.

RivetAI began as a self-serve subscription product for indie filmmakers, but growth in that model began to plateau. Conversations with larger production organizations suggested the same underlying budgeting and scheduling problems existed at enterprise scale, with more complex requirements.

I validated that opportunity through research, targeted outreach, product demonstrations, pilot conversations, positioning, pricing work, and an enterprise roadmap. Converted four enterprise conversations into active product engagements: two pilots and two partnerships, including work with a major global entertainment studio and other production organizations. Specific company names are available on request, reach out directly to learn more.

Role

Product Manager · Acting Product Lead

Focus

Product strategy, enterprise discovery, roadmap development

Outcome

Four enterprise conversations converted: two pilots and two partnerships

Challenge

The original indie subscription model had validated the product problem, but growth had begun to plateau.

Strategic question

Could RivetAI support larger production organizations without turning every enterprise request into custom work?

My role

I connected customer discovery, demonstrations, pilots, product requirements, positioning, pricing, and roadmap development.

Outcome

Four enterprise conversations became active product engagements, two pilots and two partnerships, and the company began developing a credible enterprise direction.

The product had users. The business still needed a stronger path forward.

RivetAI's original model served independent filmmakers through a self-serve subscription. That audience validated the need for easier budgeting and scheduling, but growth began to plateau.

The question was no longer how to acquire more individual subscribers. It was whether the product could support organizations making more projects, coordinating more people, and operating with more complex requirements.

A larger customer was not simply a larger indie user.

Across more than 60 user and client interviews during my tenure, I spoke with independent filmmakers and enterprise production teams.

The underlying problem was shared: production planning was fragmented and difficult to update. But the product relationship was different. Indie customers needed a product they could understand and use independently, while enterprise teams also needed collaboration, reporting, permissions, demonstrations, pilot support, and a roadmap they could trust.

Indie customer context

  • Individual or small-team use
  • Primarily self-serve
  • Standardized access
  • Immediate project-level value
  • Lower implementation burden

Enterprise context

  • Multiple stakeholders
  • More complex permissions
  • Demonstrations and pilots
  • Collaboration and reporting needs
  • Greater workflow integration
  • Longer-term roadmap alignment
A generalized comparison based on discovery conversations. Not every customer shared every characteristic.

Validate the workflow before committing to a bespoke product.

Enterprise conversations created pressure to respond to highly specific needs. The product challenge was separating requirements that represented a repeatable market opportunity from requests that would turn RivetAI into custom software for one organization.

Rather than committing immediately to a complete television product, I framed demonstrations, pilots, and early roadmap work as learning mechanisms: testing workflow fit, clarifying recurring requirements, and determining what belonged in the scalable core product.

That approach connected product discovery and business development. A sales conversation could generate product evidence, and a pilot could reduce the risk of committing engineering resources too early.

From enterprise conversation to product direction

My role crossed product management, research, strategy, and product-led business development. I led discovery conversations, demonstrated the platform, translated requirements into roadmap themes, contributed to a custom pricing approach, shaped pilots, and continued owning day-to-day product execution.

  • Enterprise discovery and workflow analysis
  • Product demonstrations and pilot framing
  • Product positioning and rebranding
  • Custom pricing approach and enterprise feature roadmap
  • Prioritization across indie and enterprise needs
  • Exploratory television roadmap

Episodic production introduced a different product problem.

ENTERPRISE DISCOVERY AND PILOT-STAGE ROADMAP EXPLORATION

Enterprise conversations revealed that television wasn't simply a larger film project. Episodic production involved repeated planning cycles, changing scripts, multiple versions of breakdowns, schedules and budgets, and more complex permissions across teams.

I proposed treating television as a distinct exploratory roadmap rather than forcing episodic workflows into the existing film product, including episodic project structure, version comparison, change logs, roles and permissions, repeated planning across episodes, and stronger interoperability with tools like Movie Magic and Excel-based budgeting.

Film-oriented workflow

  • One primary project arc
  • Feature-level script, breakdown, schedule, and budget
  • Project-based planning

Episodic workflow considerations

  • Multiple episodes with repeated planning cycles
  • Changing versions of breakdowns, schedules, and budgets
  • Cross-episode dependencies
  • Multiple users and permission levels
A generalized representation of the product considerations explored during enterprise discovery. This is not RivetAI's private roadmap.

The television direction progressed through enterprise discovery, workflow discussions, early scoping, and pilot conversations. One enterprise partner had used the existing platform for approximately three months, and we discussed shaping and piloting episodic workflows together. Specific company names are available on request, reach out directly to learn more. The work did not reach a public launch as a standalone television product during my tenure.

The enterprise opportunity moved from theory to active engagement.

4

Enterprise engagements

2 pilots and 2 partnerships

Through discovery, demonstrations, pilot conversations, roadmap development, and product-led business development, converted four enterprise conversations into active product engagements: two pilots and two partnerships. This work helped RivetAI begin establishing a market beyond its original indie subscription audience while creating concrete evidence for how the product would need to evolve.

Actor availability strengthened the core scheduling workflow, while the enterprise work tested whether that stronger product could support more complex production organizations. Together, the two efforts connected product retention with company strategy.

PRESENT-DAY REFLECTION

What I would formalize next

  • Criteria for qualifying enterprise opportunities
  • Pilot goals and exit conditions
  • Evidence that a request represented a repeatable market need
  • The boundary between scalable product work and custom client development

Confidentiality note

This case study focuses on my role, decisions, and product process. Certain interface details, customer information, and business metrics have been omitted or generalized to respect company confidentiality.