Introducing a Purpose-Built Diversity Data Collection Workflow in Nucleus
Product: Nucleus
Client: British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)
Delivery Timeframe: 2023 – 2024
Front-End: Bootstrap, JavaScript
Back-End: PHP, MySQL
Project Tools: Jira, Confluence, AWS QuickSight
Approach: Agile Development
As Product Manager for BAFTA’s Nucleus platform, I led the diversity workflow redesign that eliminated publication bottlenecks and reduced reporting timeframes from weeks to days whilst supporting BAFTA’s commitment to BFI Television Diversity Standards compliance. When BAFTA adopted mandatory diversity data collection in 2020, the additional validation requirements created operational bottlenecks that delayed content publication and increased administrative overhead for both the Awards and LIT (Learning, Inclusion & Talent) teams.
My key strategic decision was separating diversity data collection from the main entry workflow through automated entry progression rather than building complex dual-approval processes within existing forms. This architectural choice enabled parallel processing—video content could be published immediately whilst diversity data underwent separate validation—eliminating the publication delays that had shortened member review periods on BAFTA View.
Working with the development team, I designed automated status transitions based on structured form dependencies that reduced manual validation work whilst improving data quality through consistent categorisation. The new workflow launched for the 2025 Television Awards in September 2024, enabling faster content publication and delivering diversity insights within days rather than weeks whilst establishing the foundation for enhanced reporting capabilities that support BAFTA’s long-term inclusion objectives.
BAFTA’s adoption of BFI Television Diversity Standards as mandatory entry criteria created significant operational challenges that were constraining the entire Television Awards workflow. The diversity data requirements, covering representation across multiple categories including gender, ethnicity, disability, social background, and LGBTQ+ identity, substantially increased the complexity and volume of information requiring validation before entry approval.
Under the existing process, all entry data had to be fully approved before content could be published to BAFTA View, BAFTA’s VOD platform where members review submissions. This created a critical bottleneck: diversity data validation delays were preventing timely video publication, shortening the review period available to members and creating pressure throughout the awards timeline. The Awards team found themselves responsible for validating complex diversity information whilst the LIT team, who had expertise in this area, lacked direct access to the data embedded within entry forms.
The reporting challenges compounded operational difficulties. Diversity data was captured through free-text fields that made analysis time-intensive and limited the ability to generate insights quickly. Manual spreadsheet processes were consuming significant staff time whilst delivering limited visibility into compliance trends, category-level analysis, or broadcaster comparisons that stakeholders required for strategic decision-making. By August 2023, it became clear that the 2024 awards season would require a systematic solution to prevent these bottlenecks from compromising the awards process.
Eliminate Content Publication Bottlenecks
Reduce Cross-Team Administrative Overhead
Accelerate Strategic Reporting and Decision-Making
Implement Scalable Automation Architecture
Improve Data Quality Through Structured Collection
Establish Platform-Wide Process Improvements
Designing Workflow Separation Without Compromising Data Integrity
- The challenge was enabling parallel processing whilst ensuring diversity data remained linked to the correct entries and maintained accuracy throughout automated progression. Entrants needed clear guidance about the separated workflow without creating confusion about submission requirements or status tracking. Working with the development team, I designed automated entry progression that maintained data linkage through Nucleus’s category and progression functionality, ensuring seamless handoffs between workflows whilst providing clear status indicators that guided entrants through both submission and diversity data collection phases.
Balancing Automation with Flexibility for Complex Award Categories
- Television Awards include diverse entry types with varying diversity requirements—some categories required full diversity data whilst others needed limited information or exemptions entirely. The automated system needed to handle these variations without creating operational complexity or requiring manual intervention for each scenario. I leveraged Nucleus’s category filtering to create intelligent routing that automatically applied diversity requirements based on entry type, ensuring compliance focus remained on relevant entries whilst eliminating unnecessary administrative overhead for exempted categories.
Managing Stakeholder Expectations Through Extended Development Timeline
- Initial stakeholder discussions began in August 2023 for the 2024 awards season, but stakeholder response delays meant development couldn’t commence until February 2024, pushing implementation to the 2025 awards cycle. This created pressure to deliver comprehensive functionality within a compressed timeline whilst ensuring thorough testing and stakeholder validation. I managed expectations by focusing on core functionality that would deliver immediate operational benefits whilst establishing architecture for future enhancements, ensuring the September 2024 launch met critical requirements whilst creating the foundation for ongoing workflow improvements.
The Television Awards diversity workflow redesign demonstrates how strategic architectural decisions can transform operational constraints into systematic efficiencies whilst supporting organisational mission objectives. By choosing workflow separation over complex dual-approval systems, we eliminated the publication bottlenecks that had been compromising awards timelines whilst establishing automated progression capabilities that continue to benefit other programmes.
The project’s success came from recognising that the solution required operational redesign rather than process optimisation. Rather than trying to improve existing workflows, I proposed fundamental separation that enabled parallel processing—allowing video content to reach members immediately whilst diversity validation operated independently. This architectural approach delivered both immediate operational improvements and the platform enhancements that continue to support broader awards management efficiency.
Working with stakeholders and the development team, we proved that complex compliance requirements could be integrated without compromising operational effectiveness. The automated progression functionality, structured data collection, and “Unsuccessful” status capabilities established through this project now support workflow improvements across multiple award categories and external clients, demonstrating how solving specific problems can create systematic platform value.
This project reinforced my conviction that successful product management requires understanding when operational problems demand architectural solutions rather than process improvements. The continued adoption of capabilities developed for diversity workflow—automated progression, enhanced status management, structured data collection—across other programmes validates the strategic approach of building solutions that solve immediate needs whilst creating lasting platform value.
The workflow’s continued evolution through subsequent awards seasons, supported by stakeholder feedback and continuous improvement processes, demonstrates how thoughtful product strategy creates foundations for ongoing innovation whilst delivering measurable operational transformation that enables organisations to focus on their core mission rather than administrative complexity.