Discovery Channel
Animal Planet Pets
In 2020, Discovery Brasil sought to expand the Animal Planet ecosystem beyond TV. 50% of the national audience had pets, and Brazil was already the 2nd largest pet market in the world. I was invited by Discovery Brasil and SupportComm to work with the innovation team, facilitating design and discovery processes, mapping the complete pet owner journey, building the product vision, defining key flows, conducting experiments with Warner Bros. Discovery's audience, and refining product-market fit hypotheses.
The fragmentation
The digital experience for pet owners was extremely fragmented: one app for vaccines, another for pet-friendly locations, another for content, another for price comparison, another for appointments, another for routines. No major player integrated all these needs in one place. Existing apps focused mostly on sales, not care. The pet owner journey was confusing, with no complete tracking or guidance. Key insight: Brazilians treat pets as family members, trusted information was a decisive factor, and owners sought guidance, not just products.
The response
Animal Planet Pets was designed as a super app centralizing health, care, leisure, shopping, and trusted content. The project combined research with pet owners and brand fans, competitive analysis, and deep journey mapping. Four product pillars emerged: care, routine, content, and benefits. Five core hypotheses guided the work: health organization, leisure features, trusted content, behavioral data for B2B licensing, and price comparison benefits. The MVP delivered a prototyped experience with health wallet, reminders, pet routine, trusted content, pet-friendly map, and personalized benefits.
Inside the project
Key capabilities
Membership program
What it proved
Research revealed strong signals: 36% of owners made impulse purchases, 52% had difficulty traveling with pets, and over 30% participated in online communities. The project advanced to MVP with a clear, scalable, data-oriented model. It was not officially launched due to internal restructuring at Discovery Brasil and overlap with a similar project in Mexico. The vision of a super app unifying health, care, leisure, and benefits remains an open opportunity.
Want to go deeper?
The full case study covers the research process, key metrics, and the decisions behind the design.
