Deliberations on Cohort Carousel Integration Enhancements

TL;DR

• Considered how to manage the “always show random tiles” feature for cohorts.
• Opted to add this feature to the cohort schema for persistent control.
• Discussed the logic for when to display random content alongside prescribed content.
• Decided to automatically show random content when no prescribed content is available.

Today, I spent some time wrestling with the integration details for our cohort carousel system. Specifically, I focused on the “always show random tiles” functionality and whether it should be a permanent feature in the cohort schema or just a transient URL parameter for admins during content uploads.

My inclination is to make it part of the cohort’s schema, which ensures persistent control. This means that by setting a flag to true, we can have cohorts display extra tiles at any time, allowing for greater flexibility and consistency.

The main problem was whether this implementation should fill time gaps when prescribed content isn’t found. I wanted to ensure that whether content is finished or gaps exist due to scheduling, random content should still be displayed. The decision had its trade-offs, as it split our process into creating a cohort and updating it with content. I also wondered whether to seek the product team’s input on these scenarios.

Ultimately, the solution will automatically show random content when there’s no prescribed content. The Boolean flag now toggles whether random content appears in front of prescribed content. This subtle yet impactful modification is expected to enhance user engagement by ensuring there’s always something new to discover in the carousel, even in the absence of planned content.