I can definitely say a lot of focus and innovation is happening on the studio side of Netflix. This is where tools for casting, managing the logistics of filmin

I can definitely say a lot of focus and innovation is happening on the studio side of Netflix. This is where tools for casting, managing the logistics of filming, budgeting, etc are being built in order to scale up Netflix's ability to create content. I spent the last 2.5 years of my time on this side. https://jobs.netflix.com/teams/studio-technologies https://jobs.netflix.com/teams/studio-technologies My first 3 years were on the consumer side, working on the TV client. I'm a bit more out of touch here. But I'd still say interesting engineering is happening here. I agree sometimes it is "marginal gain at massive scale", but that can be really satisfying and challenging in its own right. There are many different teams focusing on a lot of different things here. The consumer side is pretty much entirely driven by A/B tests. So teams might take on a big idea, but it can be hard for those to beat out the established norm sometimes. That may be a factor in why you feel the product is "static". Also the wide range of devices and internet connections can segment engineering. Many efforts apply across the board, but other projects might only apply to say high end game consoles for example. Regarding "get the right content to the right users", I don't have much experience with that. That's more in the domain of backend teams. I do know they also do A/B tests to guide innovation, but that's about all I can confidently say there.