The Band-Aid attempt

In 2015 Spotify removed the messaging feature due to low engagement. It was hidden somewhat in the menus, with users citing that it took many clicks to get to and was not simple to use because of the unnecessary navigational burden placed on the user. I actually liked the feature and used it quite often with several friends — one which I had a crush on and ended up marrying two years ago.

The now-removed messaging feature served two functions: to facilitate messaging and sharing music with friends and family. It served as an enabler to express our thoughts and feelings with one another through music. Many expressed frustration when this feature was removed, though it seems many weren’t aware of it in the first place. To me, this signals an opportunity to get it right a second time around.

Anyone remember this?

Before trying to figure out what to build — as tempting as it may be to think of, it was most important to start with users. Users always come first as they are ultimately the ones that will use the product. This might sound cliché or obvious, but a staggering number of companies see this mere fact as a UX problem, rather than a company problem. The fact is, you can’t just tack on UX by the end of a product launch cycle. It’s like trying to drive with your eyes closed. Though somehow it’s being done all the time. — No, I don’t mean people are driving around with their eyes closed.

“You can’t just tack on UX by the end of a product launch cycle.”

To start, I was trying to figure out pain points users have when sharing music on Spotify. According to Spotify, 72% of Spotify listeners are millennials, with 26% 18–24-year-olds, 29% 25–34-year-olds, 16% 35–44-year-olds, 11% 45–54-year-olds, 19% 55 and older. I scheduled interviews with mostly millennials since they represented the largest user demographic.

I was able to interview several participants for my research. Interviewees were screened on the basis that they were regular users of Spotify. I spent around an hour with each participant, uncovering little bits of information from each real user about who they are and what their experiences are through using Spotify. I compiled a lot of notes and synthesized the findings into a single uncovered problem: users have to leave Spotify in order to share music with each other, disrupting their experience by forcing them to leave the app. I found that this led to sharing music less between users.

As also uncovered from research, I was able to identify another common pain point amongst users. 75% of them said that the curated playlists that Spotify offers such as Discover Weekly were not really instrumental in addressing their needs to find new music. Spotify does intelligently predict what users would like to listen to however it doesn’t allow discovery outside of their music taste. — One user describing this similar to an “Echo Chamber”. Pretty much if you play several EDM tracks, chances are you’ll be hearing EDM for the rest of your life. Nobody wants that as their everyday routine. I mean if you’re into that, it probably shouldn’t be the only music you listen to. One participant stated: “I often ended up listening to the same songs rather than discovering any new music.” During the interviews, 100% of participants claimed that they like to discover new music from friends and would like to check out their friends created playlists.

On to generating new ideas…

2: Define

As I found out a common pain point amongst users, I focused on how users share music with one another on Spotify and then conducted a second round of interviews with a narrowed down scope of focus. One user commented, “I don’t share music on Spotify because it’s not clear how it works”, making it further clear about our problem space. Copying and sharing the link by pasting it somewhere else is not really sharing, it’s a workaround to a non-existent solution.

I needed to zoom out and get a clear view of our users and what they had to say. For this, I made an empathy map to organize the research into categories that would inform the user flow and our persona. I used post-its, which allowed me to paint a broader picture with clear cues as in what to build. Using a wall helps, as it allows you to take a glance at what the users are saying in a memorable way. Also writing short simple statements with a bold marker helps us digest information to clear to see, in little bits.

3: Ideate

The empathy mapping exercise is a great tool to understand your users. It helps us organize thoughts and patterns uncovered from our interviews into the creation of our user persona. This persona represents the target needs and aspirations of our user. Though fictional, the results are entirely uncovered through research, giving further purpose and clarity to our problem space.