Spotify for Podcasters
Project overview
MY ROLE
This project took place between of 2023. My role consisted of research and prototyping.
CHALLENGE
Unlock the potential of podcasts as a more shareable media on mobile phones through the use of Spotify for Podcasters app’s tools.
SOLUTION
Machine learning model identifies and extracts most compelling segments from podcaster’s content and creates snippets. This then would be used as ads to draw users attention to feeds.
SOLUTION
A machine learning model would identify the most engaging and relevant parts of a podcast.
From there it could then extract the most compelling segments of a podcaster's content and then generate snippets to be used as advertising for the podcaster.
The machine learning model analyzes the podcaster’s content…
…and then produces a 20-30 second snippet that would then be advertised on the original Spotify app.
Normally when a listener previously clicked on a podcaster card, it would send them straight to the actual show about that particular episode.
Utilizing Spotify’s basic cards, we placed the advertisement directly in view right at the top of the screen with the title of “Discover & Engage Feed”.
Before …
This time around, however, the machine model would also provide a list of other podcasts that had been curated for that particular listener.
… After.
A bonus to to this would be that the machine learning model would be able to identify listener preferences and then use this information to suggest other content that they would likely to enjoy.
…New
IMPACT
Spotify is impressed
Our winning solution provided them with another avenue to explore.
Though our competition had also gone down a similar road that we had taken, the Spotify executives were impressed as to how we were able to incorporate the needs of both the podcaster creator and listener as seamlessly as we did.
KEY LEARNINGS
The 3 key learnings - both professionally and personally are the following:
1. Collaboration
I learned what it really took to complete a product from start to finish working alongside people who had a professional mindset.
2. Look and listen
Though it wasn’t without a few bumps, in the end I learned that there were a lot of different ways to solve a design problem if stood back a little to see the whole picture.
3. Future outlook
I’m looking forward to doing it again.
NEXT STEPS
If the people over at Spotify were to implement our solution, there are 3 suggestions my team recommended to tackle first:
1. More research
Our user sample size was too small. In order to really zero in on the solution we needed to dig deeper into the needs and wants of both listeners and podcast creators.
2. User testing
We never had the chance to actually put our solution to the test with real users. A/B testing results would help better determine direction in future iterations.
3. User testing
This first incarnation of the Spotify for Podcasters app was simple an MVP if there ever was one. Further iterations could do with a little bit more visual engagement.