CONTEXT

My Role and Team

I spent 3 months as a Graduate Research Intern at Spotify, working on the Creator team. Creator develops the tools and services used by Artists, Managers, Record Labels, and the music industry at large. During the summer, I worked on 3 projects for the Spotify for Artists platform, which I describe in greater detail below.

PROJECT 1

CONTEXT

Spotify Analytics was originally created for record labels to manage streaming data for their portfolio of artists. Spotify for Artists is a separate platform made for Artists and their Management team. With time, it became clear that both tools (Spotify Analytics & Spotify for Artists) were being used by all parties: Artists, Managers, and Record Label Employees.

Thus, Spotify undertook an effort to create a new version of Spotify for Artists that incorporates all the necessary functionality. Before I joined Spotify, significant engineering work went into developing this new platform. Now, it was time to see how well the new version addressed all user needs — particularly, the needs of Record Label users.

GOALS

1. Evaluate whether new Spotify for Artists platform addresses all user needs currently supported in Spotify Analytics.

2. Test whether record label users are happy with the new platform and ready to move away from Spotify Analytics.

3. Increase Spotify’s understanding of Record Label Users, across departments: Marketing, Revenue, Data Analytics.

METHOD

We set out to pilot the new version of the platform. The research activities we carried out as part of the pilot include:

• Interviews

• Live Issue Reporting (via Qualtrics)

• Data Logging

I worked with Senior User Researcher Aggeliki Chrysafidi to conduct 1-hour long interviews with 18 Record Label Users. These users worked at both the central-label and its sub-labels. They also worked in a variety of departments, some of which include: Revenue, Marketing, and Data Analytics. We needed to understand how user needs vary based on central vs. sul-label organization, department, and geography. We knew pain-points and problems might come up on the fly, so I created a Qualtrics form for any real-time issues. Finally, we worked with a Data Scientist on the team to monitor usage data for both Spotify for Artists and Spotify Analytics to track our success.

RESULTS & IMPACT

PROJECT 2

CONTEXT

GOAL

METHOD

RESULTS & IMPACT

REFLECTIONS

It was exciting for me to work in a completely new cross-section of industries. It was also an exercise in trying to accomplish a lot and have visible impact within a short time frame. I also gained insight into the way the “Product Insights” organization works at Spotify. They combine User Research with Data Science, welcoming a blend of quantitative and qualitative research techniques at every stage of the product.