Spotify’s Unlocking
On-Demand

 
 

DURATION
Apr - Sep 2021

MY ROLE
Lead Product Designer

TEAM
1 Motion Designer, 1 UX Researcher,
1 Data Scientist, 1 Content Strategist,
2 Product Managers,
2 Front-end Devs, 4 Backend Dev

DELIVERABLES
Lo-fi Site Flow
Hi-fidelity Wireframes
iOS Interaction Designs
Motion Designs
Interactive Prototype

TOOLS
Figma
Principle

Spotify needed to capture more of their Gen Z users by building a new model under the Free tier that will unlock access to On-Demand by engaging with Ads. The goal is to increase engagement and conversions.

 
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On-Demand is a
limited experience
for Free users.

200mil monthly users get a 14-day On-Demand trial at sign-up which has the most impact on engagement, retention, and conversions
for Spotify’s Gen-Z audience.

However, 50% of listeners expressed that the lack of
awareness of On-Demand features which include ad-free
listening, playing a specific track, and unlimited skips have resulted
in less than 5 minutes of listening consumption a day, and a 33% decrease in conversions to Premium.

This obsolete model has become hard to compete with competitors
like Resso and TikTok who offer more engaging ways to earn
On-Demand sessions throughout the Freemium experience.

 
 

Design Sprint to uncover more engaging
ways to unlock On-Demand.

I facilitated a 1-week Design Sprint with my primary team stakeholders to knowledge share,
brainstorm design ideas, prioritize, and prototype different model offerings that unlock On-Demand.

We explored how might we enable listeners on a temporary basis to discover On-Demand as Premium features, with clearer information, and greater control throughout the experience.

 
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Contextual Entry Points

Building awareness of On-Demand features contextually
with different ways to unlock through actions.

Promotion of Features

Educating listeners on what features will be offered
during an On-Demand session.

Persistent Components

Providing access to details about
On-Demand sessions for the duration of the offer.

Reimagining the Premium Details Page

Designing the PDP to infuse a persistent space
for details about On-Demand Premium offerings.

 

Defining the Ad-unlocked
model as our MVP.

After prioritizing which ideas would have the highest impact with
minimal effort to build, we determined that the most
feasible model would be an Ad-unlocked offer for time-capped
access to On-Demand a day during the trial.

Triggering a 30sec ad at the critical moment of selecting a
track to unlock a 30min OD session, is a familiar sponsored session to
users, and would increase ad-supported revenue.

I then created a foundational map of the end-to-end
experience of the Ad-unlocked offer.

 
 
 

Utilizing motion and sound
to amplify the peak moments
in the experience.

I collaborated with our Motion Designer to stimulate delight
at peak moments along the journey. Taking my sketches, he
implemented animation with sound and haptic feedback utilizing
Material.io guidelines. The goal was to entice listeners to engage
with the offer and alert them at the start and end of the experience.

 

User testing awareness,
education, control,
and delight for our listeners.

I created an interactive prototype, partnered with our researcher, and content strategist to gain feedback from our users on how much awareness, education, control, and sense of delight they experienced throughout the Premium session.

We conducted a remote usability test, and sampled 12 Freemium users of Spotify’s Gen Z audience who ranged from ages 16-26yrs old.

 
 
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A deeper understanding of
our users through feedback.

Based on user feedback, we discovered when to trigger the offer,
how to clarify messaging, the need for system notifications, reactions to sound and haptic feedback,
and gauge the usefulness of persistent and dynamic information throughout the session.

 
 

High-fidelity specs for Spotify’s new
Ad-unlocked On-Demand experience.

Based on user feedback, and functionality capabilities, I was able to finalize all UI, existing and new components, interactions, and copy to visualize the main user flow.

I also created a site flow and high-fidelity specs of an iOS and Android system push notifications with haptic feedback to alert background listeners when the Premium Preview has been activated, before 5 minutes are up, and when the session has ended, for our developers to reference.

I created and provided my developers with style guidelines documenting all existing and new components, fonts, colors, and animation assets to reference for production.

 
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Measuring success and its impact
on users and future models.

After launch, we successfully saw a 75% increase in listening consumption to the full 30 minutes of On-demand a day, a 25% increase in retention, and a 17% increase in conversions that resulted in $20M in subscriptions, and $1M in ad-supported revenue.

This also helped to inform different Premium models we can
offer and release to a larger audience in the future. 

 

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