PRODUCT

Pandora

ROLE

UX Designer

PROJECT TYPE

Take Home Design Exercise

PANDORA GIVES YOU PREFERENCE CONTROL IN A PERSONALLY CURATED STREAMING EXPERIENCE.

PANDORA GIVES YOU PREFERENCE CONTROL IN A PERSONALLY CURATED STREAMING EXPERIENCE.

By including access to playlist filters, queue editing, and bundle browsing, Pandora will enhance product value for its core user base - in turn driving conversion and extended consumer liftime value.

THE ASK

For Procore’s UX Design Challenge, I was tasked to evaluate the Pandora app in understanding its user base and aligned product value, in turn determining gaps in Pandora's current user experience to propose solutions and refined product designs.

PROCESS

Understanding the project ask, I defined the end-to-end process that I would take toward understanding the problem, strategizing opportunities, and designing an actionable solution:

PHASE 1: RESEARCH

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

To begin, I first considered the current state of Pandora’s product from an analytic perspective - taking into account any existing research on the music streaming platform’s user base and product use patterns to inform my own understanding of both challenges and successes faced [listed right].

To begin, I first considered the current state of Pandora’s product from an analytic perspective - taking into account any existing research on the music streaming platform’s user base and product use patterns to inform my own understanding of both challenges and successes faced [listed below].

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Currently, Pandora places priority over converting its Free User - 94% of its active user base - toward its Premium Service - Pandora's monthly subscription model - with intent to extend consumer lifetime value and decrease churn. Additionally, Pandora seeks to grow its Music Genome Project, the backend music recommendation platform shaping all playlists. Pandora states the project to be a competitive advantage for future company growth.

1. Pandora is the most used music streaming service in the United States, consisting of 82 million active users spending on average 25 minutes a day using the service.

2. Of this number, 76 million (94%) only use the free tier, with 6 million now crossing over between the Free and Premium tiers.

3. The most significant active user base on Pandora is between 35 - 44 years old.

4. 91% of Pandora’s user base uses mobile app only.

5. Pandora users streamed 5.09 billion hours in 2017, a decline from the 5.22 billion in 2016. With this, Pandora experienced churn of 3 million users last year alone.

Noting Pandora's business objective to grow its Premium Tier product offering, alongside the app's current core user makeup of 35 - 44 year old Free Tier mobile users, I focused my following research objectives into an open ended question for unbiased guidence and consideration to opportunities. To do this, I asked "How Might I?" [below].

HOW MIGHT I?

How might I extend the consumer lifetime value of Pandora's core user base?

PRODUCT NAVIGATION MAP

Seeking to gain perspective toward both useability successes and difficulties that drive engagement toward conversion for Pandora’s core user base - I mapped common navigation patterns across a variety of user interactions and outcomes in the Pandora app. Doing this, I took particular consideration to the paths and relationships of Pandora's Free Tier design toward perceived product value, loyalty, and Premium Tier conversion.

SWOT ANALYSIS

With understanding of the paths and interactions possible to follow in using the Pandora app, I examined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) that Pandora exhibits in providing value to its users, as well in the music and media streaming product landscape.

VALUE PROPOSITION

“A hand curated listening experience that’s uniquely yours.”

Understanding Pandora's current product offering, the service provides its users sustained ability to stream music based on listening preference and habit, without extended engagement in receiving it. With this, Pandora's competitive advantage is in-part due to its core user base of 35 - 44 year old people having grown up in the age of radio - accustom to passive music streaming and unnending song rotation with little required commitment. Pandora displays product value to this core user base in supplying an experience similar to that of radio, but refined with better recommendation toward preference and habit.

Due to the size of Pandora's most active core user base, focusing on extension of value toward their preferred Free Tier user could yield the greatest value in growth of the Pandora product.

“A hand curated listening experience that’s uniquely yours.”

Understanding Pandora's current product offering, the service provides its users sustained ability to stream music based on listening preference and habit, without extended engagement in receiving it. With this, Pandora's competitive advantage is in-part due to its core user base of 35 - 44 year old people having grown up in the age of radio - accustom to passive music streaming and unnending song rotation with little required commitment. Pandora displays product value to this core user base in supplying an experience similar to that of radio, but refined with better recommendation toward preference and habit.

Due to the size of Pandora's most active core user base, focusing on extension of value toward their preferred Free Tier user could yield the greatest value in growth of the Pandora product.

USER INTERVIEWS

With my initial evaluation of usability strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats existent in Pandora’s current UX, I then sought to understand the ways real people go about using Pandora.

With my initial evaluation of usability successes and pain points existent in Pandora’s current UX, I then sought to understand the ways real people go about using Pandora.

To do this, I reached out to members of Pandora’s most significant user population, people between ages 35 - 44, living in Denver, Colorado that use Pandora on mobile devices. Conducting two in-person interviews, as well as posting in my community’s Facebook group, I posed the following questions:

1. Why do you use Pandora?
2. What do you enjoy most about using Pandora?
3. What do you dislike about Pandora?
4. How do you wish Pandora were improved?

Between the two in-person interviews that I conducted, as well as 16 insightful responses to my community Facebook post, I discovered the following insights:

1. Pandora users are “radio natives”, preferring lack of autonomy and involvement in their song selection with gurantee a station will be best built to their preference. They lose trust in Pandora upon unnecessary involvement.

2. Pandora users are terrified of “disliking” songs for fear of destroying their favorite stations forever - even preferring to never like or skip songs that drive a longterm negative chain reaction.

3. Pandora users become aggravated with overplay of a single song, having no way to immediately effect their station without having to select or find new music.

PRODUCT USAGE OBSERVATION

I also tasked both of my in-person interviewees to walk me through the current flow they would take in using Pandora in adding and listening to a new station. This is what I learned:

1. The Browse toggle seems “nice to have”, but spawned hesitation opening from the Stations toggle - for reason of overwhelming with content not relevant to the user upon launch. The participant selected the first playlist that resonated to the Rock Genre and quickly added it.

2. One participant found that he could select individual songs after watching a commercial. He was both surprised and terrified by the change in design and home page with the Premium Tier update. He thought it may ruin all the stations he has saved - especially with a different home screen and toggle.

3. One participant demonstrated that he could dislike a song in the Free Tier player, but did not know where that preference lead to, as well as how it would affect the future of his favorite station. He wanted that song to come back again eventually, so he did not dislike it.

TWO CORE PAIN POINTS

Synthesizing the insight that I received in my interviews and conducted usability tests, I determined the following two pain points as negative disruption of Pandora’s UX with strongest opportunity to solve for in considering Pandora's core user base:

PAIN POINT 1:

FEAR OF THE ALGORITHM

Users are untrusting of disliking, liking, and skipping content for fear of permanently altering the future of their favorite stations. The current interactions that Pandora allows to immediately change music and express preference is not representative of the user's intention in seeing temporary results based on listening intent - therefor leading to distrust in outcome of Pandora's suggestion algorithm.

USER NEED TO RESOLVE THIS PAIN

There is a user need to resolve this pain point for the purpose of achieving confidence in expressing music preference and variety in immediate music choice.

Additionally, this pain point is important to solve for in considering benefit to Pandora's Music Genome Project - as less trust in this feature yields more false data in immediate music preference, and in turn for the user less actionable music recommendations over time.

USER NEED TO RESOLVE THIS PAIN

There is a user need to resolve this pain point for the purpose of achieving confidence in expressing music preference and variety in immediate music choice.

Additionally, this pain point is important to solve for in considering benefit to Pandora's Music Genome Project - as less trust in this feature yields more false data in immediate music preference, and in turn for the user less actionable music recommendations over time.

PAIN POINT 2:

EFFORT OF BROWSING

Users decline to interface with the Browse toggle for unfamiliarity and failure to resonate with displayed content, as well as lack of wanted effort to spend beyond their go-to stations and saved Stations page . Users want greater variety in the music they listen to, as well as recommended choice within their own listening preferences - but are not willing to go far to find it.

USER NEED TO RESOLVE THIS PAIN

There is user need to resolve this pain point for the purpose of providing users a faster and more actionable means to finding the music that they are most interested in.

Doing this, users will have access to a wider span of music to cycle between best suit to their own preferences, while having spent minimal time or effort toward saving their selections.

USER NEED TO RESOLVE THIS PAIN

There is user need to resolve this pain point for the purpose of providing users a faster and more actionable means to finding the music that they are most interested in.

Doing this, users will have access to a wider span of music to cycle between best suit to their own preferences, while having spent minimal time or effort toward saving their selections.

PHASE 2: STRATEGY

PERSONA & JOURNEY MAP

Based on realization of the above two pain points, I drafted a persona and accompanying user journey map purposed to voice the shared processes, goals, and pain points of Pandora's core user base in a typical interaction with the mobile app. This allowed for clarified visualization of key opportunities in contrast to the events of a user's interaction with Pandora. Meet Greg Feldman [below].

Based on realization of the above two pain points, I drafted a persona and accompanying user journey purposed to voice the shared processes, goals, and pain points of Pandora's core user base in a typical interaction with the mobile app. This allowed for clarified visualization of key opportunities in contrast to the events of a user's interaction with Pandora. Meet Greg Feldman [below].

KEY OPPORTUNITIES

Personifying the goals and pain points of Pandora's core user base, I came to the following key opportunities in improving Pandora’s user experience and solving the above pain points:

With Rachel’s journey representative of the goals and pain points faced by climbers planning their trip with consideration to weather, I’ve found the strongest opportunities that meet climber goals and pain points to include:

1. Refining Pandora's dislike and like features with Station filters best representative of the user's immediate streaming needs - removeable anytime to diminish fear of playlist destruction.

1. Displaying optimal climbing time aligned with best daily weather at location.

2. Immediate song queue access for viewing and editing - giving user's best preference of song choice within their Station's recommended music stream.

1. Displaying optimal climbing time aligned with best daily weather at location.

3. Bundling music discovery selections based on user habits and listening preferences for quicker resonating in finding, selecting, and saving music.

2. Outlining time needed to complete each step surrounding climbing for climbing at optimal weather

SOLUTION

Extend value for Pandora's core user base toward ultimate conversion by implimenting the following features that better enhance Pandora's user experience for the defined pain points:

STATION FILTERS

In place of Pandora's dislike and like filters in the current player, implement addable and removeable filters to each Station best representative of immediate listener streaming goals and related song attributes.

In place of Pandora's dislike and likefilters in the current player, implement addable and removeable filters to each Station best representative of immediate listener streaming goals and related song attributes.

MODIFY STATION QUEUE

Impliment immediate access and editing capabilities to the song queue of any Pandora Station, allowing user's to best modify their preference of choice within their Station's recommended music feed.

BUNDLE MUSIC BROWSING

Impliment a Recommended Browsing feature alongside Pandora's classic Browse feature, allowing users to explore music bundled to their listener habits and preferences.

PHASE 3: DESIGN

To design a useful product experience which optimizes the Pandora user's preferred product engagement patterns, I considered the taxonomy of interactions the user would take in opening a station, accessing the queue, and editing their preferences - as well as browsing and selecting new music for their Station. Justified by Greg, the above persona, Pandora users commonly wish to spend minimal time engaging with the interface, and are often intentional in setting up their music stream before embarking on an incremental activity.

In planning and visualizing this experience, I took the following steps: mapping the user flow, sketching, wireframing, and high fidelity interface designs.

To design a useful product experience which optimizes the Pandora user's preferred product engagement patterns, I considered the taxonomy of interactions the user would take in opening a station, accessing the queue, and editing their preferences - as well as browsing and selecting new music for their Station. Justified by Greg, the above persona, Pandora users commonly wish to spend minimal time engaging with the interface, and are often intentional in setting up their music stream before embarking on an incremental activity.

In planning and visualizing this experience, I took the following steps: mapping the user flow, sketching, wireframing, and high fidelity interface designs.

MAPPING THE USER FLOW

After concepting the needed features to assist the Pandora user in setting station filters, editing their queue, and browsing bundled music, I mapped the necessary flow a person would take in using this product from initial entry of the app upon returning use - for purpose of first solving current user pain points.

SKETCHES

In my sketching process, I drafted the visual representation of user interactions necessary to completing the above user flow. Sketching was particularly useful in visualizing the ways both Filter and Browse features would be displayed to transparently visualize queue editing capabilities, and for the user to best resonate with recommended music bundles.

WIREFRAMES

In my wireframing process, I considered the visual flow necessary for users to select a Recommended Station, Station Filters, editing their Station Queue, and opening a Recommended Bundle.

In my wireframing process, I considered the visual flow necessary for users to select a Recommended Station, Station Filters, editing theirStation Queue, and opening a Recommended Bundle.

For Me Toggle in My Stations

Selecting Station Filters

Feedback on selecting Filters

Editing the Station Queue

Browsing Music Bundles

Entering Browse Bundle

Adding a Bundle to Stations

Save edited Queue

HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS

MY STATIONS TOGGLE

Upon Pandora launch, the user is brought to his saved stations - now with ability to toggle For Me, the station suggestion engine that displays more music stations he would enjoy based on current listening habits and preferences.

In the event he does not see a station he immediately resonates with, the user can refresh his feed to receive more stations.

This feature answers the user pain point of low effort invested in browsing - in turn, bringing more music suggestions to the front of the user with minimal effort to find and add a new station.

MODIFY STATION QUEUE

Entering Pandora's Free Tier player, the user selects the Filter icon to choose from intent-driven filters which refresh his station's queue with topics labeled by Pandora's Music Genome Project.

Selecting his preferred filters, the user views his refined station queue, then re-arranging his song order, hiding songs he does not wish to hear now, further modifying his applied filters, and refreshing his entire queue.

Saving his station preferences, he is able to re-open the modified station anytime, with no permanent effect if he wishes to change his preferences or reset to the station's original settings.

Entering Pandora's Free Tier player, the user selects the Filter icon to choose from intent-driven filters which refresh his station's queue with topics labeled by Pandora's Music Genome Project.

Selecting his preferred filters, the user views his refined station queue, then re-arranging his song order, hiding songs he does not wish to hear now, further modifying his applied filters, and refreshing his entire queue.

Saving his station preferences, he is able to re-open the modified station anytime, with no permanent effect if he wishes to change his preferences or reset to the station's original settings.

The ability to modify Pandora's station queue with the above settings directly meets the pain point of user fear in permanently destroying a station upon disliking, liking, and skipping songs - the user now receiving value through addable and removeable preference settings with immediate feedback of result.

Additionally, pain points of song repeat, lack of immediate choice control, and high-effort music browsing are diminished.

Lastly, Pandora's Music Genome Project receives benefit in more accurate insight toward user preferences and song choice - serving better music recommendations to the user over time.

The ability to modify Pandora's station queue with the above settings directly meets the pain point of user fear in permanently destroying a station upon disliking, liking, and skipping songs - the user now receiving value through addable and removeable preference settings with immediate feedback of result.

Additionally, pain points of song repeat, lack of immediate choice control, and high-effort music browsing are diminished.

Lastly, Pandora's Music Genome Project receives benefit in more accurate insight toward user preferences and song choice - serving better music recommendations to the user over time.

Key Point of Conversion:

Pandora's Premium tier offering could allow users ability to save filter and queue preferences after a defined period of time for immediate access on stations page.

BROWSE BY BUNDLES

Toggling to Browse, the user is immediately presented with Browse Bundles, a Pandora-generated collection of music built to best resonate with his listening habits and past streaming preferences. The bundle briefs him on what to expect from the content inside.

Upon entering, the user is able to view collections of playlists, artists, songs, and albums belonging to the bundle - with ability to filter his results based on his own streaming goals in that listening session. He saves both the bundle for later access, as well as a single playlist in the same session.

Toggling to Browse, the user is immediately presented with Browse Bundles, a Pandora-generated collection of music built to best resonate with his listening habits and past streaming preferences. The bundle briefs him on what to expect from the content inside.

Upon entering, the user is able to view collections of playlists, artists, songs, and albums belonging to the bundle - with ability to filter his results based on his own streaming goals in that listening session. He saves both the bundle for later access, as well as a single playlist in the same session.

Music Bundles directly answer the pain point of high-effort browsing by supplying users with an immediate collection of content they are likely to enjoy based on listening habits and preferences.

Bundles also allow for the user demand of immediate music choice - with filters to apply preference toward an arrangement of music based on streaming intent.

Music Bundles directly answer the pain point of high-effort browsing by supplying users with an immediate collection of content they are likely to enjoy based on listening habits and preferences.

Bundles also allow for the user demand of immediate music choice - with filters to apply preference toward an arrangement of music based on streaming intent.

Key Point of Conversion

With Premium Tier upgrade, users could receive recommended playlists, songs, and albums from the bundles they've added, sent by notification before times most likely to use Pandora.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

In solving for the pain points of Pandora's core user base with the above implimentations, success will be measured throught the following key performance indicators [right].

1. SHORTEST TIME TO STATION ADD

By measuring for this KPI, I will be evaluating for the transparency of steps taken to move through the product's refined user flow in adding a new station - examining user understanding and willingness to engage with implimented features. Success of this KPI will be reflected through use of the For Me and Browse Bundles features to add stations.

2. NUMBER INCREASE OF STATION ADDS WITHIN ONE MONTH OF ROLLOUT

By measuring for this KPI, I will be evaluating for adoption of both the For Me and Browse Bundles features as regular browsing tools when using Pandora. This KPI will reflect the useability of implimented features, as well as integration into streaming behavior for Pandora's core user base.

3. LONGEST DURATION OF FILTERS APPLIED

By measuring for this KPI, I will be evaluating for the duration of time that the user's preferred filter settings have been saved to a station - implying useful results of the user's applied filterrs, and perceived useability in the filters presented with streaming results delivered.

WHY THESE WORK

WHY THIS WORKS

Implimenting the above features to Pandora's user experience directly resolves the most commonly reported pain points experienced by the product's core user base.

By including access to playlist filters, queue editing, and bundle browsing, Pandora further delivers on its value proposition of both personalized curation and immediate autonomy - allowing users to be in full control within the boundaries of their own comforability through preferred passive listening.

These feature implimentations also extend product value for the core user base in solving for the most affected party - with expected result yielding the highest rate of loyalty and opportunity for Premium Tier conversion in saving customized settings, and receiving best recommended music based on listening intent.

Implimenting the above features to Pandora's user experience directly resolves the most commonly reported pain points experienced by the product's core user base.

By including access to playlist filters, queue editing, and bundle browsing, Pandora further delivers on its value proposition of both personalized curation and immediate autonomy - allowing users to be in full control within the boundaries of their own comforability through preferred passive listening.

These feature implimentations also extend product value for the core user base in solving for the most affected party - with expected result yielding the highest rate of loyalty and opportunity for Premium Tier conversion in saving customized settings, and receiving best recommended music based on listening intent.

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?

JoshAdlerDesign@Gmail.com

(818) 983-7452

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