This document summarizes a presentation about using research insights to inform excellent product design at Spotify. The presentation covers: - Understanding the business context, including key metrics, strategies, strengths, and priorities to ensure research aligns with business needs. - Considering macro trends in demographics, infrastructure, the economy, politics and technology that may impact users. - Continuing to deeply understand user needs and behaviors through research. - Bringing together insights about the business, world, and users to identify opportunities that solve for both business and human needs.

1. From Research Insights to
Product Design Excellence
at Spotify
8th September 2021
With Ashley Smith

2. Hello! I’m
Ashley Smith
I lead the R&D Insights team
for Freemium at Spotify.
We are a team of user
researchers and data
scientists focusing on user
behavior and needs.

3. We build user value
and the user
journey.
My team is responsible for understanding what existing and
future users want and need and how that translates into driving
overall business goals like user growth and revenue. We focus
optimizing existing experiences and identifying new value.
We oversee the entire user journey for our
Spotify customers, ensuring we are focused
on their needs every step of the way.

5. We operate at the intersection of
business outcomes and consumer experiences

6. Humans’ needs should
influence strategies

7. How you can represent
business needs and
authentically represent
human needs
Today, I want to share with you:
The importance of
understanding the
business context you
operate in
How understanding your
business context can
amplify your strategic
impact

8. Let’s get this party
started!

9. Let’s start by aligning on why we are all
here. We want to make great things for
users, consumers, humans.
We strive to understand them and to be
their voice and advocates. We want to
make everything possible for them.

10. And...

11. We operate in a business landscape
with strategies, priorities and constraints
that influence what is possible and
viable.
To begin shifting those strategies and
priorities to be more user centered, we
must understand them.

12. Understanding
your business

13. Know your
numbers
● What are your business’
priorities?
● Are those priorities stable
or changing?
● What are they key metrics
for your organization?
● Does your work drive
those metrics?
● Does your work lead to a
viable ROI?

14. Know your
strengths
● Is your brand strong and
established/ forming and
flexible?
● Are you the competitive
market leader? Or leading
with a specific audience?
● Do you have technology
advantages?
● What unique advantages
exist to lean into?

15. Know your
strategies
● What key strategies exist in
the organization today? In the
next 5 years?
● What are the long term goals
for your organization?
● Are there deeply held beliefs
that are hard to change?
● How do those support or
strain the opportunity space
you are working in?

16. Understanding
the world

17. Macro trends What do we mean by a Macro
Trend?
A Major Emerging Change in
Consumer Behaviour that will
last In the Foreseeable Future.
That is driven by
Shifts in Foundational Market
Dynamics and changing
Consumer Expectations.
What is happening in the world
today that will impact the way
your experience is received
when it gets to your users?
Anticipating large changes helps
you plan for them and
incorporate them into your
solutions now, vs when they
come.

18. 18
A G E D I V E R S E H H
W E A L T H
T I M E U R B A N L A B O R
H E A L T H
5 G I O T A I P A Y C L I M A T E P O L I T I C S B I G T E C H
Demographic
Shifts
Infrastructure
Dynamics
Geopolitical

19. Timing it right
● Target emerging and maturing
trends to capitalize on momentum
● Avoid, but be aware of waning
trends

20. Most people tend to overestimate the rate of
change that will occur on a 2 year basis, and
underestimate the rate of change that will
occur over 10 years.
- Bill Gates

21. Understanding
your users

22. Our sweet spot As UX practitioners, this is our
expertise and our most important
role.
What do we know to be true for
humans based on conversations we
have with them, understanding their
needs and behaviors?
What are the opportunity spaces we
see for humans in the world that
may or may not already use our
products.

23. Everything else
is context
As a researcher, I believe that the more
context you have the more powerful your
work becomes.
With this context, you are more likely to
ask the right questions. In turn,
developing robust user centric solutions
that incorporate business needs and the
global context.
While we aim to leverage this context, we
must not compromise on what we
believe our users need to drive
business outcomes. A healthy business
is not possible without delivering real
value to humans.

24. How do we bring all of these
together?

25. A user centered approach to finding
new opportunities will solve both
user and business needs.

26. What’s happening with humans?
What needs do people have that
will influence your experiences?
What is happening in the world?
What larger macro trends are
happening in the world that might
influence your experiences?
What’s happening in the company?
What strategies or tailwinds exist
within your company that might
impact your experiences?

27. Strengths
User
Insights
Macro
Trends
Sweet
spot

28. These are
positive
constraints...

29. That position your work for
long term strategic impact.

30. Skate to where the
puck is going, not
where the puck is
today.

31. ● Optimize your solutions to support success of key metrics and
align your ideas with where the organization is headed.
● Leverage competitive, technical or other advantages your
organization has to strengthen the viability of your solutions.
● Understand what has changed or is changing in the world that
will impact your organization and users.
● Continue the great work of understanding humans’ needs and
build great experiences for them - incorporating the context
you have about your organization and the world.
In summary:
● Design for your business
● Understand your World
● Advocate for your users

32. Thank you.
Questions?!