Add A Feature (Project3)
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Goal: Incorporate a new feature into an existing product, to enhance the user experience.
For this project, my goal was to analyze an already existing and highly adopted app and incorporate a new feature into the existing product. I chose the music app Pandora.
Pandora is an American subscription-based music streaming service, now owned by Sirius XM Holdings. They are known for their original algorithm that is based on the users likes and dislikes of songs and types of music. The more you interact with the app the better it gets at playing songs of your liking.
Discover
To start my process I first did background research on Pandora and other music apps like it. From this, I was able to discover who Pandora’s competitors are. To get a better understanding of Pandora and its competitors I then did a business analysis that involved different charts.
I started with a Lean UX canvas that helped give me the big picture of what I am building, why I am building it, and for whom. With this, I was able to identify and fix potentially weak areas of the product and solve business problems. One business problem for Pandora being, listener decline, while its user benefits are, playlist suggestions.
I then took a deeper look at Pandor’s competitors and created a feature comparison chart. Here we compared stations, lyrics, playlists, profile interaction, podcasts, music recognition, video, and hi-fi. From this chart, I was able to see where Pandora can enhance user experience and see what competitors have and don’t have compared to Pandora.
With this information being collected about Pandora and its competitors, I created a Market positioning chart. Here I compared free plans and paid plans with interactive profiles and private profiles. Using the blue ocean strategy I was able to see where there is an opportunity in the market. Pandora right now exists in the “free plan” area. If they were to shift to having a more interactive profile, they would then be able to enhance customer experiences.
After our business analysis, I started to do qualitative research. I performed one on one interviews over the phone (due to covid) with five people.
I listen to Pandora’s pre made lists, it plays a bunch of music that is from the artist I clicked and music like theirs. -Shannon, 25
I use Pandora because it has premade stations and I like that. -Lee, 51
I like using Pandora for car rides. I don’t have to keep picking a song and the more I like a song and dislike a song, the more music it plays to my taste. -Laura, 32
By collecting more data from real people I was able to create a user persona that helped focus on what group I will be targeting. This persona is Izzy Friedman, a 26-year-old journalist who is an active music listener. She likes listening to Pandora’s premade station on car rides because she does not have to keep picking a song.
Define
With all user research collected and the business analysis, I then reach the define stage where I am able to establish a clear idea of exactly which problem I am trying to solve for the user. In this stage, I first started with an affinity diagram. This diagram helps me turn all my data into actionable information. Creating this, I was able to find trends and relationships. Through these trends and pain points, I was able to find design opportunities. I then created a value proposition canvas and started with one half of the chart; user jobs. This canvas allowed me to empathize with my user by learning about their gains, pains, and jobs.
- Gains: Music that suits the whole group, the ability to include everyone in the group
- Pains: Can’t share stations, can’t share profiles
- Jobs: Enjoyment of music, feeling of togetherness, playing music for everyone
I then incorporated a user journey map with all the data I have collected through research, and maps and charts created.
The user journey map helped show an interpretation of the overall story from the user’s perspective. While also helping me to empathize even more with the user. By creating this I was able to identify user touchpoints with the product.
With these touchpoints in mind, I created problem statements that helped define the issue’s user’s face.
Problem Statements:
- Users want to be able to play music in a group that will appeal to everyone’s taste.
- Friends want to connect over music in a way that brings them together.
From these problem statements, I then generated How Might We Statements that helped guide me with possible solutions. By doing this I was able to answer these in multiple ways.
With the How Might We Statements in mind, I am brought to the Ideate stage where I brainstormed ideas for solutions.
Develop
With all these ideas in mind, I needed to select and prioritize which ideas I need in order to solve the problems users face. To do this I did the MOSCOW method.
After this, I was then able to complete the Value Proposition Canvas on the products and services side.
- Product Services: Create a Friends Station
- Gain Creators: Shared profiles, add friends, custom group stations
- Pain Relievers: Shareable stations, shared profiles
By doing this and finishing the canvas, it helped ensure that the product is positioned around customer values and needs.
To understand the situation in which people encounter a problem and why it needs to be solved, I made a user job story and business job story.
User Job Story: WHEN users choose music to create group intimacy they will CHOOSE Pandora BECAUSE it can create a station, WHICH will match everyone’s preferences.
Business Job Story: WHEN a group of people are spending time together, they will WANT to create an intimate atmosphere so that they can ENJOY each other's company better, WHICH will make them feel close.
MVP
By establishing a clear idea of what the user’s problems are and what they need, I created a minimum viable product. One that creates the smallest feature set that a user would use and one that best addresses the user’s pain points.
I created a feature that allows Pandora users to create music stations with friends that contain everyone's music preferences. Through Pandora music’s algorithm of filtering music to a user’s liking, the same technique will be used when creating a “friend station” for a user and friends. Creating this feature will enhance a user’s experience when using Pandora. This feature will allow users to connect with others through music. By collaborating user’s music tastes to create one station, it will bring people closer and overall, satisfy everyone.
Once my MVP was established I created a sitemap to show how the pages are prioritized, linked, and labeled. By doing this it helped ensure that content is in places that users would expect them to be
I then created a user flow to show the path a user will take when using the product. It shows every step the user will take from start to finish.
To test my MVP I created a low fidelity, mid-fidelity and high fidelity prototypes.
I sketched out my lo-fi prototype on paper and once I performed a usability test, created a mid-fi prototype on Figma. Moving forward I finished the prototype on Adobe XD making it high fidelity.
You can see the hi-fi prototype here.
(Directions- Add NEW Friends Station. Tap search bar, ADD Shanno Patricia, and Shannon Rose. EDIT and DELETE Shannon Rose. Go BACK. Create Friend Station. Click the new station created.)
