Pandora: AMP
Pandora: AMP
Supporting the ever growing relationship between Pandora and the music industry at large - Pandora AMP and the Artist Marketing Platform suite of tools was created. Through interactions with the artists themselves and our industry partners, it quickly became apparent that there were opportunities for Pandora to empower these musicians, their teams, and the music industry at large to connect with fans. Leading a team to create a responsive, simple, and scaleable user experience and interface, we've laid the groundwork for some of Pandora's most compelling artist based interactions to date.
Where we started
Partnering with a Product Manager, we tested rough pilot marketing programs , beginning with "Artist Audio Messages": 15 second audio drops with CTAs to promote artist content. It went well, with click through rates averaging at 2%, and highs well over 15%. From there we quickly grew the offering, identifying new use cases, growing the team, iterated on many different ideas, presenting and received feedback throughout the company. Growing from a simple experiment, we began to see an opportunity to create connections no other music service was really doing.
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Next steps, Process, User Interviews, & Testing
Starting the process off with clear product principles to help guide decisions for the projects, I typically start with sketching, creating user flows, wire frames, prototyping, conducting critique sessions, user testing to validate assumptions and moving into hi-fidelity comps. Through a series of interviews with various users, musicians, and music industry professionals, we got to understand the needs for our users and what they felt was important. We also showed them concepts, user tested our prototypes, and gained invaluable feedback and insights that sharpened our unique offering. Along the way, we checked in with engineering partners to collaborate on our proposed solutions for out launch feature set.
AMP Home screens
Depending on the permissions level of the user, they're presented with an actionable homescreen that breaks down how their content is performing with their audience. Navigation was kept simple, with a prominent global "create" feature, while building a new and mobile responsive product.
Activity, Campaigns, and Profile Management
Through our research with musicians and industry folk alike, it became apparent that we needed to suit a variety of needs for promoting and connecting with fans. We created "Campaigns" which allowed for the user to designate what they wanted to do: create audible stories with audio messages, feature tracks, build a tour or show promotion, or something organic with any combination of the features. We left the offering wide to examine what, when, and how the various tools were being used.
Additional features included "Profile" control, such as, allowing the artist to update their photo on Pandora and input a ticketing link if they're on tour or have a show which surfaces applicable shows to users based on their preference for the artist and/or their geolocation.
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Samples of Specs for engineering
Being web first on this tool, we knew we had to satisfy various screen sizes. Leading a small design team, we built scalable patterns built on a basic 12 column grid. Breaking the items on the screen into the simplest of units: screens made up of modules, which are made up of components, and those are made up of objects.
AMPCAST
Leveraging mobile capabilities, we expanded on the feature "Artist Audio Messages" and brought it to mobile. We created, built, and shipped an artist only view, baked into the Pandora app for iOS and Android, accessible with a user's AMP credentials. We allowed artists to create audio drops, add an custom uploaded or captured image, target, post and share anything they wanted to their listeners.
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AMPCAST SPECS
iOS and Android specs for AMPcast features, and a quick visual update.
Programs AKA content building tools
After supporting the feature offering to the music industry that allowed Pandora to create direct play deals, we expanded our feature offering to now include interacting with listeners at a content level or "programs" our music based experiences. Partnering with our internal music content & curation team through fact finding interviews and concept testing, commonalities were identified - that starting with basic track lists grouped into folders, "sets", with various lifespan dates would be our jumping off point for many different program types. With plans to turn a simplified version of this tool over to musicians and music industry AMP users, we're constantly looking for new ways to simplify and make the content tool production faster.
Playlist and station creation
Creating flexibility with basic features, we empower the curators to build audible experiences to hit BOTH paying subscribers with direct play "playlists" and also ad supported listeners with "stations", built from the "set" or lists of music.
Genre Station and Genomic station management and "hosting"
The basis of some of Pandora's most popular stations starts with a few "sets", and a programming feature call "sequence control", letting the algorithm present the most applicable track to the user from one of the curated "sets".
Giving the system a much needed overhaul, this new take on program publishing flattened the user experience, streamlining the creation process. Curators commented that we took what used to take days, and made it into hours or minutes.