Problem Statement

Spotify has decided to take a deeper look into podcasts and is trying to reimagine its podcast experience to provide additional value to its podcast users. As the product designer for Spotify Podcasts, you are expected to:

  1. Identify what engagement means to Podcast listeners. Understand their needs a. While engaging with podcasts b. Post-engagement with Podcasts
  2. Along with the already identified pain points of a. Highlighting certain parts of podcasts, b. Being able to share snippets of podcasts & c. Being able to take notes and revisit Solve any other significant pain points that have been identified in the process of understanding what engagement means to podcast listeners.
  3. Consider how to scope your solution by a. Balancing out hypotheses and considering what to validate by building an MVP. b. Showing empathy towards other functions like engineering, product etc.

Constraints

  1. Cover the major use cases and flows but do mention any edge cases you come across.
  2. Choose the platform of your choice - iOS or Android.
  3. Spotify has its design philosophies as an org. Do not break through those philosophies unless necessary. Essentially, simplicity in experience is key.
  4. This experience should not break or interfere with the current Spotify experience.
  5. Restrain yourself to the enhancement of the podcast experience only while listening to a podcast and post-listening to a podcast. The discovery is out of the scope of this assignment.

Assumptions

Of course, we understand that to come up with a good solution for this problem statement, in reality, would need a lot more time and resources. Also, covering everything won’t be possible because we have limited time. So, take the necessary assumptions and declare them. If anything, you feel, is a blocker, discuss it with the interviewer even before starting.

Requirements

  1. Assumptions that you have taken
  2. Your thought process
  3. The final solution and the primary flows
  4. What would be your next steps after designing the solution?

Evaluation Parameters

  1. Communication and Presentation