SUMMARY
Established a clear user experience strategy for the Mobile and Web products. Collaborated with Product Managers, Researchers, Stakeholders, and Developers. Created wireframes, iterate designs, and standardized user flows through prototypes. As a team, we established and managed the Design System.

GOALS TO ACHIEVE

During the past four years at UnitedMasters, I was fortunate to be a part of the core team and establish the MVP of the product in the early stages. Within that time and as the team grew my focus became narrowed down to some mission-critical projects across a few different domains. Priorities shifted as the market changed and as new leadership took the helm.

One thing remained constant across domains. The willingness of the team to shift focus and deliver high-quality work in short time frames, with limited information, and limited resources. 

HIGH-LEVEL PRODUCT ROAD MAP

Create a product that stands out from our competitors by focusing our attention on the following pillars:

a. Distribution
b. Subscriptions
c. Earnings
d. Data & Content
e. Partner Artists with Brands
f. Beat marketplace

A utility tool alone is not enough to create a compelling experience. Connecting artists with brands made UnitedMasters stand out from any distribution product. Learning from primary research opportunities, research shows that we must include emotional connections to increase the chance of awareness, engagement, and retention.

PROJECT METHODOLOGY AND TOOLING

Project Approach
Methodology: Agile
Framework: Modified Scrum

Cycle: 2 weeks

Data Gathering
Brainstorming

Stakeholder Interviews
NPS Surveys
User Interviews
Observation

Data Representation
Flow Charts
Affinity Diagrams 

Mind Mapping 

Context Diagrams

Process
PRD
Wireframes
Mockups
Iterations
Prototypes
ENG Estimation

Ticketing
Development
Quality Assurance
Limited Release
Monitor
Staged Roll Out
Full Launch

Tooling
Figma
Loom Video
Slack
Jira
Confluence
Miro
DataDog
Google Analytics
Firebase
Github

BUILDING EMPATHY & IDEATE

Applying user-testing and video insights we gathered all our studies and created a user journey map. Some of the goals from the artist's perspective included:
1. Guided coaching when distributing music.
2. Educate the user when and why errors occur while uploading music and distributing. 
3. Providing a more personable experience with customer service. 

This has impacted our artists when renewing subscriptions. We saw a large decline in the churn rate. This was one vertical that was mission-critical and that took priority over the past 6 months.

After gathering all the data and creating representations I began sketching out a number of different layouts, interaction models, and concepts for the product.
I presented some wireframes to the team and discussed each direction. Once we came to a conclusion and direction we moved forward with high-fidelity concepts.

ITERATIONS AND PROTOTYPES

Exploring various design iterations and prototyping ideas. Fine-tuning in Figma and continuing to prioritize features to build into the designs. Keeping each Use Case in mind as I narrowed down the final designs.

SLIM SIGNUP

Artist Journey is part of ongoing work to optimize our onboarding flows and understand what the ideal first 30/60 days of an artist should look like on our platform. We want to both understand the artist's primary goals/intent, our goals along the way, and what the artist's sentiment might look like. As we optimized the original onboarding experience to help reduce customer acquisition costs by reducing sign-up friction and increasing the frequency of artist engagement. Slim Sign Up also decreases churn by providing more educational & inspirational content in-app e.g. more reasons to renew, and improves subscription retention from 43% to 60% by providing more demonstrable value to creators.

ARTIST DASHBOARD

A summary of the Artist's Streaming data; Top Tracks, Playlists, Exclusives, Audience, and Social Followers. The main interactive graph represents three major platforms; Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Streaming data is presented by Week, Month, and All Time. 

• Top Tracks - An in-depth view of an Artist’s Top Tracks provides streaming data for a Week, Month, and All Time. Displays the playlist the track is featured in. 
  
  
• Spotlight - Playlists are displayed within a carousel UI. An in-depth view of a playlist allows the user to play the playlist in-app via a mini player. 
  
  
• Exclusives -  (brand opportunities) allow artists to access placement opportunities in TV, Film, Games, and more. It provides a chance for an artist to submit their music to major brands such as; NBA, ESPN, and Apple. 
  
  
• Audience -  data displays the Artist’s streaming analytics by locations around the world. The data is organized by Week, Month, and All Time. An interactive map presents the data in a compelling and interesting way. 
  
  
• Socials - The Artist is able to connect all social platforms and have a summary of the number of followers.

EARNINGS

An importantly focused section of the product that I worked closely on is the artist's Earnings. What is more important to an independent Artist than getting paid? The Artist Wallet or Earnings provides a place where they can see when and how much they got paid via streaming services, split the revenue with collaborators, and cash out directly into multiple accounts.

DISTRIBUTION

Release music to all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, and, more. Choose when to release music, split royalties with collaborators and view all your streams on one screen.

BEAT EXCHANGE

Upload audio files and tag your beats with ease. Publish your beats and start selling in seconds. Choose which license is best for you, start from a streamlined license template and customize the details to meet your needs. View insights on beat metrics and revenue.

LESSONS LEARNED

Record labels are gradually fading away and more independent artists are distributing, managing, and building their own businesses as musicians. There is more potential than just distribution alone. Connecting artists with fans, building a marketplace for merch and, organizing tour dates will be the scale for independent artists. A human-focused experience can provide sustainability and trust.

NEXT PROJECT
Innit - Product Design