Release cycles copy

PIONEERING DISCOVERY

When I joined un:hurd music, there was no discovery process. Release Cycles marked the first project where we worked entirely forwards. Instead of ad-hoc feature requests based on what competitors were doing, the Product Manager and I worked together from the ground up to define the scope for the Release Cycles feature based on real feedback from our own users.  

We conducted 10 interviews with product users, collecting information on the steps they take to market their music, and most importantly their pain points in the process. For deeper qualitative insights we also conducted an in-person customer journey mapping session with a rising musician.  

As part of this work, I created our first user interview templates, which have since been used many times over by our product and marketing team across further projects.  

From this research, I developed our first set of user personas, of which Hobby and Aspiring artists are the demographic served primarily by our app. Emerging, Developing and Professional artists are served by the bespoke agency half of the company.

DEFINING SCOPE

Together with our PM, we analysed the themes commonly repeated in our user interviews and created an affinity map. This allowed us to visualise exactly how much artists discussed certain issues, and how many artists raised the same issues. Having a birds-eye view of the problem space allowed us to then engage in a highly productive opportunity mapping workshop with a cross-functional team including the CEO, marketing, product and engineers.  

Issues and their potential solutions were prioritised on an effort vs impact matrix, and we made the decision to begin tackling this mammoth problem with Release Cycles: a 12-week program of actions guiding artists through the entire process of releasing their first track, and marketing it afterwards step-by-step.

USABILITY TESTING

The introduction of Release Cycles touched nearly every area of the product, and linked together a series of marketing tools that previously existed in isolation by letting artists know what to do and when to do it for maximum impact.  

As it was such a monumental overhaul, I initially built a mid-fidelity prototype and conducted scenario based usability testing in person with 4 artists.

Users were asked to sign up to the app as a new user with a track to release, to complete a task for that day, to pitch to a playlist (this feature was not updated as part of the work, the navigation structure of the app had changed), and to create a release cycle as a returning user.

From testing, several usability errors were identified. The largest issue was artists being unsure how to glance ahead at their upcoming tasks. The identification of this error led to a fundamental restructure of the way the entire calendar function behaved. The feature was redesigned for the calendar to be always present at the top of the screen rather than triggered by a button.

THE FINAL VERSION

For the MVP of this product we elected to support single-track releases to test appetite. Users can choose from two options when creating a Release Cycle. For newbie artists, we created a 12-week release and marketing plan which includes tasks geared towards getting their music onto streaming platforms as well as how to promote it when it’s out. For hobby artists (that are already acquainted with the process of releasing) we included the option to boost an existing release through 4 weeks of targeted marketing recommendations.

In creating release cycles, product walkthroughs were introduced for the first time to give users some guidance and a jumping-off point to start their exploration.

When users access their release cycle, they’re greeted by daily tasks compiled by our team of music marketing experts. These tasks fell neatly into 4 categories: distribution, launch, marketing and social media. For each category I designed a simple graphic. While un:hurd offers an entire suite of promotional tools, there were many actions artists couldn’t complete on our platform. In these instances we signposted to un:hurd partners. 

Users have the option to view tasks each day, or switch to a week view for those that prefer to plan ahead. Marking tasks as complete updates their progress both within release cycles and also on the home screen.

ADAPTING FOR WEB

When designing the Release Cycles feature for web, the extra screen real-estate allowed me to take the calendar-based model used on iOS and really expand that to function like a true calendar. The tasks remained the same, but on desktop users could more easily get an overview of their entire week.

THE OUTCOME

Release Cycles has been widely adopted by both existing and new users,used by over 13K artists. Release cycles boasts the highest customer satisfaction score of any un:hurd music feature, sitting steady at 82-85%.

The Release Cycles project also earned huge stakeholder buy in for the necessity of proper discovery. Following the success of the feature, discovery before creating new or iterating over existing features became ingrained in the product lifecycle. This has enabled us to make more informed product and design decisions.