Background
Customers want to check how an artist fan base evolves over time, and how engaged they are (usually by calculating the following ratio: likes over followers/subscribers) ; and compare the evolution and ratios with other artists.
What questions to answer to better understand this opportunity?
WHY?
What problem we are trying to solve for the customers and how this opportunity helps the business and the company objectives. I know what feature has to be built and the needs it fulfils for the customers but it is important to also define the problem.
Problem statement: With the internet and social media, the music industry has been facing many challenges over the years. For labels it gets more difficult to figure out how successful an artist is. They might have a strong fanbase but spread all over the world, so it is more difficult to gauge. Decline in traditional media such as radio makes it more difficult to figure out how successful a band is. There is an opportunity for Soundcharts to help labels to make better decisions and actions by being better data informed.
“What can we do with social media data or analytics in general to help labels to better manage artists' careers and make better decisions when signing a record deal?”
WHO?
Understand better the audience, the categories of people split by the different motivations they have while using the product.
I built some assumptions on the audience:
Independents
Self managed artists
Non signed artists
Majors
Mini-majors
Major- independents
There is a big focus on looking at data, researching artists and seeing what stage of development they are at. Do they all operate this way? And do they all focus on the same criteria?
Beside label categories, I will ask if the audience can be split into different roles (agents, distributors, PR, marketing, manager…). Do they all need to see and have access to the same level of information/data? Do they want to accomplish the same goals?
WHEN/WHERE?
Understand the context, when and where people use the product
What is the trigger for customers to look for this KPIs and in what context.
Does it make sense to focus only on customers but also end-users which can be different.
What objectives and metrics should we consider for this effort?
As a final step, I would define with the PM what metrics to focus on according to the business goals.
Increase engagement
Avg time per day/week/month, a user visits the feature page
Amount of interactions per session (ex: # artists queries)
Customer satisfaction (feedbacks, surveys)
Usability (usability tests) Are data clear enough and not too overwhelming?
Do users get the big picture straight away with what they are looking for?
How should we build the feature?
The 2 KPIs to display:
Fan base (total fans, followers and subscribers)
Engagement fan ratio (likes over total of fans, followers and subscribers)
The challenge here is should we display two KPIs in the same chart. What is the most data we can display according to user needs by making it the most impactful and comprehensive without making it too overwhelming. How to find the right balance between personalisation and customization of data. It would be helpful to know more about what the user is trying to achieve (decisions, actions, tasks…).
IDEAS EXPLORATION SKETCHES
VARIATION A.
One chart displaying both KPIs by default. I have the assumption that displaying dual axis chart with two KPIs is misleading and can biased the interpretation of data. The baseline can be different and the scale as well. This can be a problem when looking for two trends. It is harder to read. It would need to be tested.
VARIATION B.
One chart displaying both KPIs but artists data is actionable. Here the idea is to make data actionable in the legend under the chart. I have the guess that it is an extra effort for the user to process and maybe not the most impactful way to present data. Also a legend should not have different purpose. Filter and legend should be two separate entities.
VARIATION C.
KPIs are displayed in separate charts (side by side). My guess is that this version is the most readable and clear for the users. Also there is less confusion by how much the numbers differ. The inconvenient is that it takes more space and the charts are smaller. User test will determine what can be compromised if it makes it clearer for the users in the end.
ITERATION IDEAS WHERE DATA ARE ACTIONABLE
How to do research and validate UX?
Research and user tests would help figuring out what is less overwhelming and leads to better data visualization and business decisions.
Users interviews (understanding better how labels develop artist career and take the decision to sign an artist (process, criteria, type of data).
Interviewing internal stakeholders at Soundcharts to get insights about what is already known.
Run usability tests with the targeted audience asking them to explain what they see and iterate, validate assumptions and create new ones from the results.