Defining North-Star, Input and Guardrail Metrics for Spotify's Podcast Product

You are the product manager for podcasts at Spotify. How would you measure the success of the podcast product? Explain what goal you think podcasts should serve for Spotify, whose behavior the metrics must capture, the one metric you would treat as the north star, the supporting metrics that explain why it moves, and the guardrails that would tell you growth is coming at a cost. ```hint Remember who else is on the platform Podcasts on Spotify sit between listeners, creators, advertisers and the music catalog in the same app. Settle what job podcasts do for Spotify's business before naming a metric, and test each candidate by asking whether listeners and creators are both better off when it rises. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does the scope cover video as well as audio podcasts, and the creator tools for publishing and analytics, or only the listening experience in the app? - Is the goal mine to set, or has leadership already said whether podcasts are mainly about engagement and retention, ad revenue, or bringing in new users? - Should the metrics work globally, or for one market where podcast listening on Spotify is still young? - Which surfaces count: mobile only, or also desktop, cars and smart speakers, where listening behaves differently? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for podcasts tied to Spotify's business (keeping free and paying users, ad revenue, time in the app), chosen over alternatives with a reason - A view of the listener, creator and advertiser sides, with a justified focus that does not starve the other sides - A north star that measures real, repeated listening rather than plays or downloads, and that autoplay or clickbait cannot easily inflate - Supporting metrics for discovery, listening depth, habit and creator supply, each linked to a lever the team controls - Guardrails for music cannibalization, recommendation and ad quality, content safety and creator health ### Follow-up Questions - After a home-feed redesign, your north star rises but music listening per user falls. Was the launch a success? - Weekly podcast listeners drop sharply in one country over a single week. How would you find the cause? - How would your metrics change if leadership made podcast ad revenue the top priority for the next year?