Spotify Product Improvement: A Plan to Deepen Podcast Listening

As a product manager at Spotify, you have been asked to increase how much users engage with podcasts. What would you do? ```hint Find the weakest step first Before listing features, choose which group of users you are targeting and where in the podcast journey they fall away: finding a show, starting an episode, finishing it, or coming back for the next one. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which outcome counts as engagement here: more people trying podcasts, more listening time per listener, more episodes finished, or more people coming back every week? - Is the push tied to a business goal such as podcast ad revenue, Premium retention, or attracting more podcast creators? - Should the plan target people who use Spotify for music but rarely play podcasts, or people who already listen? - Are video podcasts and changes to creator tools in scope? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A defined engagement goal tied to why Spotify cares, rather than raw time spent - A chosen user segment with a reason, compared with at least one alternative - Pain points along the podcast journey that reflect an app where podcasts compete with music for the same listening moments - Prioritized solutions with their trade-offs, especially against the experience of music listeners - A north-star metric with supporting metrics, guardrails and a test plan that can show lasting habits rather than one-off plays ### Follow-up Questions - How would you keep podcast promotion from hurting people who open Spotify only for music? - If total podcast minutes rose but the number of weekly podcast listeners stayed flat, would you call it a success? - How long would you run an experiment on a discovery feature, and why?