How I increased a community app's traction in the beta phase by shifting focus to meet the needs of the Young Aspiring Musicians (YAM) persona, transforming it from a basic social platform to a community-led logistics support for classical musicians performing abroad.
The MVP of a revised community app was launched within the local crowd of a classic music festival; 65% of the participants signed up to keep using the app after the festival, a 90% increase from the previous app test the previous year. This is the story of battling conventional thinking to introduce change. It is a story of convincing the leadership of the benefits of a strategic shift and struggling to convince mid-management to abandon traditional ways and pursue innovation instead.
My role: I was the sole UX/UI designer and researcher on an agile team of five developers, a product manager, and a mid-level manager. I was responsible for revamping the community app, part of a larger desktop platform. I led design sprints with the leading management at the beginning of the project and pursued ongoing attempts to recruit the support of mid-management and the rest of the team throughout the project.
Tools:
Miro, Adobe XD, Zepplin, Google Forms, lookback.com
Methods:
Stakeholder interviews, competitor analysis, former user interviews analysis, ideation, user interviews, user surveys, in-app surveys
Timestamp: 2021 | 6 month
Situation (the problem)
A startup dedicated to boosting classical musicians' careers using designated technical tools experienced low traction in its community app. I joined them as a lead UX app designer to revamp the app to offer a better experience to classical musicians and boost traction.
Shortly after joining, I aimed to thoroughly understand the app's current value proposition and its alignment with target users. I assessed the app, reviewed past user interviews, and conducted a competitor analysis. I initiated and led a design sprint to involve the team and gain insight into top management's strategy and informal perspective on the app's objectives.
As we faced competition targeting the same audience with a different approach and identifying a persona with urgent needs, it became evident that a strategic shift was essential to provide genuine value to the app users; otherwise, traction could not increase.
How can we develop a community app that provides real value to its target users, assisting them in their daily challenges as classical musicians?
This is an overview of how I led an end-to-end process of transforming a Facebook-like community app into a community of practice catering to the unique logistics needs of the 'YAM' (Young Aspiring Musicians) persona I discovered. I secured support from upper management while navigating challenges to get acceptance from middle management and developers. Validating the MVP under real-world conditions helped propel the change forward.
Task and Action (Process):
I use the Double Diamond process to ensure early ideation and a flexible solution design approach. I find it highly efficient for feature development for established SaaS platforms and seed-stage startups.
Diamond one: finding the right problem to solve
looking at existing UX research
Conduct user interviews
Finding the right problem to solve in this task meant understanding the challenges and pains facing possible community users. I examined the company's previous UX research materials, identified user personas, and comprehended the existing users' issues by analyzing in-house archives and online testimonials. I also reviewed past design decisions and analyzed how they affected the app's low traction.
The process combined qualitative and quantitative methods to define a new persona - the YAM, young aspiring classical musicians.
Key steps included:
Understanding Social Communities: Conducted research and a literature review to identify the driving forces behind various social communities, ultimately matching the company with the community of practitioners that would fuel growth. Recognized the need to move beyond standard structures, focusing instead on personalized and deeply resonant community connections.
Listening to Clients and Users: Interviews and sessions with stakeholders and users.
Diamond one: finding the right problem to solve
Create UX artifacts to help prioritize the discovered problems
Personas Discovery: Identifying the YAM persona and its unique logistical challenges.
Remote Interviews: Leading interviews to discover which persona to target, pinpointing the personas' challenges.
UX/UI Process: Revised architecture, Layout design, and Preliminary UI studies for a new community app.
Step 1: Deeply understand the current product by conducting research interviews and investigating prior interviews. Observe users' interactions, highlight pain points, and target usability issues. A quantitative phase included surveys to rate troublesome features.
Step 2: Interview stakeholders and conduct several design thinking workshops to understand personas before and after COVID-19. Using tailored questions was iteratively for validation.
Step 3: Remote workshop to allocate and prioritize relevant features.
Diamond two: finding the right solution
Early ideation and numerous iterations
Lean design thinking tools
Key Features and Design Decisions:
The key features involved crafting a mental model based on YAM personas' needs, such as logistics assistance for concerts held outside their country. The design aimed to become a hub for connections and resources, providing real incentives for participation in a global community of peers. See full booklet
Diamond two: finding the right solution
Converging on a solution
UX Design: Develop a workflow that allows the YAM persona to source and secure logistics help and liaison for remote concerts.
Outcome and Impact:
The business goal was refined through the project, and a specialized UX strategy was crafted for the social platform to increase traction. A new mental model for the app was developed, focusing on the YAM personas' logistics needs during concerts held outside their country and acknowledging their unique social needs influenced by a lonely lifestyle on the road, significant career challenges, and extended practice hours. Through hands-on workshops and the utilization of self-made toolkits, the app was transformed into a central pillar for renovating the business model, offering tangible incentives to YAM. The final result was a clickable, thoughtfully tailored to the YAM persona's needs. Several iterations were tested in 7 sessions to pinpoint and rectify usability issues. (contact tamar.schori@gmail.com for more information)
Looking Ahead:
The future potential includes creating city-specific groups like LONDON, BERLIN, etc., to benefit young professional musicians as they travel. Connecting with peers and accessing localized resources offers an excellent tool for networking. Populating these groups with local providers and artists in these cities acknowledges the unique characteristics of places like Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and Milan. It's a forward-thinking approach to creating resourceful connections per city.
Learnings:
The project illuminated the importance of listening to stakeholders and users, focusing on personalized experiences, and the power of strategic design thinking. It emphasized the need for custom solutions rather than relying on generic off-the-shelf tools, leading to a more engaged and supported community of young aspiring classical musicians.
To sum it up:
For a classical initiative aimed at aiding young aspiring classical musicians in advancing their careers through technology, I was entrusted with refining their business goal by redesigning their social software platform. The discovery of YAM, or young aspiring classical musicians, led to a concentrated focus on their specific logistics and social needs on the road, shaping the platform's core functionalities.
