How user research at Spotify is getting ahead of shifting trends in global culture
As we leap into spring, user researchers at Spotify are thinking carefully about how we can adapt to stay ahead of shifting global patterns and ensure an engaging, relevant experience for our users everywhere.
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The world is ever-changing and the flow of global trends is shifting with equal dynamism.
Spotify is now live in over 180 countries, each being influenced by different forces fuelled by both local and global culture. As a research team at Spotify, it’s more important than ever to stay on top of cultural happenings around the world to ensure that we are delivering locally relevant yet globally accessible products and content to our listeners.
With our product teams mostly anchored in the West, yet a lot of growth focused in the South and East, the challenge becomes setting up our teams to identify the insights necessary to shape product development for different parts of the world.
One trend that’s caught our attention of late is the cultural forces emerging from the East (mainly India, South Korea and Turkey) that are reshaping global culture and becoming forces to be reckoned with. The influence of Western stalwarts isn’t going away any time soon, but when we look at people in the Global South (comprising broadly the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania), we see that Eastern creators provide a version of global pop culture that resonates more deeply with their needs.
In 2015, over one billion people left their home
The majority moved to urban areas within their own countries. These modern migrants are one of many populations negotiating progressive, global lifestyles whilst grasping onto aspects of traditional culture and value systems. The creative movement emerging from the East acknowledges this tension, creating content and products that effectively mirror the occasions, aspirations, and challenges that people in the Global South experience.
Netflix aired the first season of its first original Turkish drama, ‘Hakan: Muhafiz’, in 2018. It was watched by 10 million households across 190 countries, with Brazil and Argentina amongst the countries most hooked on the show. The success of Hakan: Muhafiz can in part be attributed to the way the narrative transforms stories around local culture into a global narrative. Whilst based on a young tradesman in Istanbul, elements of the series are relatable to many viewers in these surrounding regions.
This trend, as an example, leads us to reflect on how we can improve the set up of our research teams to deeply understand these shifting trends, particularly those that are happening on the other side of the world to where we currently sit.
Approaches to ensuring cultural relevance
Here are three potential ways we can shift our research approach, strengthen our cultural understanding, and create more meaningful experiences that are truly relevant to people in all parts of the world.
- Layer in more methodologies to research design that accommodate cultural understanding
Exploratory research often relies on some form of contextual inquiry, alongside perhaps a diary study or pre-/post- task activity. However, there is opportunity to consider less conventional ‘ux-research’ methodologies that can add rigor to our cultural understanding. One of these methods is Semiotics — the study of signs and symbols.
Working with Semioticians to analyze cultural artifacts can provide huge value to insights discovery, both pre-fieldwork (identifying themes to explore in discussion, preparing stimulus for ideation sessions) and post-fieldwork (taking user-generated artifacts to analyze and feed into analysis).
Asking local partners for cultural reports and inviting experts on the research topic to share a cultural commentary can also further enrich our understanding.
2. Approach research in new markets with a clean slate
For products born in the West (such as Spotify), research in the Global South is often baked into some form of ‘phase two’ of an insights agenda. This means that we approach research in these growth markets armed with preconceptions around users’ attitudes towards the product — perhaps with some frameworks to explore or some hypotheses to prove. However, for exploratory research in particular, it is important that we approach these markets with a fresh perspective, allowing us to uncover insights specific to users’ contexts and consequently, allowing us to adapt our products appropriately.
Recently, my colleague Julien Leforestier and I carried out exploratory research in Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan, and the Philippines with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of listeners’ needs. Rather than approaching the study with hypotheses based on our learnings from the West, we went in with a clean slate, identifying a new audio needs framework based purely on what we heard in research sessions.
Whilst some user needs correlated with known needs in Western markets, we also identified others unique to these markets — something we risked missing out on if we had taken the other route.
An argument for this approach holds true for evaluative studies too, and this year at Spotify, we are looking to include a broader global representation of markets in our concept and usability studies.
3. Hire more diverse teams from different geographical and cultural backgrounds
An advantage of Spotify’s new ‘work from anywhere’ policy is our ability to recruit researchers from a wider geographical remit, and with that, more diverse cultural backgrounds.
There is huge value in having researchers from or located in regions being studied. An understanding of cultural sensitivities helps us design the most effective studies to supplement insights with broader contextual understanding. Of course, local partners can play this role to some extent, but having internal researchers who can represent consumers post-fieldwork when product decisions are being made is important.
Like Spotify, other tech companies are starting to see the benefits of this approach. Twitter, for example, is piloting an approach where local research teams are hired to develop products for the needs of the region in locations such as India and Ghana.
Looking to the future
At Spotify, our rapid international expansion has strengthened a company-wide focus on delivering a locally relevant experience to all. An example can be seen through our Sub Saharan Africa team, who recently launched the Gengetone Fire Playlist following the rise in popularity of Gengetone amongst the youth in Kenya — a genre that draws sonic influences from Dancehall, Reggaeton and Genge.
As a way of embedding ourselves in local culture, we employed local graffiti artists to help redesign Nairobi’s popular Matatu buses and bus shelters, alongside creating wall murals around the city.
As for product research, our increased presence in the Global South has motivated a reassessment of some research practices and approaches in order to ensure we are truly understanding what is happening in all regions where Spotify exists — understanding the impact and influence of trends and gaining a deeper understanding of cultural forces and their impact on behavior.
Constant shifting trends in culture at a macro and micro level, particularly with so much movement in the East, will continue to challenge us to think carefully about how we approach research. As 2022 takes shape, I’m excited to think about how we can add more cultural rigor to our methodologies, approach new markets with less biases, and boost our team diversity to deepen our understanding of our listeners in every corner of the globe.
A big thank you to the UR community at Spotify who contributed to my thinking on this article : Lotta, Heli, Domi and Sara.
Credits
Alexandra Hornsby
Product Insights Manager
Bio
Alex is a User Research Manager at Spotify, based in Brooklyn, NY. Her areas of interest include growth in new markets, cultural research and diversity initiatives. Before joining Spotify, Alex consulted for leading brands in the tech, lifestyle and nonprofit space.
Team
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