🎧 Reimagining the Playlist: Designing for Memory, Emotion, and Connection
The playlist model isn’t broken by any means — but it has barely been iterated on since its inception. The way consumers build digital playlists today is essentially the same as it was in the early 2000s when music lovers burned collections of favorite songs onto CDs, or even the 1980s with carefully curated cassette mixtapes. Sure, Spotify has a yearly recap with Wrapped — a wildly successful, highly shareable product that drives anticipation and cultural relevance. But if Spotify wants to evolve beyond being a music player and fully step into its role as a social platform, Wrapped can’t be the only emotional touchpoint.
Spotify Moments imagines what it would look like to bring depth, storytelling, and memory into the core listening experience. How you’re feeling when you hear a song shouldn’t be reduced to a playlist title — it should live inside a more expressive, interactive journal that ties your music to specific moods, memories, and milestones. This project explores how Spotify can design for emotional stickiness by turning listening into a form of memory-making — where songs become time capsules and users curate not just soundtracks, but personal histories.
With over 602 million monthly active users worldwide, Spotify has one of the largest music-engaged audiences on the planet—but no persistent feature for capturing personal milestones, memories, or emotional context outside of Wrapped. Meanwhile, platforms like Instagram (Stories/Archive), Facebook (Memories), Snapchat (Flashback), and Timehop have all invested in memory-based features that drive emotional re-engagement and long-term retention.
Spotify is well-positioned to build a music-first alternative—one that turns listening history into a timeline of your life, deepens connection with the product, and positions Spotify not just as a playlist tool, but as a personal memory platform.
🧰 Platforms & Frameworks Used
Here is a list of the platforms and frameworks I used to complete this case study in product strategy and feature development. This work reflects a balance of hands-on technical thinking and the soft skills required for creativity, ideation, and customer lifecycle understanding.
🔧 Tools & Platforms
Figma – Designed high-fidelity wireframes and mobile UI mockups for the Moments feature.
FigJam – Used for early ideation, user flow mapping, and concept diagrams.
Notion - Used for organization and cross-team collaboaration.
📐 Frameworks & Methodologies
Design Thinking – Applied to structure the project from problem identification through prototyping and reflection.
Agile Product Planning – Broke the feature into MVP and iterative phases, including hypothetical sprint planning and rollout sequencing.
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) – Helped define core emotional and functional user needs Spotify Moments aims to serve.
User Story Mapping – Outlined core user flows like creating, revisiting, and sharing a Moment to ensure product completeness.
North Star Metric Framework – Aligned feature success with long-term engagement and retention indicators, not vanity metrics.
🌀 Agile Sprint 1: Planning
The first stage in my go-to-market approach focuses on defining the problem, understanding user mindset, and mapping the journey that Moments aims to support. This phase is all about grounding the product in user behavior and emotional intent before moving into design.
During this step, I:
Clearly articulated the core problem: music on Spotify is emotionally meaningful, but there's no native way to capture or revisit those memories outside of Wrapped.
Outlined the mindset of the user: sentimental, nostalgic, and seeking a way to preserve memories tied to music.
Developed a user journey map to visualize key flows—from listening to creating, to revisiting a Moment.
The FigJam shown below represents how this planning phase evolves into actionable structure, ensuring a smooth handoff to design and development teams in the next sprint cycle.
One last thing…
Before we begin designing the product, it's important to ground each sprint and every team involved under a shared goal. For Spotify Moments, that goal is emotional engagement over time — not just one-time use.
🌟 North Star: Users who revisit a Moment within 30 days
This metric captures long-term value and emotional stickiness. If users come back to reflect, it means Moments is doing its job: turning songs into memories worth reliving.
We’ll support this with metrics like:
% of users who create a Moment in their first week
% of Moments with mood tags or notes
Engagement with prompts like “Revisit Fall 2022?”
✏️ Agile Sprint 2: Design
🎯 Objective
Translate the Moments concept into user-facing surfaces that feel native to the Spotify experience, support Maya’s journey, and minimize friction.
🧠 My Approach as a Non-Designer
While I don’t have formal design training, I focused this phase on identifying strategic product touchpoints informed by the user journey. I used mockups and journey-based annotations to show where and why Moments should appear in the Spotify app.
📍 Key Integration Points
1. Playback Screen
Add a subtle “+ Moment” icon near the Like or Add to Playlist controls.
This allows users to quickly capture a feeling in the moment, without disrupting flow.
2. Library Tab → New “Moments” Section
A dedicated tab or card under "Your Library" gives users a timeline view of their music memories.
Moments appear as memory cards with date stamps, tags, and a “Play Moment” option.
3. Notifications / Recaps
Prompt users to revisit a past moment: “Remember Fall 2022?”
This aligns with Wrapped-style nostalgia and keeps users emotionally engaged throughout the year.
✨ Goal for Design Handoff
Enable a product designer to take these structural recommendations and bring them to life visually, with the right tone, motion, and brand feel.
⚙️ Agile Sprint 3: Development
🎯 Objective
Define a minimum lovable version of Spotify Moments — one that delivers emotional value to users like Maya while being feasible to launch, measure, and grow. The focus is on early validation through a tightly scoped MVP and clear success indicators.
🔁 What’s in the MVP?
This initial version should deliver the core emotional utility without overengineering. It prioritizes low lift, high impact features that map to Maya’s core journey.
🎯 MVP Features:
“Add to Moment” Button
Lives on the playback screen
Saves current track + timestamp
Optional: user can tag mood or add short note
2. Moments Timeline in Library
List view of saved Moments
Displays date + song + optional note
Tapping plays the song + displays note
3. Revisit Prompt (Manual Entry)
Soft launch a recap view for Moments grouped by date or mood
Prompt appears under Library or via notification banner
As we move into the development sprint, providing the engineering team with clear feature priorities will help us build a more focused, effective MVP—and ultimately deliver a better product, faster. Below is a brief overview of how this phase could be structured to ensure momentum, alignment, and user value from day one.
| User Story | Priority | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Save a song as a Moment while listening | Must-Have | Ready for Dev | Core functionality for Moments saving |
| View saved Moments with dates and notes | Must-Have | Ready for Dev | Allows users to review memories |
| Add a mood tag to a Moment | Should-Have | In Discovery | Adds emotional context |
| Get a prompt to revisit an old Moment | Could-Have | In Discovery | Encourages re-engagement |
🧪 Agile Sprint 4: Testing
🎯 Objective
Ensure the Moments feature is stable, intuitive, and emotionally resonant before wider release.
🔍 Quality Assurance & Bug Fixing
Perform comprehensive testing across devices and operating systems to catch and resolve technical issues.
Validate integration points with Spotify’s core playback and library systems.
Prioritize fixes for any bugs that impact user flow or emotional experience.
👥 Usability Testing
Conduct user testing sessions with target personas like Maya to observe real interactions.
Gather feedback on ease of adding Moments, tagging moods, and revisiting memories.
Identify UX friction points or confusion that could dilute emotional engagement.
📊 Analytics & Tracking Validation
Verify that data capture for Moment creation, revisitation, mood tagging, and prompt interactions is accurate.
Ensure all key events are tracked for later analysis against the North Star Metric.
Collaborate with data teams to confirm dashboards and alerts are functional.
🔄 Iteration Prep
Synthesize test results to create actionable backlog items.
Prioritize fixes and minor improvements to be addressed in the next sprint.
Prepare clear documentation for the design and development teams to guide iterations.
We’re now over halfway through the Agile framework for Spotify Moments, moving steadily from planning and design into development and testing. At this stage, it’s crucial to clearly assign priorities and manage responsibilities across all involved teams to keep the project aligned and on track.
To illustrate this, I built an example Notion project board that organizes key tasks into Not Started, In Progress, and Done sections, with assigned owners and priority levels. This board serves as a practical tool to foster transparency, accountability, and focused execution throughout the remainder of the project.
📦 Agile Sprint 5: Deployment
🎯 Objective
Roll out Spotify Moments to a controlled audience, ensuring stability and scalability before full release.
📦 Staged Rollout
Deploy the Moments feature to a beta group or select markets to gather real-world user data and feedback.
Monitor feature adoption and usage patterns closely during this limited release.
Use staged rollout to minimize risk and catch unforeseen issues early.
🔧 Backend & Infrastructure Setup
Finalize data storage solutions to handle user-generated Moments and metadata securely.
Implement notification triggers for revisit prompts and related engagement tools.
Ensure backend services scale effectively to support growing user activity.
📈 Performance Monitoring & Incident Response
Set up real-time dashboards to track system health, user engagement, and error rates.
Define escalation paths for rapid issue resolution during rollout.
Maintain communication channels with support teams to quickly address user-reported problems.
🤝 Cross-Functional Coordination
Align product, engineering, QA, and customer support teams for seamless rollout and troubleshooting.
Prepare support materials and FAQs to assist beta users and internal teams.
Collect and triage early feedback to inform post-deployment iterations.
🔍 Agile Sprint 6: Review
🎯 Objective
Evaluate the performance and user reception of Spotify Moments to guide ongoing improvements.
📊 Data Analysis
Analyze key metrics, focusing on the North Star Metric: users revisiting Moments within 30 days.
Review supporting KPIs such as Moment creation rate, engagement duration, and prompt response rates.
Identify trends, opportunities, and any unexpected user behaviors.
💬 User Feedback Synthesis
Collect qualitative feedback from beta users, customer support channels, and social listening.
Highlight common pain points, feature requests, and emotional responses to Moments.
Use direct quotes and testimonials to deepen understanding of user needs.
🔄 Team Retrospective & Planning
Conduct a cross-functional retrospective to discuss successes, challenges, and lessons learned.
Prioritize backlog items for fixes, enhancements, and new features based on data and feedback.
Plan next steps and sprint goals to refine the product and boost user engagement.
📚 Documentation & Knowledge Sharing
Document findings, decisions, and planned actions for transparency across teams.
Share insights with stakeholders and align on the product roadmap.
Ensure learnings are archived for future project phases or similar initiatives.
🚀 Agile Sprint 7: Launch
🎯 Objective
Make Spotify Moments widely available, driving adoption and establishing it as a core emotional experience.
📢 Marketing & User Education
Roll out coordinated marketing campaigns across Spotify’s channels to raise awareness.
Create in-app tutorials, tooltips, and onboarding flows to guide users through creating and revisiting Moments.
Highlight emotional storytelling and memory-making to encourage engagement.
🚦 Feature Enablement & Support
Ensure smooth feature activation for all users, minimizing friction in discovery and use.
Provide support materials and FAQs for users and customer service teams.
Monitor initial user interactions closely to catch and resolve any launch issues.
📈 Post-Launch Analytics & Optimization
Continuously track engagement metrics, retention, and emotional resonance signals.
Analyze adoption patterns to identify segments with higher or lower engagement.
Feed insights back into the product roadmap for iterative improvements and feature expansion.
🤝 Cross-Team Alignment
Maintain collaboration between product, marketing, engineering, and support to ensure cohesive user experience.
Plan for regular check-ins and updates on Moments’ performance and user sentiment.
Use launch momentum to inform future growth initiatives and social integration strategies.