Context

Soundtrap is a music tool by Spotify, on a mission to make music creation simple and accessible for everyone.

At Soundtrap’s largest, the design team consisted of 12 designers and UX writers embedded in product teams across three units; Consumer, Education + Core. We were a remote-first team located across Europe and the UK.

EXPERIENCE

At Soundtrap, I cared deeply about developing effective and energized teams; ensuring we were building a viable product our users would love, whilst being genuinely excited about coming to work.

This was true whether I was on the tools designing, or managing direct reports, and applied across my teams, unit, Soundtrap and Spotify.

🛠 Led a ‘Fix it week’ pilot, aimed at elevating the overall Soundtrap experience through optimisations and fixes not tied to OKRs. 25 improvements made by one team in 4.5 days, recieved commitment by Head of Product to implement it as a recurring ritual across Soundtrap. Official playlist →

🥭 Introduced ‘Mango Madness’ design ritual, dedicated design time to develop out our design system ‘Mango’. Adopted by the team and hosted by a different designer monthly.

🌱 Co-created an 18-month strategy for the consumer unit, together with the other unit leads

💼 Utilised Jobs To Be Done framework to identify new problem spaces & opportunities for the unit

🚀 Launched strategy together with new brand identity for the unit to frame new positioning

⬆️ Saw unit engagement score increase, consistently highest engagement score across all units

🌱 Hired & managed a remote team of 5 across design, UX writing and UX research disciplines to support the growth of consumer product teams

💬 Facilitated bi-yearly development talks and performance reviews aligned to the Spotify career framework, created templates to add clarity around the process and structure goal setting

💫 Developed new rituals & processes together with my team to improve communication and encourage more cross-collaboration

🎨 Led a re-evaluation of how we ran Design Review after noticing lack of engagement. Trialled & formalised a safer & more engaging session format & template. Try the Figjam template→

🌱 Established design processes in 4 new product teams, playing a key role in producing some of ST’s highest performing teams

🌸 Supported the integration of UX Writing as a new practice in Soundtrap, helped establish ways of working within the product teams and with designers

👋 Updated onboarding processes and introduced better team documentation to simplify onboarding for new remote-starting team designers and support design team growth

🎉 Co-facilitated in-person workshops & social events to strengthen sense of belonging