Curio

Curio is a concept chatbot feature that helps users build a hyper-personalized Spotify library faster. When Spotify set a goal of adding 10M MAUs in a quarter, I explored whether growth could come from converting users on competing platforms. I surveyed 23 users and 70% said they would never consider switching. Interviews with Spotify and Apple Music users revealed why: users were deeply satisfied. Their libraries felt personal, recommendations were dialed, and both reinforced a strong sense of investment. An import tool could remove friction, but without intent to switch, there was no real opportunity. The real opportunity was accelerating personalization for brand new users. Operating on this new hypothesis, I tested two concepts, Chat and Curate. Chat, a playlist building chatbot, performed stronger in usability testing. Curate was shelved while Chat was integrated into onboarding, aiming to help users build one or more personalized playlist before signing up. Although this carries potential risks, I would monitor for dips in activation rates and I would track 7-day and 30-day retention compared to the standard sign up flow to validate success.