Problem

User and stakeholder sentiment consistently described the Audible app as ‘stale and stagnant’ and noted difficulty in finding something new. Audible Original content, a key differentiator, only accounted for 10% of all listening.

Challenges

Proposals for major UX updates were historically stymied by internal inefficiencies, competing success metrics, and team silos. A single feature or improvement could span 6-9 months or more.

My Role

As Director of UX, I led the design strategy for the overall north-star vision, while working with cross-functional leadership to break down and deliver progress under tight timelines. I also oversaw all tactical delivery of feature designs within the working squad.

CREATING THE VISION

A plan for the future emerged through a series of collaborative ideation sessions between Product and Design leadership; with key emphasis on:

• Support for new business models

• Streamlined and more intuitive user experience with increased content discovery

• Modernized look and feel

• Greater opportunities for personalized content and experiences

I led the design initiative to help translate this vision into core screens and a prototype to build illustrate this exciting future state and build consensus around the organization.

ENVISIONING OUTCOMES

Executive buy-in was was immediately secured to begin delivering against some of the high-level concepts proposed, with emphasis on speed to market. This allowed me to advocate for different ways of working within audible to move quickly and confidently toward the future with greater velocity.

RETHINKING hOW DESIGN WORKS Cross-Functionally

In partnership with Product and Engineering, we developed a new way of working within Audible Tech; forming the first fully cross-functional working squad. All team members were fully dedicated to delivering against a singular product roadmap vs existing model where all design and development teams were shared across all initiatives. Standardized team ceremonies, better tracking, and tighter communication all led to the success of this pilot program. Squad members consisted of:

TEAM OUTCOMEs

• New features delivered 36% faster than original estimates

• Increased positive team sentiment via pulse survey. All team members felt greater ownership over their work, and appreciated greater collaboration in more strategic discussions

• The working model was so well-received, it was adopted by two other lines-of-business within 9 months