Redefined how artists manage and promote their digital music by launching a market-disrupting mult-product SaaS platform.
Role
Product Designer
Company
Music Gateway
Skills
Product, Strategy, UX/UI
Overview
Challenges and goals
Entering the market as ambitious latecomers in an industry dominated by well-established players, we had the significant challenge of standing out with a USP. Despite having a strong online presence and a substantial community of artists, we faced an industry where every element of distribution, management and royalties was split between multiple organisations - all of which had no unified connection. We needed to establish strategic partnerships within the music industry and develop new ways to bridge the gaps between the industry's fragmented endpoints. On top of this, we had to deliver a completely new collection of products that would delight users and all the complications that come with that, including conceptualising the products, designing them, gathering user feedback and datapoints and managing all the teams involved in the release of a brand new product.
Deliverables
SaaS platform
Conceptualise and build a robust, multi-product SaaS solution
Research
Perform comprehensive market and user research to guide product strategy
Engagement
Enhance community interaction and foster sustained participation
Subscriptions
Optimise conversion rates and drive subscription growth
Design system
Develop a complete design system and cohesive brand guidelines
Data-driven insights
Continuously analyse key metrics to steer product evolution
Approach
Competitive analysis
I began by conducting an in-depth analysis of the existing market landscape. Evaluating competitors’ strategies and benchmarking their user experiences allowed me to identify clear opportunities for differentiation and innovation within our own product.
Product discovery
Diving deep into the industry allowed me to identify critical gaps, such as artists needing an all-in-one solution. One that encompassed digital distribution, publishing administration, promotion, royalty management, analytics and so on. Through user and market research, I aligned stakeholders around a cohesive vision, defining clear goals, priorities, and constraints. This phase also involved identifying any technological gaps, for example, coordinating with third-party data providers and planning API integrations. It was important to ensure a robust infrastructure due to our lean team structure.
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Ideation and concept
During this stage, I iterated on multiple business models and product forecasts while conducting customer workshops, interviews, and surveys. This rigorous process resulted in detailed user flows, personas, and customer journey maps that uncovered both opportunities and potential user pain points.
Disrupting a market
I set out to build a truly disruptive product, one that immediately stood out as the go-to solution compared to anything else on the market. The challenge was to create an offering so compelling that it felt like a no-brainer from the moment artists discovered it. To achieve this, I had to design a platform that delivered exceptional tools and services as well as presenting a perfectly balanced proposition tailored for every type of user, from aspiring garage bands to global labels and catalogues.
The solution was a scalable, multi-tier account system. Beginning with a free full-featured (but usage-limited option) that enabled emerging artists to get a taste of the platform at no cost. This allowed us to hit mass-market penetration fast, as no other company offered products and services like this. Larger artists needing more platform usage could use a credit-based subscription, offering them a flexible, monthly top-up model, which would then lead to a completely unlimited plan. The pricing was further refined by basing costs on the number of artists (traditionally called “seats” in SaaS platforms), ensuring that larger users contributed proportionately more. This transparent, innovative pricing model, paired with our unique value proposition of offering all essential services (digital distribution, publishing administration, playlist pitching, link-in-bios, sync management, online mastering, and more) for free or a single fee, positioned our platform in a space that could truly shake up the competition.
Prototyping
With clear concepts in place, I developed detailed logic flows, wireframes, and prototypes, which underwent multiple rounds of feedback and iterations. A meticulous information and interaction architecture was developed to map how user needs seamlessly connect with our diverse endpoints. This effort yielded developer-ready documentation and refined mockups, all housed within a structured design system with clear, concise guidelines.
Agile and iterative rollout
Given the platform’s ambitious scope, I adopted an agile methodology. We released individual components gradually, initially offering a soft launch to our dedicated user base. This iterative approach enabled us to test our hypotheses in real time, refine features based on user feedback, and pivot swiftly as needed.
Testing and validation
Rolling out the product piece by piece allowed us to collect rich usage data at every stage. These insights played a critical role in forecasting, adjusting priorities, and ensuring the final product continuously evolved to meet and exceed our users’ expectations.
