Read Time: 1 min
Fall 2023
B2C
Shaped Lasso’s product vision and helped increase return engagement
Context
Lasso, my Capstone Project (Client), is a playlist transfer app, where users can convert their playlists from one music streaming platform to other.
The current modal of the app was just playlist transfer and did not have anything else for the users to keep coming back.
Together with the client and small tiger team I defined the concept and features of the product and designed the end-to-end experience for both our testers and potential investors to increase the user retention.
TOOLS
Figma, Dovetail, Qualtrics
TAGS
Mobile • Music • B2C
DURATION
8 months
COLLABORATORS
→ TL;DR
Converting a playlist across music platforms is a one time thing → leading to high churn
Evolving into a music discovery platform → to boost engagement and long-term retention
Increased average time from 1 min to 4 mins per session in early testing
CSAT score of 4.6 reflecting high initial satisfaction
Improving task completion time by 60% through optimized user flows
MY CONTRIBUTION
Conducted domain research, interviews and A/B testing
Facilitated key discussions to balance user needs and business goals
Iterated high fidelity designs based on testing findings
Led feature prioritization workshop and advocated to build design principles
→ Bridging the solution to problem
Playlist conversion wasn't enough to bring the users back - we reimagined Lasso to a music discovery platform
The new MVP
New way to discover music ->
Once in a while everyone wants to hear something new - they come to Lasso
Promotes community within similar music genres
Not a social media and no endless scrolling
Reimagined the old MVP
The playlist convert plugin ->
Made playlist conversion more seamless with clean UI
Reduced multiple steps
The history stores previous transfers, making people revisit when needed
→ The design process
PROBLEM
When one use is not enough - Lasso wanted users to come back
Lasso started as a simple tool for converting and transferring playlists across music platforms; functional, but forgettable.
What it lacked was stickiness; a reason for users to return, explore, or engage beyond that first use. So I paused, re-evaluated the product’s core model, and asked the bigger question
Needed something more than playlist conversion
RESEARCH
Lack of music discovery emerged as a common theme among all of the research
I kicked off the research by scanning trends, studying strong MVPs, competitive products, and talking to 13 users — all to understand what keeps people engaged, how does MVP stacking work and what would users actually want from something like Lasso. This helped us ground everything in real needs and perspectives
A few interview notes from participants
3 things kept coming up:
people wanted better music discovery
a sense of community
and none of the noise that usually comes with social media
PRODUCT VISION
I reimagined the product vision - from playlist conversion to music discovery
→ What users wanted
Personalized music discovery
Sense of connection
Not noisy social app
Explore music through friends and moods
Less algorithm fatigue
→ What business needed
Increase engagement beyond playlist transfers
A differentiated value prop in a crowded market
Features that support community
Some social interaction element
Broad vision
"A lightweight, social discovery platform that connects people through music; without the clutter of traditional social feeds."
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
With ginormous list of ideas, I prioritized 5 features with a strong user-business balance
Feed with music prompts and streaks
Collaborative playlists with lightweight interactions
Friend-based music sharing and profiles
Streak-based incentives to encourage return usage
Impact effort matrix
Adopted
Modified
To make sense of everything, I mapped all the brainstorming, sketching ideas on an impact-effort matrix. We prioritized features that reinforced music discovery and community, while intentionally cutting out anything that risked feeling like traditional social media.
This helped us stay focused, design lean, and ensure every feature directly addressed what users actually cared about: discovery, connection, and simplicity.
CONSTRAINT
We started sketching and designing, but without a shared foundation, it all felt disconnected to me
Design tensions I noticed
Tension
What it looked like
Many ideas, no thread
Designs didn’t connect to one another
Aesthetic ≠ direction
Screens looked polished, but felt random
No north star
No shared goals for what experience we wanted
Scattered efforts
Teams were solving for different user journeys
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
To give direction, I advocated for crafting design principles to guide decision-making
💡 Due to time constraints we couldn't build a complete design system
One of the original designs
I laid down some principles based on which we structured the entire redesign
Reduce Cognitive Load
Glanceable information • Easy to understand
Empower User Autonomy
Reliance on familiar UI patterns • Intuitive experience
Coherent Design
Consistency • Predictable
Minimalist Design
Current design trends
DESIGN ITERATIONS
I let the principles guide the design iterations(a lot) with continuous feedback
Each iteration was guided by user goals and design principles to align actions with intent
Improving content discoverability and supports faster decision-making for users
Before
After
Balancing clarity and intent, and reducing user effort
Before
After
Removing friction and extra steps, making the experience faster saving user time
Before
After
EDGE CASES
I also designed Lasso’s onboarding experience and empty states to create a cohesive first-time experience
First-time moments: helping users connect to Lasso with ease
Guided walkthrough to help users understand how Lasso works
→ Conclusion
Lasso - simple, social and centered on discovery
→ Social Music Discovery
A feed of music prompts and responses from community that encourages discovery through connection. No endless scrolling, and increasing user engagement.
→ Reimagined the playlist convert
Redesigned the old MVP for users to reduce effort and time when they want to convert or share a playlist
→ Profile section
A quick profile section to check out the communities' favorites and for thye user to store their interactions and converts
Impact on the users and product
Best Capstone Display in show!!
Increased average time from 1 min to 4 mins per session in early testing
CSAT score of 4.6 reflecting high initial satisfaction
Improving task completion time by 60% through optimized user flows
"It actually felt fun to explore music with others — like hanging out, not just using an app"
Reflecting my journey
This project taught me how to let go of exciting ideas that didn’t serve a focused vision; and how much clarity that unlocks. It also reminded me that solving for motivation is often more complex than solving for functionality. If I could do one thing differently, I’d test concepts earlier with lo-fi prototypes to reduce uncertainty around broader ideas.
Beyond many lessons learned, I loved working with my team and presenting it at my capstone. Our 8 month long journey of choas, meetings, design sessions was out there being loved by people. I am proud of us.
