Hacking plays a significant role in Spotify's engineering culture. In addition to team and studio hack days, the company hosts an annual week-long, company-wide Hack Week. An event where beloved features and experiences like Discover Weekly, Wrapped and Exclude from taste profile have originally been born. Within Skill Exchange, Spotify's growth and upskilling platform in Backstage, there's a dedicated section for hacks — a space where users can share their hack ideas, explore past hacks for inspiration, and actively contribute to ongoing hacks. As part of spearheading the design of Skill Exchange, I took the lead in redesigning this experience, addressing new feature needs and enhancing overall usability.
Design & User research: Hannah Limerick, David Jost, Oscar Fredriksson.
Product & Engineering: Morgan Da Costa, Vojta Burian, Alex Lorenzi, John Philip, Jackson Chen, Sydney Achinger, Bond Yan, Matthew Klubeck.
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
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To better understand the user journeys and where the old design fell short, I decided to run a quick research sprint in collaboration with my PM. I drafted an interview guide, and together we interviewed 9 users of different roles, gender and tenure at the company. The common denominator was that they all had used the hacks section at least once within the last 6 months.
The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using affinity diagramming. Clusters of themes started to emerge and it got clearer and clearer where the biggest flaws were to be found. The main themes revolved around the poor filtering experience (see cluster to the right), lack of visual expression and missing best practices around how to pitch hack ideas to attract team members.
Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?
🤩
Excited
😰
Overwhelmed
😎
Eager + Optimistic
😳
Pressured + Curious
The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using affinity diagramming. Clusters of themes started to emerge and it got clearer and clearer where the biggest flaws were to be found. The main themes revolved around the poor filtering experience (see cluster to the right), lack of visual expression and missing best practices around how to pitch hack ideas to attract team members.
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
Why use Makefile in 2022? Is your repo full of randomly growing untestable shell scripts?
Looking for members 👀Pre Release management is coming to S4A! Artists have long wanted to connect with fans on Spotify around their upcoming releases through content like video teasers.
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using affinity diagramming. Clusters of themes started to emerge and it got clearer and clearer where the biggest flaws were to be found. The main themes revolved around the poor filtering experience (see cluster to the right), lack of visual expression and missing best practices around how to pitch hack ideas to attract team members.
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
We needed a way to make metadata feel tangible. Starting with raw text lists, we explored geometric abstractions (Identicons) to create distinct visual markers for each item.
Ultimately, we leveraged Generative AI to dream up unique artwork for every single list item, transforming a boring database view into an immersive gallery.
From simple text lists to generative AI visuals.
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
Before
After
The Hacks section had been untouched since 2019, and quantitative data showed it was actively working against us. We weren't just looking at a stale user interface; we were facing a failing ecosystem.
Our instrumentation revealed two critical problems. First, the user experience was broken: filters were useless,
and the feed was a graveyard of duplicated posts that killed discoverability. Second, and more importantly, we saw a significant spike in 'solo hackers'.
This was our biggest alarm bell—it proved the tool was defeating its core purpose and was actively discouraging the very collaboration it was built to create.
The final design was built for speed and control, placing myself in the shoes of a reporter in the high-pressure environment of a live match. I structured the user interface around a simple three-tab layout to separate the user's workflow into three distinct, focused stages:
We had to wait with the content management system (CMS) connection and hard code the articles for the first release. Some of the content categories are still missing content, so we have placeholders for now.
