Stitcher

Reinventing the modern podcast app

As the Director of Product Design at Stitcher, I was tasked with leading a major redesign and re-platforming of the Stitcher app, website, and backend services. Stitcher is the original podcast app, and with a long-standing and loyal fanbase, it was important to approach the redesign with care. Our goal was to modernize the app and improve the user experience, while also maintaining the core features and functionality that had made Stitcher so popular.

In this case study, I'll detail the challenges we faced, the design and development process we followed, and the key takeaways from the project.

A Big Problem

When I joined Stitcher as a Senior iOS Developer and UX Designer, I immediately saw that the product had some major problems. The app's design was outdated, the UX was clunky, and bugs were frequent. Additionally, years of technical debt had resulted in a brittle and unreliable service. As a result, users were deeply unhappy - the app had an average rating of just 3.5/5 stars, and with hungry competitors like Spotify moving into the podcasting space, many users were choosing to leave.

It was clear that something needed to be done to address these issues and improve the user experience.

The Pitching Process

The pitching process was critical to the success of the redesign project. We worked hard to get stakeholder buy-in and eventually presented our proposal to the CEO. His approval was a major milestone for the project and allowed us to move forward, openly and with confidence. As a result of the pitch, some members of the management team who were not on board with the proposal left the company, which further solidified our ability to execute quickly.

The key lesson from this process was the importance of building support and getting buy-in from key stakeholders. It is only by building these relationships and refining our vision that we were able to move forward.

Research and Development

Our initial pitch deck had centered around a novel approach to a podcast app - no tab bar and a single blue “bloop” in the corner for the user to keep their favorite podcasts in. Now that we had company buy-in we had to actually prove the idea, so we immediately dove into user research and testing.

We followed Lean UX practices and created a scrappy weekly research process. With no qualified user researchers in the company we read books, wrote discussion guides, and went and did it ourselves. This was highly educational and broadened the skillset of our small design team.

This process allowed us to create fully realized personas that spoke to key use cases and pain points. This, along with speaking to so many of our users, allowed us to deeply empathize and create an optimal UX.

Informing the Architecture

In addition to personas we created site-maps, user journeys, and user flows. These exercises helped us isolate the areas of the experience that were burdensome and over-complex, and ensured that our new architecture would solve these issues. We designed rapidly and discarded failed ideas just as quickly, continually coming back to our mantra: Kill Your Darlings.

Adopting AGILE

Alongside this work we hired new engineers, a new CTO, and modernized our teams technical and engineering practices. We implemented standard AGILE methodologies, and got serious about our use of JIRA. The exiting of former employees, and the hiring of new ones who did not have the old cultural baggage, allowed us to create a new nimble culture.

I took on the unofficial role of head of product, while we searched for a long term chief product officer, eventually being promoted to Director of Product Design.

Simple, Approachable, and Focused

Our process eventually yielded an app design and design language that was modern, simple, and friendly. With our framework and app experience settled we formalized our approach with a new style guide and design system.

We developed a new set of icons to be used across the app and web experiences, and formalized rules around typography and spacing. We created a set of reusable components for text fields, toggles and sliders, thereby giving every pixel of the app a distinct on-brand flair.

Launch and Business Impact

The StitcherX launch was a major milestone for the project, but it was not without its challenges. Technical constraints made the migration process for users less-than-ideal, and we encountered a number of issues that needed to be addressed. Fortunately, our team had developed strong AGILE muscles through the course of the project, which allowed us to act quickly and fix issues as they arose.

Our relentless focus on continual product improvements, a better user experience, and the addition of much-requested features has paid off - Stitcher is now warmly appreciated by its users, with app reviews stabilizing at 4.9/5. The tech stack has also become the backbone of SiriusXM's podcast engine. The key takeaway from this process was the importance of agility and a customer-centric approach in ensuring a successful launch.

Legacy and Lessons

The lessons I learned from transforming Stitcher have had a huge impact on my career and approach to product development. One of the key insights I took away was the importance of a rapid design approach and user testing. By moving quickly and continuously testing our ideas with users, we were able to validate our assumptions and make informed decisions that improved the product. Another key lesson was the importance of creating a clear, concise vision. By defining a clear direction and rallying the team around a shared goal, we were able to stay focused and achieve great things.

These skills have served me well in my career and continue to inform my approach to product development every day.