“The most annoying thing? I don’t subscribe to any podcasts on Spotify. It’s not something I have ever used, but Spotify won’t stop bugging me about podcasts.”
With all the algorithms and personalization and ad targeting, you’d think product managers would finally be able to get this right.
Why mess up a good user interface?
At least two things at play here:
- Moving forward: Product teams must move the product forward. They have to, else the next Spotify will do it for them.
- Data: A big assumption is the product team has more data than we do. On aggregate, they have a better idea on what features are being used, which are frustrated to find and which can be tucked away (for now).
We may not like it near-term, however the hope (and trust) we have in organizations allows us to believe these changes will be better for all of us in the long-term.
Of course, this is also an opportunity for product teams to increase their users’ trust. Create an “old” switch that allows the interface to revert back to the older theme. That switch should have a ticker on it though.
See above, Moving forward.