Improve onboarding in Ads for podcast fans

Problem Statement Description

Product context: Spotify is an audio streaming company; its products include music, podcasts, audiobooks, playlists, recommendations, creator tools, subscriptions, and ads.

Spotify wants to improve the onboarding experience for podcast fans who encounter ads as part of their listening journey. These users may be new to Spotify podcasts, returning listeners exploring shows, or music-first users who are beginning to consume podcasts more frequently. The challenge is to make the ad-supported podcast experience feel understandable, relevant, and respectful without disrupting discovery or listening momentum.

Focus on the listener workflow from first podcast discovery through the first few ad-supported sessions: choosing a show, starting an episode, hearing host-read or dynamically inserted ads, understanding why ads appear, and deciding whether to keep listening. Consider how expectations differ from music listening, audiobooks, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other audio or video platforms.

The product design should address friction around trust, relevance, interruption, repetition, perceived ad load, privacy expectations, and the connection between ads and creator monetization. The scope is the onboarding experience itself, not a full redesign of Spotify’s ads business or podcast catalog.

The experience should consider:

- First-time and early-session flows for podcast fans on mobile, desktop, smart speakers, and car listening

- How users understand the value exchange between free podcast access, ads, and creator support

- Moments where ad onboarding can happen without interrupting episode engagement

- Personalization, ad relevance, frequency, and repetition concerns

- Privacy, data usage, and user control expectations around ad targeting

- Differences between short-form podcast sampling, long-form listening, subscriptions, and binge listening

- Signals that indicate successful onboarding, such as reduced confusion, fewer skips or drop-offs, and higher podcast retention

The goal is to define a product experience that helps podcast fans feel informed and comfortable with Spotify’s ad-supported podcast model while preserving a smooth, engaging listening journey and supporting Spotify’s broader creator and audio monetization ecosystem.