Joining Spotify Ads Design will change your career. And here’s why.
They say timing is everything in order to experience the best that life has to offer. But the irony is that we often don’t know it until it’s too late, for the things that signal to us ‘this is the right time!’ may compete with our individual values, and we simply don’t give it much weight.
I want to talk about some of these signals and how letting them guide you can bring greater joy in your work life — especially if you’re a designer who values the following from their job: 1) Pride in your team & company mission and the ability to deliver measurable impact towards that mission, 2) Ongoing personal & professional development, and 3) Surrounding ourselves with compassionate, progressive, and diverse people.
But I have an ulterior motive with this write-up. I also want to convince you that joining our team at Spotify will be one of the best career decisions you’ll ever make. Like many teams here, we are increasing the size of our design organization, and we hope to reach the next generation of thought leaders looking for their next work home. It might be challenging at times, but I can promise it will always be rewarding.
So why now?
Spotify is investing in a mixed monetization strategy, with advertising playing a larger role in the future success of our business than in years past. Our team has a strong trajectory with this shift and has earned the space to craft a new ads ecosystem for brands to tell their stories in our uniquely captivating formats. With all of this underway, I see the Ads org as the ‘start-up’ of Spotify — a newer team with a high-impact environment that is more like play than work. And if that alone doesn’t pique your interest, here are three reasons why I believe it’s time to consider the Spotify Advertising Design crew for your next role.
Most of the world is undergoing a massive shift toward a deeper understanding of cultural nuance and greater respect for the differences that can make us stronger as a global community. Through continued technological advancements, the connectedness we’ll attain will force more companies and nations to create more inclusive cultures.
As you may already know, Spotify is a Swedish company. It was founded on principles that make it incredible to me, and the country itself is a high-concept creative culture rooted in its social goodwill. Swedes that I’ve grown to know have an overarching belief in equality and deep empathy for those who struggle with less. Minimalism and practicality are virtues. There’s no shame in having the same practical car as everyone else in your neighborhood because they value efficiency and effectiveness over having the latest and greatest things.
This ideology may explain why we see so much beautiful, highly functional, and minimalistic design from this part of the world. And it’s likely why Spotify’s Design has long been regarded as the best music and podcast offering in the market in terms of function and beauty.
Spotify is a company that understood and created a healthy collaborative and creative culture long before so many others and remains an important dimension that made Spotify the right place to be during so much company growth. Part of that comes from the way our organizations are set up.
Our Design practice follows a Federated model, which might be different from how design teams are set up at other organizations. We have one global DesignOps team whose mission is to drive programs that elevate the impact of design, ignite collaboration and improve the quality of our design strategies & processes. Still, we also have thought leaders on the ground that deeply care about the individual designer experience. Our 300+ design practice is a growing embodiment of many cultures. Because Spotify Ads Design is still relatively young, we can be more malleable relative to cultures from teams that have matured over the years.
“Culture is a word many companies throw around, but Spotify takes it seriously. We feel it every day in the thoughtful intention they put towards fostering a healthy creative culture built from many perspectives.”
- Nicole Staffin, Design Program Manager
Design vibes playlist: Soundtrack from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
A company’s halo is the shiny glow its brand beams; however, it can be a tricky signal to read. Sometimes it’s awe-inspiring and creates gravity due to its sheer scale. But just because “everyone” uses a brand’s product or service doesn’t mean its brand halo is shouting “come to the light!” Speaking from experience, some of the biggest and brightest halos are, in fact, signaling immovable scale — like a distant ancient star, set in its ways and on a predictable, stable path towards implosion. Perhaps even reflecting a scale of operation where contributions from a single person or even a team of people do not amount to meaningful change and, in turn, will not amount to the joy that comes from making a measurable and significant impact.
Spotify certainly has a beautiful green brand halo. To me, Spotify Ads has a powerful complementary purple glow — each color representing its consumer and business product auras, respectively. Both pulsing to the rhythm of a young and intelligent company. And again, as Spotify makes massive bets on advertising, we are delivering products that allow brands to connect with the world’s most engaged audiences: Spotify Listeners.
This increased focus around ad revenue and delivering impact for brands will create space for designers to solve extraordinary challenges. For example, how do we make ads a desired customer experience? How do we bring a brand’s offerings to life within our product without compromising the customer experience our listeners love? These and other questions that will fuel our business towards a bright future will require some of the world’s best creative talent.
“I show up to work ready to play and I love that my team embraces this ethos. Ad tech has an outsized influence on the way people experience the world — the more fun we have, the more fun listeners will have.”
- Zach Adams, Sr. Content Designer
Currently listening to: Hit Monkey Soundtrack
The most significant learnings come from places where re-invention is at the heart of the work. Spotify Advertising has an ambitious mission and a huge part of that is making meaningful connections between brands and our listener customers. To get there, my team is designing the tools and features that will bring our uniquely audible storytelling formats to life for brands of all sizes in novel ways.
The future of advertising will be vastly different from what we see today because the people and technologies they use have continued to evolve since the early days of online advertising. Display ads in feeds or those that interrupt their flow at inappropriate times won’t win customers’ hearts. And advertisers will stop spending budgets on less valuable ad experiences. Spotify Advertising design is hyperfocused on setting a new bar for ad quality and the tools advertisers use to put them in front of the right people at the right time. Getting it right is going to require non-conformist thinking in an advertising space that’s ripe for disruption. Maybe you’re the person that can bring some of this energy and help us reinvent the free experience for our family of apps and services.
“The future of advertising excites me because we can meaningfully shift from a transactional relationship, to one of mutual symbiosis. To take something that feels annoying and transform it into something fruitful — these are the juicy spaces where magic happens.”
- Vicki Tan, Associate Principal Product Designer
Design vibes playlist: VT2021“
Visit lifeatspotify.com or click on this link to see all of our open Product Design roles across Spotify.
Big “THANK YOU” to the many Spotify work friends who offered guidance on this write-up. Vicki Tan, Zach Adams, Nicole Staffin, Erin Styles, Jamie Peretz, and Eileen Moore,
