A new very first shitty draft of a service design principle inspired by a parenthood frustration with music streaming apps.
It’s time to start work. So I open my favorite streaming app to pick some recommended music. These apps are pretty good at suggesting new music based on what you listened to in the past. It feels magical to have your personal DJ at your fingertips.
But this time, my personal DJ turned dumb. Maybe he had a few too many virtual drinks?
The streaming app recommends that I listen to a new kid music album... So in the middle of drum and bass music, I have now lullabies and kid songs in my personalized playlists... An example of a recommended album: “The slide”... by the artist “The world of the Tinyminitiny”...
When you have a kid, you slowly realize that many services you have used for years have tiny gaps that make them a little more frustrating to use.
What happened here? The service doesn’t recognize that I have a new role as a parent and that, therefore I use the service in different roles now:
Me role: I play the music that I like for work, fun, workout and maybe even a romantic evening
Dad role: I play music for my kid to have fun, and it’s definitely not the same music
Services like Netflix have found a good workaround for this. They let you create different profiles.
Like this, all the Disney like movies that my wife watches don’t break my recommendations of rather dark films and series.
So if you are a service that offers recommendations to its users based on what they did or consumed in your app, think about this:
How can you help me get different recommendations for the various roles I have in my life where I use your service?
Thanks to my mate Romain Collaud for reminding me this little frustration and sharing with me a screenshot of his recommended “dad albums”.
My frustration with this regarding Spotify, is that they don’t allow you to remove previously played songs from the recommendation algorithm. (Maybe this is another principle?) Amazon builds recommendations based on things I’ve looked at or purchased, but I can look at this history and remove items at will so they won’t be used to make recommendations. Knowing this exists means I feel more confident looking for items that I need but might be embarrassing, as I can just excise it from my history afterwards. If I can remove the 37 plays of “Space Unicorn” from my Spotify history, I would be a happy man.
Daniele Catalanotto
Apr 2, 2022
Thanks guy! Indeed I think there might be material here for another Service Design principle that would go in the direction of:
Let me remove things your AI shouldn't use for recommendations
I'll add it to my database of future possible ideas to write about, and if I do, I'll make sure to let you know and credit you :)
Thanks again for the feedback!
Daniele Catalanotto
Aug 13, 2022
The second draft of this Service Design Principle
Remember that I have multiple roles in my life
It’s time to start work for my mate Romain (1). So he opens his favourite music app. The app recommends that he listen to a song by “The world of the Tinyminitiny”. from some weird baby music album... Hmmm, odd that the app suggests (2) that Romain listens to baby music when you know he is a fan of Queen.
When you have a kid, you realise that many services aren’t made for parents or people who have multiple roles.
You notice that many services have tiny gaps that make them a little more frustrating.
What happens here? The service doesn’t recognise that Romain has a new role as a parent. Therefore he uses the service in two different ways now (3):
Personal role: He plays the music he likes for work, fun and maybe even a romantic evening.
Dad role: He plays music for his kid to have fun, and it’s definitely not the same.
So let me ask you this.
How can you help people use your service while respecting the different roles they have in their life?
Footnotes
(1) Romain Collard is an old friend, a great Art Director and the father of a lovely girl for whom he plays lullabies via his smartphone.
(3) Services like Netflix do precisely that as they let you create different profiles.
Daniele's personal notes
This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
I've been able to reduce by 33.45% the length of this draft compared to the first one.
I've changed the title of the principle to reflect the feedback and ping-pong session we had with Nemos Kostoulas in the comments.
I’ve decided to turn this into a community-inspired principle as the early idea was inspired by something that my mate Romain shared with me. So it's now written not anymore as if I went through the situation but as if it's seen from his point of view.
I changed the focus of this principle slightly to be less about the recommendations but more about the different roles someone has in his life as there is another principle about how to make better recommendations.
Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 31, 2022
The third draft of this Service Design Principle
My mate Romain (1) opens his favourite music app. It recommends that he listens to a song from a weird baby music album... Hmmm, odd suggestion for a fan of Queen.
The service doesn’t recognise that Romain has an extra role as a new parent. So he now uses the service in two ways. In his personal role, he plays the music he likes for work, fun and even a romantic evening. In his Dad role, he plays music for his kid, and it’s definitely not the same music.
So let me ask you.
How can you help people use your service while respecting the different roles they have in their life (2)?
Footnotes
(1) Romain Collard is an old friend, a great Art Director and the father of a lovely girl for whom he plays lullabies via his smartphone.
(2) For example, services like Netflix do precisely that, as they let you create different profiles. One for when you watch movies with your kid.
Daniele’s notes
This is the third draft of this principle.
I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 36 % compared to the previous draft.
