Noteworthy competition
A musical training oppor-tune-ity
Role: Lead, CS Content Strategy & Design
Timeline: 3 months (proposed)
Tools: Google Workspace, GarageBand, YouTube, Internal Forum
Stakeholders: CS Training, Knowledge Management, Partner Management, CS Advisors
Problem: Advisors struggle to remember simple concepts around user verification and masking emails.
Proposal: There are studies that show music in the classroom can lead to improved retention. Since Spotify is a music company, I proposed a jingle competition to engage our advisor base while simultaneously avoiding lengthy, complex trainings.
Prep
An issue like user verification is one that I call a “zombie topic:” It’s a complex issue that we tackle frequently, but it keeps coming back from the dead. In over a decade in tech, I have yet to meet a company that feels like they’ve 100% solved user verification on all fronts.
Because it’s a zombie, it’s also a recurring cost! Was there a way to simplify training the workflow into a song or jingle? And what other problems could we solve with music?
This led me to developing the final proposal, which was in the process of being implemented when the December reduction in force took place. Due to this, I’m not aware of the outcome of this project.
The Proposal
Overview
We’re all about the music — so let’s harness that energy, engage our advisor base, and use pedagogically-proven techniques to bring the beat back to the classroom.
Benefits of music in learning
Improved engagement and attention: We’re a music company, so a lot of our advisors have a pre-existing interest in music before they ever sit down for onboarding. By adding music into our training in small, strategic ways, we could make a big impact on engagement and attention.
Built-in reinforcement opportunities: Just like with the Advisor Principles, we can bring the jingles back into training in refreshers and upskillings to continue reinforcing the concepts. Make it sticky!
Enhanced memorization: Music has a unique ability to aid in retention of information—especially of simple or repetitive concepts. If we can get the basics of some of these flows into advisors’ brains, that’s half the battle!
Emotional connection: The bonds of having fun with their training class—while cementing these concepts in their minds—should create a more favorable and psychologically safe environment, leading to better learning outcomes.
Proposed CS-wide jingle competition
We want to engage our advisor base more and get them engaged in the learning process, right? How better than by harnessing their unique skills and passions to ultimately improve their learning experiences–and the customer experience!
We could do one for now and see what measurable impacts we can achieve, and make it a bi-annual or annual event! (So as to not oversaturate the material with catchy songs 😉)
Jingle topic:
Partner with Graffiti on topic:
Verification guidelines
Masking emails
Something else?
Competition categories - varying levels of effort
Guru Karaoke - parodies of existing songs
Songwriter Series - write to provided music
Musician’s Choice - totally original content
Competition guidelines
Song duration
Minimum: 15 seconds
Maximum: 1 minute
Lyrics & tone
Match the Spotify TOV
Consider the Advisor Principles
Keep it positive and professional
Other requirements, as identified by stakeholders
Submission how-to’s
What’s the best way? Google Form upload?
Judging criteria
Wil we need to create a rubric, or is it based on feeling?
Catchiness
“Effectiveness” but with a C
Creativity
Clarity
Judges & finalists
Voting
Prizes 👀
Work with CSPM to identify appropriate prizes by level of effort and scope budgetary requirements
Best practices for jingle writing
Internal resources:
Best practices in competition rollout microlearning
Simplicity: Keep it short & sweet. This is for a global audience, so the easier to remember, the better.
Make it catchy: A memorable tune helps reinforce key information, and will stick with the team long after the training is over.
Repetition: Many (but not all!) successful jingles use repetition of a tune or phrase to make it stick.
Engage the audience: Use humor, relatable storytelling, or scenarios to bring them into the song with you.
Test it out: Have a work bestie? Ask them to give it a listen and get some feedback!
External resources:
YouTube video with the jingle categories
YouTube video with the live demo
Integration into onboarding/CS process
To come after all necessary approvals.
Proposed Timeline
I scoped the initial timeline for approvals, but left everything else open so Senior Leadership and Partner Management were able to chime in with any concerns about running it over the holidays.
Expectations
Critical fail improvement within 1- to 2- quarters of jingle implementation for the topic of choice
Immediate improvement in engagement and retention in the live training environment around topic of choice
Potential increase in engagement and frequency of creative contributions from advisors in Open Mic
Dependencies
Team buy-in & collaboration: Are the internal teams who would need to be involved all bought in on the idea?
CSPM: Will advisors be receptive to this kind of competition? What kinds of prizes would incentivize them most? Do we have the budget to support those, from wherever this would come from? (Kaizen or CSPM, or a combo?)
Graffiti and Service Quality: Do we agree on a topic? Can we get measurable data for these issues at present, so we can measure post-implementation?
Advisor engagement: Do we have enough faith with advisors that we can get them to put the creative energy into this project? Is this something we’d be able to get a successful entry out of, let alone several contenders?
Resource access: Do enough advisors have access to the ability to record a good enough quality recording to share at this scale? Will any sites/locales be limited in their engagement? Should we have a backup opportunity that’s lower level of effort for non-singer writers, or is this not a concern?
Voting resources: How can we set up voting for Fan Favorite?
Risks
Low participation: Called out in dependencies,
Tech accessibility: What can we do so people who want to participate, but don’t have access to recording equipment can still join?
Low quality entries: What happens if we get an incredibly catchy submission that’s low-quality sound? Do we offer to re-record? Should we always plan to “professionally produce” the song (whatever that looks like?) or keep it in the advisor’s voice?