Open Mic Video
Role: Instructional Designer
Timeline: 1 month
Tools: Final Cut Pro X, Keynote, GarageBand, Google Worksplace
Stakeholders: CS Training, Community Team, CS Advisors
Problem: Advisors needed to know how to use our internal Customer Support forum, Open Mic.
Outcome: I wrote and storyboarded a video introduction to the forum, cutting down training time from 30 minutes to 2.5.
Prep
We have a forum called Open Mic, which is an internal-only board in the Spotify Community forum. We use it to collect feedback and ideas from advisors—and they can also use it for fun social interactions with colleagues.
I was approached by the team that owns Open Mic about a redesign they were doing. They thought it was a great opportunity to reintroduce Open Mic to new advisors in their onboarding, and they’d assembled a 30-minute training deck they wanted us to build into the training.
I wondered if adults really needed a 30-minute introduction to how to use a forum—the deck covered things like how to log in, how to post, how to leave a comment. I saw an opportunity to cut down on classroom time and make something more engaging!
Here’s a preview of the deck they sent over:
A member of my team had recently expressed an interest in learning more about video development, so I looped her in for some brainstorming, and we came up with an initial outline based on that session:
Intro
(this is Open Mic! This is what it’s for! These are the sections–but high level!)
Open Mic is the platform within the Spotify Community page, which allows advisors to speak out and share their questions, ideas, feedback and suggestions with Spotify and their colleagues. The intention of Open Mic is to allow a space to clarify questions and improve engagement with the product itself and with agents that work in Spotify’s customer support.
Show the Community login through Okta, and any additional steps can be covered in
Engaging with existing posts
Types of posts? Training feedback, site things, just for fun?
Topics are the conversations/threads inside the boards. Here is where you can interact and reply to other people’s posts. Depending on the type of board, you can add a new topic or simply add a comment on an already existing topic. You might also vote or like.
Posting their own ideas
Creating the thread, upvoting other ideas?
As an example, we’ve chosen the Just for Fun section within the Open Mic platform to indicate how it appears when Starting a Topic.
Ideas - Open Mic is the only board in which advisers can submit ideas in Open Mic. The process on submitting ideas and starting topics is the same on both ends.
Save yourself some time: always remember to check for duplicate ideas by searching first!
Show a search for an idea that surfaces something that already exists and has been voted on.
But if your idea is fresh, we can submit it (show this)
Don’t forget to stay notified:
Before posting the idea, click on the box Email me when someone replies in order to receive notifications and keep track of things
We suggest to keep this box always ticked so that you stay in the loop :)
^ what it’s like to start a topic, show the process, but we don’t have to narrate it step by step.
New Idea: this is a new and unique idea that has been reviewed and passed our guidelines. This indicates the idea is currently open for voting.
Votes allow an idea to have changes on the current statuses and gain popularity
Show a thread or two that have really good engagement? Add commentary whatever these threads are.
You can see here that this thread is very popular!
These are some ideas that have been highly voted by advisors
Closing: wanna know more about Open Mic? There’s a Guru card!
I also had the idea to brand this in the same style as the Spotify “This Is” playlists, and to build this theming into our training materials when addressing internal tools.
Script Drafts
-
This is Open Mic.
It’s an internal forum where those of us in Customer Support can ask questions, share ideas and feedback, and (other discussions?? Need a way to word the “other stuff”-- maybe ”and more!”?)
We access Open Mic through Okta. Once we’re in, we can browse the different boards for conversations to engage with. We can read through other advisors’ feedback, share a like on a recent comment, or vote for a cool idea that we’d like to see happen.
What if we have our own ideas? Then, we can head over to the Ideas board in Open Mic to start a topic of our own. This is the board where we can start our own topics as advisors.
Before starting a new topic, we should always do a quick search for duplicate ideas. This will save us time in the long run!
But if our ideas are as fresh as (artist’s) latest beats, we can go ahead and post them. Be sure to enable notifications to stay in the loop about how other advisors are engaging with your idea.
Once the suggested idea is reviewed and posted, it’ll be labeled as a New idea, and will be eligible for voting, which invites other members of the community to upvote ideas. Having an idea that gets a lot of votes can lead to more impactful changes being made!
Some examples of previous ideas that have been implemented are (x & y - elaborate a little).
We know you’re probably feeling pretty ready to jump in and check out the form for yourself! As you explore, remember: this is still a work forum, so we should keep it professional.
For the full Open Mic guidelines and even more information about how to navigate and utilize the tool, check out the Open Mic Overview card in Guru.
Enjoy stepping up to the mic! (need a better sign-off in later drafts 😅)
-
This is Open Mic.
It’s an internal forum for those of us in Customer Support–where we can step up to the mic and have our voices heard. We can access it through the Spotify Community button in Okta.
Here, we can read through other advisors’ feedback and share our own, drop a like on a recent comment, or vote for a cool idea we’d like to see implemented.
And what about our ideas? For those, we can head over to the Ideas board in Open Mic to start a topic of our own. Unlike in other boards where we’re responding to posts, the Ideas board is where we can share our own.
Before starting a new topic, we should always do a quick search for duplicate ideas. This will save us time in the long run!
But if our ideas are as fresh as (artist’s) latest beats, we can post them. We’ll also want to enable notifications to stay in the loop– (clever joke about not missing important notifications? Dopamine hits?)
Once the suggested idea is reviewed and posted, it’ll be labeled as a New Idea, and will be eligible for voting by other members of the community. Having an idea that gets a lot of votes can lead to more impactful changes being made!
Some examples of previous ideas that have been implemented are (x & y - elaborate a little).
We know you’re probably feeling pretty ready to jump in and check out the forum for yourself! As you explore, remember: this is still a work forum, so we should keep it professional.
For the full Open Mic guidelines and even more information about how to navigate and utilize the tool, check out the Open Mic Overview card in Guru.
Enjoy stepping up to the mic! (need a better sign-off in later drafts 😅)
-
This is Open Mic.
It’s an internal forum for those of us in Customer Support–where we can step up to the mic and have our voices heard. We access Open Mic through the Spotify Community button in Okta.
Here, we can read through other advisors’ feedback and share our own, drop a like on a recent comment, or vote for a cool idea we’d like to see implemented.
And what about our ideas? For those, we can visit the Ideas board in Open Mic to start a topic. Unlike in other boards where we’re mostly engaging, the Ideas board is where we get to do some creating.
Before starting a new topic, we should always do a quick search for duplicate ideas.
But if our ideas are as fresh as (artist’s) latest beats, we can post them. We’ll also want to enable notifications to stay in the loop– (clever joke about not missing important notifications? Dopamine hits?)
Once our suggestion is reviewed and posted, it’s labeled as a New Idea, and can be upvoted by other advisors. We’ve had some incredible ideas in the past that have been implemented–will yours be the next hit single from Open Mic?
You might be feeling ready to jump in and check out the forum for yourself! As you explore, remember: while fun is encouraged, we should also keep it professional.
For the full Open Mic guidelines and even more information about how to navigate and utilize the tool, check out the Open Mic Overview card in Guru.
We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
-
This is Open Mic.
It’s an internal forum for those of us in Customer Support–where we can step up to the mic and make our voices heard.
We access Open Mic through the Spotify Community button in Okta.
Here, we can read through other advisors’ feedback–and share our own–drop a like on a recent comment, or vote for an idea we’d like to see implemented.
And what about our ideas? For those, we can visit the Ideas board in Open Mic to make a suggestion. Unlike in other boards where we’re engaging, the Ideas board is where we get to do some creating.
And what about our ideas? Let’s visit the Ideas board to make a suggestion. Unlike in other boards where we’re engaging, the Ideas board is where we get to do some creating.
But first, let’s pause (effect, cut to search). Before suggesting a new idea, we should always do a quick search for duplicates.
(effect, cut back to idea). If ours is as fresh as (artist’s) latest beats, we can go ahead and post. We’ll also want to enable notifications to keep track of engagement.
Once our suggestion is reviewed and posted, it’s labeled as a New Idea, and can be upvoted. We’ve had some incredible ideas in the past that have been implemented (visuals)–will yours be the next big hit from Open Mic?
It’s time to jump in and explore! As you do, remember: while fun is encouraged, we should also keep it professional.
For our full Open Mic guidelines and even more information about how to contribute to the community, check out the Open Mic Overview card in Guru.
We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
-
This is Open Mic.
It’s an internal forum for Customer Support advisors–a place where we can step up to the mic.
We access Open Mic through the Spotify Community button in Okta.
Here, we can read through other advisors’ feedback–and share our own–drop a like on a recent comment, or vote for a new idea we’d like to see implemented.
What about our ideas? For those, we can visit the Ideas board. Unlike other boards where we’re engaging with posts, the Ideas board is where we get to do some creating.
But first, let’s pause. Before suggesting a new idea, we should always do a quick search for duplicates.
If ours is as fresh as (artist’s) latest beats, we can go ahead and post. We’ll also want to enable notifications to keep track of engagement.
Once our suggestion is reviewed and posted, it’s a New Idea and can be upvoted
Some incredible ideas have led to impactful changes in CS–will yours be the next big hit from Open Mic?
It’s time to jump in and explore! As you do, remember: while fun is encouraged, we should also keep it professional.
For our full Open Mic guidelines and even more on how to contribute to the community, check out the Open Mic Overview card in Guru.
We can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
I thought it would be interesting to share the evolution of the script here, from first to final. I worked on this myself, and sent the final version for review with the storyboard.