Featuring:
Christina Goldschmidt, VP of Product Design at Warner Music Group (pictured)
Andrea Slobodien, Product Leader at Warner Music Group
Situation: transforming a music giant
Consumer music platforms haven’t just changed consumer behavior, they’ve changed the entire music industry. From the way we consume music to how music is distributed and accessed, the entire user and artist experience has evolved. Warner Music Group identified the urgent need to modernize its user experience and technology stack. In a situation familiar to many, WMG needed to meet artists' and customers' expectations for user-friendly, cutting-edge products, and ensure a seamless customer experience. To make it happen WMG hired Christina Goldschmidt as Vice President of Product Design, in September 2023.
It was a highly visible pain point: the sales department was reluctant to even demo the current music distribution platform to potential clients. Christina explained "We weren't proud of our current experience, and I think that's a bar that's really important to us in this organization - actually being proud of what we launch."
Christina embarked on a transformative journey that would redefine WMG's approach to design and innovation and ultimately its work culture. As Christina aptly stated, "We're in a really unique position – tech companies lack the deep expertise in the nuances of the music industry, and music companies often don't understand what makes good tech."
Solution: decisive design leadership
The core thesis emphasized that improving the platform’s functionality alongside consumer-grade design would directly contribute to securing and retaining deals in a highly competitive market, and to better meet modern consumer expectations.
However, the ambitious 3-month deadline posed challenges for the team. It included 1-month for design to be complete, and 2-months for development and go-to-market. Christina recalls she had to quickly learn the music industry, coming from a prior role as VP Product Design at Etsy. She also had to align her team of 11 (growing to 22), and adapt to a newly established leadership team and work culture. As Christina articulated, "My role is really about transformation...changing the structure of our team, how we work, how we collaborate, and also really the experience that we bring to those products to really meet our users' needs."
Christina spearheaded a bold redesign initiative, embracing design sprints to tackle multiple aspects of the distribution platform simultaneously. She shared, “The majority of my team had only been here for about two years. And a lot of them had a very different approach to design and leadership before me - a very different approach. None of them knew faster, leaner, innovative ways of working. So this was also very much a cultural shift.”
That discipline of the design process was instrumental for Christina and her team’s success. Andrea Slobodien, Product Leader at WMG noted, "Christina is able to quickly lean on the right design framework or toolkit.” She fostered an environment where innovation flourished by effectively empowering individuals in avoiding the need to start everything from first principles every time. Inspired by Christina's adeptness, Andrea and her team broke down into four tracks of work, tackling the four major aspects of the product. Within a week, they had developed a new design strategy, established a multi-year Northstar, and devised solutions for immediate usability improvements.
The injection of Christina’s leadership and mentorship rapidly accelerated the output and quality of the team's deliverables, fostering an environment where design innovation was able to flourish. Her willingness to take intelligent risks and embrace innovative design methodologies kickstarted WMG’s business transformation. “We took a gamble because coming into this year, we had a very tight budget, and I spent 65% of my personal annual travel budget on that sprint.” Christina expanded, “We proved that getting together in person is extremely effective. It’s the right way for us to take on really large undertakings, which we’re going to be doing in the next few years at Warner.”
There were some growing pains. Christina actively balanced the need for more generative ideation for her design team, while managing the engineering team’s expectations for a product design that was not only desirable, but realistic within a tight timeframe. For this Christina’s relied on her ability to build partnerships and trust with other departments, “I want you to know that anything that my team designs, it's going to be a negotiation with you. I'm not going to give you something that your team can't build.”
Christina’s acumen to manage the duality of design and strategy in her contributions depending on audience and situation was evident in showcasing the project's value to the WMG’s board, as she explained, "I recorded a one-minute and 15-second demo of the before and after of this product… We talked about a 20% improvement in time to complete a release, moving from 26 minutes to 20 minutes for an average release creation for albums and songs to digital service providers like Apple Music or Spotify.” Christina’s direct hands-on leadership enabled her to raise the profile of design as a tangible value creator for the business. Her group’s impression on the board paid off. The video was soon shared with the entire company in a weekly news email, further demonstrating the increasing value of strategic design leadership.
Reflection: the power of precision
Christina's calculated approach to risk-taking proved instrumental in accelerating WMG's turnaround and also challenged her own ability to think differently, “I can do more with less: I think people assume that you need the biggest team to get all the things done. Sometimes you need the laser focus to pick off the right thing at the right time to get things done.”
Andrea concurred, “Christina is really good at educating the team in small bite sizes rather than trying to boil the ocean.”
In the end, Christina's journey at WMG isn’t about redesigning products—it is about implementing strategic design leadership at the highest levels of leadership so the company can reimagine possibilities and reshape the future of music distribution with industry-leading customer-centric experiences.
The intrapreneurial mindset and value that Christina is bringing to WMG’s business is simply stated by Andrea, “You're a Swiss army knife. You can do anything, but you're also a great leader.”
Download the full report
This case study is an excerpt from our DXC Research white paper 'Strategic Behaviors and Mindsets of Design Executives' that is available here for download.