Hello Spotify!

My name is Bharadwaj Kulkarni, but my friends have called me “Bawa” since I can remember. So please, call me Bawa. I’m very excited to be applying to the Associate Product Designer position at Spotify!

A couple of years ago, I moved to Munich to do my masters in industrial design at TUM after having studied mechanical engineering in India. The course was challenging—especially because the medium of instruction was German that I had to learn quickly—but it was life-changing. I’ve seen myself evolve from a mechanical engineer to an industrial designer to an experience designer to what I can only call a “holistic designer”. Aside from the regular lectures and courses, every semester we were encouraged to work with real world start-ups and companies, on real world problems. During the evaluation of our projects, the question asked was often not what we designed, but why we designed it.

In the last two years, I’ve worked on multiple projects that have been wide-ranging in terms of their deliverables. Each project had its own requirements, and I was encouraged to push past the competencies I came in with. I’ve worked on a film/augmented reality museum installation, the industrial design of a robot arm, an animated product explainer video for a robotics company, the user interface of a web app for an IoT startup and developing a methodology for researching the emotional aspects of sustainability. I’m currently working on the UI/UX design of a podcast app for “power listeners”. I had to learn most of the hard skills required for these projects on the go. But when I look back, I realise that the common thread was that it was always about communication. Design is all about storytelling.

I am really excited to be a part of Spotify Design. I’m a big admirer of Spotify’s “Audio-Forward UX” philosophy and find it extremely useful when it comes to designing for interfaces at the intersection of different media. I’ve been working with all the tools and research methods that you come up with for my own projects. Spotify’s Modes Framework has been particularly helpful! It’s an added bonus for me that Spotify also use Figma for design since I’ve also been using it for nearly 4 years now. Being a podcaster and content creator and listener, I really feel like I can add value to the design team at Spotify. I love talking about design philosophy and I’m sure I would feel very comfortable at such a design-driven company, in such an open and collaborative environment.

Having spoken to designers in Spotify, I’ve learnt how important design is to Spotify. I’m particularly excited to be working on the things that Identity & Investment are working on. Through playlists and social listening, users make Spotify even more valuable than it already is - and I think this is fascinating. In fact, playlists for podcasts is one of the things that I’ve been working on in my projects. It’s of philosophical importance, and as the new documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ shows, it’s also of ethical importance. How do we get people to keep coming back to our service and enjoying it while being ethical? I think it’s a question that I’d love to work on as a designer at Spotify.

Looking forward to getting to know you all, learning from you and helping you succeed at Spotify!

My very best regards,

Bawa Kulkarni