Over the years, Amazon Music’s experience was largely shaped by growth initiatives—introducing new subscription tiers, expanding content types, and launching differentiated features like AML. These investments successfully drove acquisition and broadened the service’s appeal.

However, growth outpaced the evolution of the foundational product. Core experience, such as playlist management, navigation, library management, saving, playback, etc, didn't scale at the same rate as the surface area of the app. As a result, the product increasingly struggled to meet everyday customer needs. What began as isolated friction accumulated into systemic issues, ultimately pushing Amazon Music into a P0 state where foundational gaps outweighed incremental feature gains.

To ensure that improvements would have meaningful impact, we worked closely with Amazon Music leadership—engaging stakeholders across product, engineering, and design, and advocating the case all the way up to Andy Jassy. Through these conversations, we aligned on 11 foundational areas to focus on in 2025 and beyond.

These areas were chosen deliberately at the intersection of top customer needs and long-term strategic priorities. Each goal balanced immediate user pain points—like library usability and discovery clarity—with broader business objectives, including supporting new tiers, content types, and engagement signals. This alignment ensured that foundational improvements weren’t just incremental fixes, but a strategic platform for sustained growth.