Finding the problem : Improvements to increase efficiency and usability when troubleshooting

Abstract: In a time where competition for software services is big and the time to market crucial, speed and productivity is the key to competing with other organizations. One of the competitors is Spotify, who provide an audio streaming platform to 286 million monthly active users around the world. Due to the number of users, a disturbance in the service has a great impact. In order to avoid disturbances, the back-end developers have to locate and solve the issue fast. To be able to identify user problems and frustrations with a troubleshooting tool, fifteen interviews and five observations were conducted. The resulting data, combined with the five-step Design Thinking model, resulted in the two defined problems: finding specific information and narrowing the problem space. Furthermore, a search feature and a feature to customize the view, were tested on a middle-fidelity prototype to investigate the impact on troubleshooting and the usability of the tool.