I believe that tools and approaches from design and product are useful in capacitating other sectors, so I tested my theory about applying product thinking to a project in the social sector: I created this project with a non-tech team aiming at building a sustainable music industry in Palestine, and exporting Palestinian music to the international music industry.

I’ve worked on design projects with many NGOs and non-product teams over the years. One thing I found in common is how much these organizations can benefit from applying product thinking to their work. Applying product thinking can enhance efficiency and move organizations closer to a customer-centric mindset. Being data driven enables them to focus their efforts on outcome instead of output.

A few years ago, I tested my theory about applying product thinking to a project in the social sector. I created this project with a group of non-tech friends aiming to build a sustainable music industry in Palestine and export Palestinian music to an international audience.

Palestine Music Expo (PMX) has been running for 4 years. I have collected so much insight, ran hundreds of experiments, and we have failed and succeeded and failed and succeeded again. Below, I will share how some product practices were applied to build the foundations for the project, and even though a book can be written about this, I have summarized the key points that relate to product thinking and how the team and I continue to use the same methodology to experiment and build towards our mission.

Toot Ard Performing Live at Palestine Music Expo

Growing up in Palestine, my friends and I we were always thinking about why Palestinian music doesn't travel far. What can we  do to change that? How come most countries have a music export office but Palestine doesn't? How can we export music outside of Palestine?

We had a few assumptions about why music isn't being exported outside the region, and we had ideas about what we want to build to solve that problem. But before we jumped to ideating solutions, we wanted to know for sure that we are solving the right problem.

Framing the problem

Non-tech projects, especially in the social sector are focused on output. The success of a project is determined by the ability to deliver something within a certain time frame. In product, however, the focus is on outcome. I wanted the team to focus on the problem that we are solving and create the highest impact for our users instead of immediately going into requirements and delivery schedule.

One of the problems we focused on first is:

Musicians living in Palestine have the problem that they cannot export their music outside of Palestine. This makes them feel isolated and disconnected from musicians around the world. Our product should deliver a way for them to export their music internationally and connect with the global music industry.

Validating the problem

Working with a product mindset means that we are aware that everything is an assumption until it has been validated. After framing the problem above, we did some research to validate that we are targeting the right audience and solving a common pain point that they have. We conducted user interviews that gave us insight into possible sources of our problem statement:

1. Lack of infrastructure: Most musicians we spoke to talked about the lack of access to recording studios and professional equipment. Some said that they can't make money from their music because music isn't considered a real profession.
2. Language barrier: A large number of musicians said that it's hard to keep up with the international music industry and reach out because they don't speak English fluently. Things that might seem simple like putting your music on streaming services takes on a different form when instructions are not available in Arabic.
3. Lack of access to the international market: Musicians living in Palestine don't have access to music conferences, networking events, or ways to get in touch and build professional relationships that can push their career forward.