Citizen Agency

I remember the first time I heard about Pandora. Mike Arrington had just come back from the first BarCamp in Palo Alto and he had witnessed a demo of the ‘not yet in public beta’ version. His enthusiasm for Pandora was infective. I submitted my name to the beta sign-up and eagerly awaited the launch.

Less than two weeks later, I logged into Pandora, an excited beta tester and fell in love. It was simple and elegant and helped me rediscover and discover music in an amazing ways. I read into the Music Genome Project and was totally inspired by their vision and dedication to the music they so lovingly delivered to me. Basically, they baked a deep level of delight right into Pandora. Everytime I logged on, I was delighted with discovery.

I wasn’t the only one. They were delighting beta testers everywhere…and soon, they were delighting the general public. That kind of love, I thought, comes from a pure place. This isn’t just a ‘cool product’ launch. Nope. There is something deeper here.

Then I met Tim. Tim Westergren is one of those ‘gentle people’ who have embraced higher purpose to their own ego detriment. When you talk to him, he not only listens, but he absorbs…he looks deeper into the conversation. Maybe it is because he is a musician and artist first, but it almost feels as if he can see behind what you are saying. Tim believes in what he is doing at an amazingly admirable level. I can’t recall exactly, but I think he went a couple of years without pay so that the Music Genome Project would stay alive.

Tim is one of those people that inspires you to become a better person.

Then I met Tom. Now, Tom Conrad is a more recent addition to Pandora, but has every bit of heart and soul that Tim has. You wouldn’t know that he wasn’t with the project from the beginning. His dedication and love for what they are doing was equally inspiring. Tom is the kind of guy who laughs genuinely and opens himself up easily. We liked him instantly and consider him a friend.

Since then, I’ve met several other members of the Pandora team and each one of them have been equally dedicated to user-experience and the Music Genome project. Individual stories inspire them…not numbers. Tim now travels across North America, visiting user communities at various universities, telling the Pandora story and listening to theirs. He carries every one of those stories with him back to the team who develop their direction around complex user narratives.

Do they care about money? Sure…they have investors and bills to pay. But they also know that following their dream, listening to their community and dedication to their higher purpose of giving musicians the opportunity to be discovered has to be their focus in order to succeed.

So, that thing that I couldn’t quite put my finger on before? Yep. Higher purpose. And guess what? Tens of millions Millions of people are creating their Pandora personalized radio stations. They aren’t focused on quantity, but just in case you are…