Planning

Before securing guests, planning questions, or recording a first interview, it is essential to set up key systems, processes, and documents.

Systems

When producing a podcast, you will likely be working on multiple episodes at the same time that are each at different stages of development. We use ClickUp as a project management tool that helps us map out future episodes, establish milestones for creating each episode, organize and assign tasks related to each episode, and communicate about tasks through commenting. Milestones are essential to understanding our progress.

ClickUp Milestones we use for an episode include:

• Milestone 1: Topic and Guest Secured
• Milestone 2: Successful Interview Recorded
• Milestone 3: Successful Aftershow
• Milestone 4: Episode Published
• Milestone 5: Episode Shared and Debriefed

Pre-Production

We began with a series of discussions around branding, alignment, themes, and potential topics. These sessions were loosely structured, allowing us to brainstorm potential guests and explore how an episode might take shape. These early meetings gave us the chance to categorize our ideas and prioritize the ones we’d take on first. For some teams, adopting a design thinking process may be helpful for creative ideation early on.

Key Documents

Creating templates and record-keeping documents can help your team work efficiently and smoothly.  The key documents that we employed throughout the show’s creation, from concept to production, include:

• Brand Identity Messaging Matrix: We use this document to align our podcast content and communication strategies with our audiences’ needs and interests and the priorities of the College and the IDC. We regularly check back in with this document as we develop new ideas.
• Meeting Notes/Agenda: We use a single document to forecast the agenda for our podcast meetings and to record notes and assign tasks during meetings. We find it helpful to have all our meeting notes in one place, especially because team members may have different roles for each episode and may not be present for every meeting.
• Media Release: Our podcast is public and we want to ensure that our guests are informed and comfortable with how their recorded interview might be used. We share this document in the early stages of communication with potential guests.
• Pre-Interview Template: We try to talk to each of our potential guests in an informal, unrecorded 15-20 minute pre-interview in which we share our vision for an episode and learn from the guest about what they’d like to talk about. The template ensures that we share and gather all the necessary information to help both the guest and ourselves prepare for a rich and engaging recorded interview.
• Guiding Questions Template: We develop guiding questions for each interview based on our own research and the pre-interview conversation. We share a simplified version of guiding questions with our guests in advance to help them prepare for the interview. In our own version, we may add notes like context for each question or potential follow-up questions.
• Welcome, Logistics, and Follow-up Templates: We maintain regular communication with our guests and want them to feel comfortable in the recording studio when they arrive for an interview. These templates ensure that guests receive complete and consistent information, no matter which member of our team is sending a message.
• Episode Script Template: We amalgamated conventions from A/V script and screenplay formats. These templates are especially helpful when we have multiple guests or are incorporating narration around interview segments.
• Show Notes Template: Our podcast doesn’t end with the recorded interview. We also provide Show Notes for our listeners, which include an episode description, conversation starters, additional resources, and production credits. We use the Show Notes template to collaboratively add ideas and edit throughout the production process. The template is designed to match the format of the WiscWeb page where the Show Notes will be published along with the episode.