High-Level Design
Once our strategic planning process led us to consider a podcast we began to design at a high level, considering what would be possible and what our vision might be.
Team Roles and Goals
Our team consists of producers with varying levels of experience and authority. The development producer, our unit’s director, focuses on ensuring alignment of show ideas with big picture strategy and priorities. The producer handles the development, creative and technical elements, and coordination of the show and its episodes, while associate producers develop specific episodes and contribute to the show as a whole. We aligned our roles with industry norms and made roles visible in our episode credits. Clarity and confidence with roles helps with communication and outreach to prospective guests.
Resource: Podcast Taxonomy
Designing the Show
There are a lot of things that need to be in place before publishing your first episode. Deciding the name, for instance, can take a surprising amount of time and discussion. Other aspects of the show can be roughly sketched, but are nevertheless good to understand before diving into the recording and publishing process.
We recommend taking time to sketch out:
- Name: What terms accurately describe your podcast? What terms will resonate with your audience?
- Theme: What topics define your podcast’s content? What distinguishes your voice or perspective?
- Frequency: How often can you regularly publish new content? What frequency will keep your audience engaged?
- Audience: Who are your primary and secondary audiences? What other audiences, within and beyond your institution, might your podcast reach?
- Format: What format (e.g., narrative, interview, roundtable) will best suit your content and purpose? How will the audio medium amplify your message?
- Platforms: Where will you distribute your podcast to best reach your audiences? What opportunities do different platforms offer for further engagement with your audience?
- Duration: What episode length makes sense for your topics and audience?
- Segments: What are regular segments that can engage your audience ? How can you break up your episode into smaller chunks?
- Resources: What resources–including money, staff time, space, and equipment–will you be able to devote to your podcast?
Given our role within Teaching and Learning Administration (TLA), we decided to host a monthly interview-style podcast to highlight the voices of L&S instructors. Our primary audience is L&S instructors and instructional leaders, but we also value that our podcast is public. Keeping our podcast to under 30 minutes was a priority for us as we considered our content and audience. We chose a general theme of teaching and learning, while focusing our first season on inclusive teaching—a priority of the College. We adopted a few ideas from shows we enjoy for initial segments, such as “One Cool Thing,” where guests can share something they are watching, reading, or listening to, and an “Aftershow,” where we discuss what we’ve heard and make connections between ideas. Our chosen platform, Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor.fm), allowed us to add music and pre-recorded segments to our episodes and to distribute our podcast to multiple channels, all for free. We have a small team and access to our own recording studio, which informed our choices.
Research
NPR’s Podcast Startup Guide was helpful in understanding the basics of starting a new podcast. It particularly helped with forming and refining a process, and in visualizing what a good recording session looks and feels like and how to support it.
Scanning your environment for inspiring podcasts is also helpful. What are others doing well within your genre? What are others doing who are within your personal network? Who might you speak with to learn more about their process?
Podcasting@UW is a community of practice at UW-Madison that meets monthly during the academic year to highlight podcasts within and near our community. To join, login to Google with your wisc.edu account and then sign up for the Podcasting@UW Community of Practice listserv.
