How We Did It: Our First Spotify Design Podcast

Co-produced by Shamik Ray, Principal Designer and Eda Yu, UX Writer, Past Lives was a brand new, thrilling venture to work on. With the assistance of Maggie Zhang as venture supervisor, we navigated creating our first-ever podcast for Spotify.Design, studying about manufacturing, dwell interviewing, and podcast branding alongside the best way. We additionally used Spotify instruments, skilling up on Soundtrap and Anchor from scratch and utilizing them for various components of the method from recording to distribution, which helped flip our podcast dream right into a actuality.

The concept for the collection first got here to Shamik early this yr. He needed to discover what individuals on our design crew did earlier than becoming a member of the tech business. Our core aim on Spotify.Design is to lift up and amplify people in our design org, and Past Lives felt like an important alternative for the broader design group to get to know our crew.

Proposing the podcast

To get began, we created a proper proposal for the podcast that included an overview of our manufacturing course of, an interview dialogue information, and a possible episode listing.

This was all new to us, so creating an actual, concrete slide deck helped us distill which steps to take as a way to get the ball rolling. 

After Past Lives was given the inexperienced gentle by Spotify Design’s Editorial Board, we reached out to 5 potential friends, started looking for a bunch, and put collectively a free episode construction. We discovered the episode construction notably useful when beginning to consider sound design components or how the totally different components of our podcast would match collectively.

Preparing for the interviews

For this pilot, we selected an interview host who didn’t work at Spotify, Rhiannon Atkins. Rhiannon’s voice and magnificence have been excellent for the sunshine, informal nature of the present. And as a result of she did not work at Spotify, she had no prior data of the interviewees. We gave her dialogue guides, however because the collection progressed, she started freestyling extra—including in her personal follow-ups and inquiries to dialog factors that caught out to her. Throughout the collection, Rhiannon did an important job of steering the dialog and making individuals really feel snug, which helped us create an surroundings the place our friends felt free to share overtly and actually.

Remote recording setup

Since we couldn’t meet in-person with the continuing pandemic, we had to determine one of the best ways to report high quality audio of our friends’ voices. We shipped microphones to all of our friends, which made an enormous distinction in how they sounded. For future recordings, we realized that it’s useful to supply extra steerage to individuals round establishing the microphone earlier than the interview begins or to stroll by means of establishing their audio gear with them initially of every recording session.

Post-production: Editing and sound design

We have been lucky to have the help of Andreas Pejler, an Associate Product Manager at Soundtrap, who helped us put collectively the intro and outro for our episodes. We went with an easier method, slightly than investing closely in additional immersive sound design.

Looking again, we may have benefited from incorporating extra sound design components all through every present. Different sound results may break up the cadence of every episode, making it really feel extra dynamic. 

We used an audio transcription instrument to generate transcripts of every recording, so we may simply perceive which components to chop and the main target space of every story. Shamik edited every episode, which took about 4-6 hours, and Eda lower collectively the intro, trailers, and outros. Having exports of every particular person’s particular person audio out there to obtain on Soundtrap helped streamline the method. 

Show branding and rollout

We realized that high quality art work could be essential for this podcast, since we wish it to really feel a part of our total Spotify Design model and in addition stand out on varied platforms. We labored with illustrator Simon Child to create personable illustrations of objects that represented the main target of every episode. Each piece of present artwork showcased a big a part of the friends’ expertise, whereas bringing a enjoyable human component to the quilt. In addition to visible branding, Eda crafted the present titles and descriptions for every of the episodes, giving simply sufficient info away to attract listeners in.

Launching the podcast

Before launching to the general public, we first launched Past Lives inside our Spotify Design group as a result of we thought the podcast could be an effective way for everybody to be taught extra about one another. We obtained optimistic suggestions, and have been delighted to search out that our podcast impressed an inside First Thursdays occasion—a month-to-month design get-together—particularly targeted on designers’ “past lives.” 

As a part of our inside rollout, every week we launched a “Guess Who?” competitors on Fridays, the place we shared a sneak peek of the episode and requested individuals to guess who the visitor is perhaps. It was a enjoyable method to get the group engaged. 

Now, we’re excited to lastly share Past Lives with you all! We hope you discover it useful, attention-grabbing, and provoking. We consider that sharing our designers’ tales will assist break down obstacles or preconceived notions that there’s just one proper path to constructing a profession in design. 

Shoutouts

Rhiannon Atkins, for being our fearless podcast host this pilot season.

Andreas Eklundh Pejler, for composing the soundscape for the present.

Simon Child, for creating lovely branding and canopy artwork design.

Samwoo Ee, for being our in-house podcasting skilled and mentor.

Rob Nero, for setting us up for fulfillment in Soundtrap.

Nanci Veitch, for clearing away the tougher issues and lending unflinching help all through the journey.

Spotify Design Editorial Board, for suggestions and fist bumps alongside the best way.

Our pilot individuals, for sharing their nice spirit and superior tales with us all.