---
aliases: ["Podcast Season 2"]
Is A: Project
Belongs to: "[[24q3]]"
Advances: "[[responsibility-podcast]]"
Status: Done
Owner: "[[person-luca-rossi]]"
---
# Podcast Season 2

## Overview

Building on the momentum from [[24q1-podcast-season-1]], Season 2 expanded the podcast to 8 episodes with a focused theme on engineering leadership and organizational design. The season explored how high-performing engineering teams are structured, how technical leaders make decisions, and the human dynamics that make or break engineering organizations.

The production workflow was significantly smoother this time — [[person-sara-ricci]] handled all post-production editing using the [[procedure-podcast-editing]] workflow established during Season 1, and [[person-paco-furiani]] helped with guest research and outreach. The landing page built in [[24q2-build-podcast-landing-page]] served as the canonical home for all episodes. Season 2 launched in July and ran through September.

## Goals

- Record and publish 8 episodes on engineering leadership and org design
- Secure higher-profile guests (target: at least 2 guests with 10K+ Twitter following)
- Grow average episode downloads to 2,000 (up from Season 1's ~1,500 average)
- Introduce a podcast sponsorship slot (mid-roll read) aligned with newsletter sponsor packages
- Improve audio quality: all episodes recorded on Riverside.fm with backup local recordings

## Key decisions

- **Themed season with a narrative arc.** Rather than random topics, structured Season 2 around a progression: from individual contributor leadership (episodes 1-2) to team dynamics (3-4) to org design (5-6) to executive leadership (7-8). This gave the season a cohesive feel and encouraged binge listening.
- **Mid-roll sponsor read, not pre-roll.** Tested sponsor placements and found that mid-roll reads (inserted at a natural break around the 15-minute mark) had significantly better recall and click-through than pre-roll. This aligned with the sponsorship packages from [[24q1-launch-sponsorship-packages]].
- **No video this season.** Dropped the video component entirely to reduce production overhead. The video clips from Season 1 generated minimal YouTube traction, and the effort-to-impact ratio was poor. Refocused entirely on audio quality.

## Notes

- Guest booking was easier in Season 2 — having a published Season 1 with real download numbers made outreach emails far more credible. Response rate improved from ~15% to ~30%.
- [[person-emma-wilson]] (VP Engineering at a Series C startup) was the standout guest — her episode on "Building Engineering Culture from Scratch" became the most downloaded episode of the season (~3,200 downloads) and was widely shared on LinkedIn.
- Average downloads per episode reached 2,100, exceeding the 2,000 target. The newsletter cross-promotion and improved show notes SEO from [[24q2-build-podcast-landing-page]] were the primary growth drivers.
- The podcast sponsorship slot generated about $1,500 in additional monthly revenue during the season, which validated the channel as a revenue stream alongside newsletter sponsorships.
- [[measure-podcast-downloads]] showed a clear pattern: downloads spike on newsletter send days and taper gradually. This confirms that the newsletter audience is the primary distribution channel for the podcast.
