How To Get Actionable Feedback On Your Podcast

I've teamed up with Detroit comedian Mike Geeter and Detroit tour guide Becky Scarcello to launch a new podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene called The D Brief. In this column, I am sharing the lessons I learn from it for other radio broadcasters who want to do the same.

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One of the most challenging aspects of being a podcaster is that it's hard to get detailed, constructive, actionable feedback. In radio, we have a tradition known as the "aircheck session," in which on-air talent meets with his or her program director. Together, they listen to a recording of a recent show, and the program director critiques it. This is how DJs get better.

Unfortunately, podcasters don't have program directors.

And there's only so many times you can ask your friends what they think of your podcast.

That was the problem Mike and I faced after we recorded a series of practice episodes of The D Brief podcast. How could we figure out if there were any changes that we should make before launching the show?

A few years ago, a friend told about a service that Amazon offers called Mechanical Turk. It allows you to hire multiple people to perform a small task. For example, you might post a list of restaurants, ask people to look up the website URL for each, and pay them 10 cents for every answer they provide. One person might look up five websites and the other might look up 500, but you get what you need pretty quickly.

I discovered that you can also use Mechanical Turk to get feedback on your podcast. For just a few dollars, you can hire several program directors - people who will listen to the first ten minutes of your podcast and provide feedback. Of course, some of them provide incredibly insightful feedback while others aren't particularly helpful, but it doesn't matter, because the feedback is inexpensive. I typically look for the criticisms that I hear repeatedly. When different people keep raising the same issue over and over, then you know it's something you need to address.

This video will show you how you can use Amazon's Mechanical Turk to air check your own podcast:

For the last several years, I have been hosting airchecks of podcasts onstage at the Podcast Movement conference. We invite a panel of radio and broadcasting experts, listen to a podcast together, and offer the podcaster advice in real time. This year, the NAB has asked me to host a Podcast Aircheck session at the NAB Show in Las Vegas. If you're going to the trade show, please drop by. Here are the details.

In my next column, I'll share with you some of the actual feedback we received on The D Brief podcast by running it through Mechanical Turk.

LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.

More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:

1. Why You Should Create a Teaser Before You Launch Your Podcast
2. Creating Benchmark Features for Your Podcast
3. Every Good Podcast Needs a Central Narrative
4. Why Podcast Co-Hosts Need to Know Their Roles
5. Record Practice Episodes Before Your Podcast Launches