Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Building Anchor, selling to Spotify, and lessons learned | Maya Prohovnik (Spotify’s Head of Podcast Product)

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Sep 28, 2023

Maya Prohovnik, Spotify’s Head of Podcast Product and employee #1 at Anchor, shares her journey in transforming podcasting. She discusses 'dogfooding' as a way to empathize with creators and the balance between data and intuition in decision-making. Maya reveals strategies for maintaining a startup culture in a corporate setting and offers tactical tips for public speaking. She reflects on the impact of Spotify’s acquisition of Anchor and emphasizes the importance of community engagement in nurturing new podcasters.

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ADVICE

Podcast Topic Selection

Create podcasts about topics you are genuinely passionate about and can discuss endlessly.
Consider what you could talk about forever, as this sustains long-term podcasting.

ANECDOTE

Stephen King Podcast

Maya Prohovnik created a Stephen King podcast to learn audio creation, gaining 5000 listeners per episode.
Despite its success, she stopped due to the high production demands alongside her job and family.

INSIGHT

Community in Podcasting

Podcasting thrives on community engagement, even for niche topics.
Direct interaction with listeners through call-ins and feedback helps sustain motivation.

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