The story behind the ASOS Tech Podcast
When we originally started publishing our Tech blog, we wanted to share some insights to how things work at ASOS Tech with the voices that matter — all of our amazing people. This was to represent all the amazing stuff we do and ideally encourage others to join us.
Over the years, we’ve heard some wonderful success stories from the people that write our blog posts and how people – new and existing – loved reading our content.
As techies, we love to experiment with new concepts to see what works (or maybe doesn’t) then iterate over time. This is something I wanted to try with our ASOS Tech community — we have such a diverse range of skills, experience and voices around our huge community that can be shared with other people working in tech. We’ve heard first hand through many new starters how they love the content on our Tech Blog as it provides detailed insights to what we’re working on and how.
I’ve always been a huge advocate of using audio content to share stories and passions. It’s an amazingly liberating but simple platform for knowledge sharing with the world, providing relatable content that’s curated by the listener rather than the broadcaster.
So, last year, we decided it was time to try sharing stories as a podcast as well. WAIT- there’s an ASOS Tech Podcast? Absolutely, go have a listen to an episode or two in your favourite app. We’ll still be here to tell the story when you return.
Why did we do it?
So, why would we add another podcast to the millions currently around the Web, especially after the lockdown surge? Well, this blog is one good reason. We know the blog attracts a wide audience interested in the tech we use at ASOS and the amazing people behind it, so the interest was already there.
We also realised the current blog format, whilst a fantastic method to communicate some of the stories we have to tell, can limit how we share information, especially when it comes to conversations on tech and getting to know people. The typical blog post is 300–500 words (and occasionally longer) but a podcast provides thousands in a more convenient format for many.
As a seasoned podcaster for the last 18 years, I’ve learned many tricks and tips of what makes (or breaks) a podcast such as the tools, techniques and editorial process to produce the content. Having worked at ASOS since 2013, witnessing the growth first hand and interacting with so many people along that journey, it was the perfect opportunity for me to bring my personal passions and experience to my professional environment.
Additionally, we identified a unique gap in the market for a tech podcast from a high profile UK company so decided to do what ASOS does best and take advantage of that opportunity.
Showcase diversity across ASOS Tech
However, it’s not just about tech; the diversity of our employees is one of the unique reasons why most people love working at ASOS.
These two pillars are key values on why we produce the ASOS Tech Podcast — we wanted to showcase the variety and depth to the tech and people behind the screens through a popular audio format.
By establishing a strong and reputable presence in the tech podcast community through all the work we do as a collective, it demonstrates all the amazing stuff we do and who is involved.
Bringing everyone together
As the project started, we knew there would be an appetite from our own ASOSers to get involved, to help make the ASOS Tech Podcast the best it can be. We quickly established a small community of “Podcast Champs” from around Tech who were enthusiastic about getting the conversation going.
One of the driving factors to this was setting up a regular (weekly) checkpoint to meet and discuss progress. Every Monday afternoon, key stakeholders would drive the conversation with voluntary contributors who we would discuss ideas and actions to get the podcast launched. We also invited suitable stakeholders along such as Brand Advisors, Corporate Comms and Talent Partners to guide us with their respective knowledge.
With the Podcast Champs firmly established, we brainstormed ideas for topics to cover. It was clear we wanted to try a variety of formats such as tech deep-dives, culture pieces and Day In The Life Of (aka DITLOs), making sure a variety of guests were part of the episodes.
We also recognised some familiar voices would help to define the tone and scene for the podcast — this is where Nat Huitson and Lewis Holmes came in. Having worked with both of them in my time at ASOS, I knew they had ideal personalities, plenty of energy and fundamental knowledge of the company to set the right tone. They both had a natural ability to get the best out of the people they spoke to which is exactly what we needed.
Tech-inspired delivery
With a software engineering focus around tech, we wanted to adopt as many principles as possible from how we deliver engineering projects. We build software in an Agile approach where we deliver an initial product ASAP and then iterate quickly as needed.
- Consider the minimum loveable product (MLP) from the start, identifying obligatory and desirable requirements based on user demand
- Breaking down each epic (e.g. seasons) to manageable iterations (e.g. episodes) with valuable outcomes
- Delivering each iteration regularly on a fortnightly cadence to manage expectations with realistic commitments
- Use existing data readily available to maximise impact, knowing Tuesday mornings are popular from podcasting consumption research
- Research suggests the optimal episode length is 25–45 minutes, based on quantitive and qualitative data
- Sharing the responsibility and tracking all efforts on a visual board for async collaboration across multiple teams with key stakeholders and individual contributors
The first season
Following all the shared efforts that went into the ASOS Tech Podcast, it was extremely satisfying to see the first episode go live.
We decided on a soft launch to make sure the logistics were working and content was right before going public. This consisted of publishing the first episode across a handful of popular platforms (Apple Podcasts and Spotify predominantly) then announcing to our internal tech community through distributed comms and “all hands” sessions.
With the second episode scheduled for two weeks after, that gave us enough time to confirm everything was working as expected and gather feedback from a selection of early listeners. It’s also recommended to have 2–3 episodes released when launching a podcast as it gives people a variety of content to find out if they engage.
All seven episodes of Season 1 went live over the following few months which are now available to binge in your favourite podcast app.
- Open Source @ ASOS with Craig Morten and Albino Tonnina
- Day In The Life of Emma Poolman (Software Engineer)
- Tech recruitment @ ASOS with Nix Crabtree and Grace Burley-Jones
- Day In The Life of Chris Acka (QA Engineer)
- Event-Driven Systems @ ASOS with Amrish Patel and Sarah Wood
- Day In The Life of Jordan Ashton (DEI Advisor)
- Accessibility @ ASOS with Tzveta Dinova and Ellie Hadyoon
Recognise with celebrations
Creating the ASOS Tech Podcast was a community effort; the people featured, the co-hosts, producers, editors, reviewers and advisors to name a few. It’s a wonderful example of the power of our people and why so many people enjoy working in ASOS Tech. It was quite a logistical challenge to make happen too so we wanted to recognise all the efforts contributing to the outcome.
With half the season published and remaining episodes ready to go, we threw a party in our GLH office for all those people who could make it. There were drinks, nibbles and a custom made cake (which went down very well) but, more importantly, it was the perfect opportunity to bring together all the people who made the Tech Podcast a reality, allowing them all to have a chat in real life after a predominantly remote experience.
The core essence of the Tech Podcast is to shine a light on the amazing people around ASOS Tech with their unique stories and skills. All this comes with personalities and that was evident when a large group of us gathered in a room for the first time with bundles of energy and enjoyment to show for it.
Now you know the story, go binge through the first season in your favourite podcast app and follow Season 2 as we continue to share all the stories from around ASOS Tech.
Si Jobling is an Engineering Manager at ASOS. Having worked across a variety of tech platforms as an engineer and manager since 2013, he likes to bring his passions for community and innovation together so the people around him are ideally inspired to be their best selves.
Credit to all the Tech Podcast Champs who’ve been a constant source of inspiration and support throughout the project; Adrian, Barbara, Chris, Craig, Ed, Emma, Eugene, Gareth, Maryam, Myles, Nat, Saima — you rock!
Special shout out to Lewis Holmes for collaborating on this post too. Watch this space for his pro tips on making the podcast.
