# Podcast Hosting Platform — Product & Engineering Sync

**Date:** July 30, 2026  
**Time:** 10:00–10:50 AM ET  
**Location:** Zoom  
**Facilitator:** Maya Chen  
**Note-taker:** Jordan Lee

## Attendees

- Maya Chen — Product Manager
- Jordan Lee — Engineering Lead
- Priya Nair — Backend Engineer
- Alex Romero — Frontend Engineer
- Sam Okafor — Product Designer
- Elena Petrov — Growth Marketing
- Chris Walsh — Customer Support Lead
- Dana Brooks — Partnerships

## Agenda

1. Review listener analytics beta feedback
2. Confirm migration plan for RSS import improvements
3. Discuss dynamic ad insertion requirements
4. Prioritize Q3 creator dashboard work
5. Review open support issues and launch risks

## Discussion Notes

### Listener Analytics Beta

- Beta users generally found the redesigned analytics easier to navigate.
- Several creators asked for clearer definitions of downloads, unique listeners, and starts.
- Daily statistics currently lag by up to six hours during peak processing periods.
- Exported CSV files use UTC, while the dashboard displays the creator’s local timezone.
- Growth requested shareable episode-performance reports for sponsors, but this is not required for the initial release.

### RSS Import Improvements

- Recent import failures were mostly caused by slow or malformed source feeds.
- Engineering proposed processing imports asynchronously and showing progress in the dashboard.
- Imported episodes will remain unpublished until media validation completes.
- Support requested more specific error messages and a retry option that does not require restarting the entire import.

### Dynamic Ad Insertion

- The first version will support pre-roll and mid-roll placements.
- Post-roll support will be deferred because current advertiser demand is limited.
- Creators will manually define mid-roll markers; automatic placement may be evaluated later.
- Existing episode audio must remain unchanged when no campaign is active.
- Reporting will distinguish eligible downloads, ad impressions, and completed plays.

### Q3 Dashboard Priorities

- The team agreed that analytics reliability and import visibility are higher priorities than dashboard customization.
- Bulk episode editing remains a frequent request but requires additional technical discovery.
- Sam shared an early concept for a consolidated publishing checklist covering artwork, metadata, distribution, and monetization settings.

### Support and Launch Risks

- Support volume has increased around ownership verification for imported shows.
- The current verification email expires after 30 minutes, which is too short for some teams.
- No blocking accessibility issues were found in the latest dashboard audit, though keyboard focus states need improvement.
- Partnerships needs stable impression reporting before expanding the advertiser pilot.

## Decisions

- Launch the redesigned analytics dashboard to all creators after the processing-lag issue is reduced to under two hours.
- Standardize CSV exports on the creator’s selected timezone and include the timezone in the filename.
- Move RSS imports to an asynchronous workflow with progress, validation status, and retry controls.
- Scope dynamic ad insertion v1 to pre-roll and manually placed mid-roll ads.
- Defer post-roll ads, automatic mid-roll detection, sponsor report links, and dashboard customization.
- Extend show-ownership verification links from 30 minutes to 24 hours.
- Treat analytics reliability, RSS import visibility, and publishing clarity as the top Q3 priorities.

## Action Items

- **Priya:** Investigate analytics processing bottlenecks and propose a plan to keep data latency below two hours by August 7.
- **Alex:** Update CSV exports to use the creator’s selected timezone and add timezone labels by August 11.
- **Jordan:** Draft the technical design for asynchronous RSS imports, including retry and validation states, by August 12.
- **Sam:** Revise the RSS import progress flow and publishing checklist designs by August 10.
- **Chris:** Compile the ten most common RSS import and ownership-verification issues with example feeds by August 5.
- **Maya:** Finalize dynamic ad insertion v1 requirements and acceptance criteria by August 14.
- **Dana:** Confirm reporting requirements with pilot advertisers and document minimum acceptable metrics by August 13.
- **Elena:** Prepare creator-facing release messaging for the analytics rollout; timing depends on the latency fix.
- **Alex:** Improve dashboard keyboard focus states before the next accessibility review on August 18.

## Open Questions

- Should creators be able to select a reporting timezone per show or only at the account level?
- How long should failed RSS import jobs remain available for retry?
- Is manual mid-roll placement sufficient for larger network customers?
- Should ownership verification support domain-based approval for podcast networks?

## Next Meeting

**Date:** August 13, 2026  
**Focus:** Analytics latency results, RSS import technical design, and dynamic ad insertion requirements.