# Podstars by OMR: More efficient production of podcasts with Asana

> Asana Work Management in Professional Podcast Production at Podstars by OMR

Source: https://asana.com/case-study/podstars

## Podstars by OMR: More efficient production of podcasts with Asana

You've probably heard (of) podcasts, right? With podcasts, we can now listen to a wide variety of topics almost anytime and anywhere. There, we find informative, interesting, and also exciting audio pieces. The Podstars team knows all about how podcasts are created, what content they put out into the world, and where they are listened to.

- [Back to customer stories](/customers)

Europe

- [Product launches](/templates/for/product/product-launches)

- [Project management](/uses/project-management)

- [Program management](/resources/what-is-program-management)

Technology

Small business

- [Rules](/features/workflow-automation/rules)

- [Goals](/features/goals-reporting/goals)

- [Reporting dashboards](/features/goals-reporting/reporting-dashboards)

## What is Podstars by OMR?

The independent GmbH was founded in 2016 as a separate entity from the OMR marketing platform. It all started with the OMR Podcast as the first and only product. Important topics relating to digital business, online marketing and everything that interested Managing Director and Founder Philipp Westermeyer were packaged into engaging audio formats. This kept founders, entrepreneurs and interested parties in the loop. It turned out that companies that had listened to the OMR podcast approached Podstars to place advertising content in the podcasts. Gradually, additional advertising opportunities were added through other formats. This is how the Podstars podcast network came into being as a spin-off. Other subject areas, such as sports and entertainment, were added, and a separate studio was soon built to produce more podcasts in-house. Podstars now produces well over 50 formats and markets another 50. Twenty employees work on creating podcasts and offering them as an advertising platform for companies.

### The 3 areas of work at Podstars

In the area of audio production, we produce our own formats that are relevant to the respective market and can generate good reach. The marketing division, where it all began, brings podcasters and advertisers together. The third pillar of Podstars is the consulting division for agencies, advertisers and podcasters. Here, the parties involved are coached on how the market, productions or even a good interview work. Podstars offers a rich portfolio of podcasts that are marketed

## How Asana came into play

It is clear that Podstars' portfolio of services requires the use of a powerful work management tool. Annamaria Herkt had already worked with several work management tools – one of them was Asana. In addition, OMR's design team was already using Asana as well. She found out a little more about Asana and had the OMR Design Team give her a demonstration.  After that, she largely familiarized herself with the features on her own, while also making use of Asana's support. The online introductory workshop and the blog with help and explanations, as well as other learning videos from Asana, were very helpful in this regard. “It was very exciting to see what processes can be handled with Asana. That was a huge source of inspiration for me,” she says. "Another advantage was seeing how other companies use Asana and what you can learn from them." Lisa Schmidt, who set up the Content Management department at Podstars together with Annamaria Herkt, agrees. Asana has been in use at Podstars since the beginning of 2020 and is currently being actively used by 15 employees. After using the free trial, the employees were still skeptical. Many were reluctant to break with old habits and wanted to continue using their own lists and their usual workflows. By now, however, the benefits of Asana for team members are clearly evident. This is especially true when it comes to vacation cover and team visibility. Even team members who are not part of the project can see upcoming work steps.

Questions like “Where do I find this and that?” or “Have you done that yet?” have become unnecessary.

## Asana integrates all content in one place

Podstars' goal was to achieve seamless communication between Production, Content Management, and Product Management. Asana provides the right foundation for this and has scored points in all areas. Content managers now have a better overview of which files and audio tracks have been uploaded by which audio producer and which tasks still need to be completed, e.g., creating descriptive texts or quotes. All of this is continuously entered into Asana's task list. The integration of Google Drive links and Gmail further supports work processes by allowing tasks in Asana to be edited directly from emails. The integration with Slack is also viewed very positively. “We now have the basic prerequisite for everything to work. All that's left is to practice," says Annamaria Herkt. Where do the recordings take place? How do they take place? What technology is needed? Is the editing finished at the end? How does distribution work? All these questions can now be answered quickly and easily in Asana. As a result, every employee has the information they need at all times and, of course, can also add new information.

### Seamless integration of external employees

So far, Asana has only been used by internal employees. In the future, Constantin Buer, one of the managing directors of Podstars, can well imagine that external audio producers, for example, for recordings in Berlin, will also be given access to Asana.  Asana provides the appropriate functionality to easily integrate external partners. This means that members of distributed teams are seamlessly integrated.

Asana's great strength is that it connects all users and all relevant information in one place.

## Asana is music to your ears

For Podstars, and especially from Annamaria Herkt's perspective, the integration of Asana has been very successful so far. Relevant information is simply added directly to a task. Processes are faster, easier, and, above all, clearer. The switch to the Premium version of Asana with its advanced features has led to even more support from employees.  Asana was unexpectedly but hugely helpful for all employees who are working from home. The employees are not sitting together in the same room and therefore cannot communicate directly, such as by asking quick questions or coordinating things spontaneously. This is where Asana proves to be very valuable, as coordination and task allocation can be carried out conveniently via the tool. So far, an estimated 20–30% of meetings have been accelerated by Asana, and the aim is to double that figure.

In the long term, large portions of internal email traffic will become unnecessary.

## Surprising benefits with Asana

In addition to the features that ensure a smooth workflow, Annamaria Herkt and Constantin Buer also discovered unexpected management support from Asana. For example, it is now possible to gain a better understanding of new employees' level of knowledge or which podcasts are ready to be listened to and available for further work. Constantin Buer is particularly enthusiastic about the option of being able to measure the team's workload. From the management team's perspective, it is now easier to see which employee is working on which podcast or project and what available bandwidth each individual has. This has shown how many projects an employee in the field of audio production or project management can actually have on their plate at any one time. The new Asana features "Goals" and "Dashboard" are also helpful here.

Asana helps us get an overview of Podstars' entire workflow. That's really exciting for us.Because every employee makes a small contribution and enters the relevant information in Asana, it is clear from the overall view what the team's current workload is. "I was surprised by how easy it is when everyone is actively using the tool," says Constantin Buer. In the past, utilization rates had to be determined in a time-consuming manner using Excel spreadsheets or Google Sheets. This took up a lot of time. Now, this process is automated because every employee automatically enters their projects and tasks. “It saves a lot of time,” says Constantin Buer.

I don't think anyone on the team would say, "We don't need that."It is now known that the team's initial lack of enthusiasm was mainly due to uncertainties regarding the benefits of the new work processes. Is it really faster? Does entering your own notes really offer any advantages? How does synchronization with Gmail, Slack or the calendar work? At Podstars, there is now tremendous enthusiasm for Asana, and they are confident that all team members will soon share this enthusiasm.

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