Technically Speaking: A Look Back at 2021

As we head into the final few days of the year, I'd love to share insight into the podcast's impact since its inception.

Dec 28, 2021

As we go through the final few days of the year, I would be remiss if I didn't give you an insight into how things have gone; after all, you've been an integral part of this journey. If you aren't familiar, Technically Speaking is a podcast that I started last year about BIPOC designers, entrepreneurs & technologists sharing their unique stories of triumph and resilience. This season saw the release of 31 episodes over eight months out of the year, and next year is poised to be bigger than the last — before we set our sights on that, let's take a look back.

Growth

This was a massive year with over 262% year-over-year growth with over 6,800 downloads. The pod has surpassed the 9K lifetime download mark, and we're well on pace to hit a milestone of 10,000 downloads by January. We've also added about 2,000 unique listeners globally.

Top countries

We've reached more than 65 countries, and every episode averages around 300 downloads. Here are the top five countries that our listeners are tuning in from.

United States
Canada
India
United Kingdom
Singapore

Podcast chart rankings

Technically Speaking has also broken the top 200 for podcasts under the Art/Design category. in these countries:

Brazil, the highest it was ranked as 8th.
Italy, the highest was ranking was 14th.
Switzerland, we were ranked 45th.
In the United States, we were highest-ranked 48th.
In the UK, our highest ranking was 71st.

Most downloaded episodes

These are the three most downloaded episodes in 2021:

Third place

UX Research Corner and Clubhouse — the UX research corner has more than 30,000 followers on the clubhouse platform. The group consists of Aladrian Goods, Nannearl Brown, Anj Chang, Anna Kuforjii, and Priyanka Mohan. Tune in and learn how these awesome women opened up the conversation on tech and built a community through such an innovative space.

"These are all the female researchers that I'm looking for. These are all the women of color researchers I've been looking for. And it's just a happy coincidence that I've found them."

Listen to UX Research Corner and Clubhouse

Second place

Design Operations, Systems, and Service Design — with Dominique Ward, Head of Design Operations at Atlassian. We talk about design operations, what it takes to build a successful ops team, and how to get into this career path. Learn what this silent but crucial part of design is pushing the industry forward every day.

"Let designers focus on design work and let design managers focus on managing those designers and pushing the work forward and let design operations handle everything."

Listen to Design Operations, Systems, and Service Design

First place

Leadership, Individuality, and Balance — with Aastha Gaur, Director of User Experience at Google. Aastha takes us on a journey through the different teams she’s been a part of at Google, how the insides of this enormous company work, and the story of how she got into User Experience Design and leading teams.

"I believe everyone should do is practice divergent thinking…it helps you be more creative. It helps you create more space. It helps you not argue with people because you realize it's not about being right or wrong. "

Listen to Leadership, Individuality, and Balance

Top themes

Out of the thirty-one episodes, some common themes popped up in our conversations. Here's a look at the top three:

Defining boundaries

The lines are blurred between personal and professional life. Defining boundaries and prioritizing a value-driven approach to personal goals, collaboration, connection, and mental health continue to be top of mind and evolving.

Building Better Connections with Kat Vellos [Listen]
Self Empowerment and Advocacy with Lily Konings [Listen]
Career Reflections, Creative Intuition, and Breaking The System with May-Li Khoe [Listen]

Writing

Whether documenting your learnings, process or tapping into it as a creative outlet writing is a important muscle for every designer to exercise.

Nothing Ever Really Dies, Designing in Public, and Tapping into Your Super Power with Rafe Chisolm [Listen]
Voice Content and Usability with Preston So [Listen]
Value-Based Decision Making, Hiring with a Growth Mindset, and Design for Cognitive Bias with David Dylan Thomas [Listen]

Storytelling

Telling your story plays an essential role in advocating for yourself and lighting the path for underrepresented groups. It also is a meaningful way to document the journey for the next generation to take the lead.

Wellness Through Storytelling with Mercy Bell and Alyssa Hart [Listen]
Identity and Transformation with Julia Fernandez and Jacob Hernandez [Listen]
The Internet is a 'Fad,' Filling the Void, The Origin Story of 'Where Are Black Designers with Maurice Cherry [Listen]

Thanks

Thanks so much for being a loyal follower and a special thanks goes out to Automattic, StudioPod SF, and San Francisco Design Week for the partnership over the last year. Be on the lookout for some of my favorite things from this year and what I'm excited to talk about in 2022. Until then, follow the Technically Speaking page on LinkedIn, Instagram, and subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already.