I make things that people don’t just love but rely on. As the founding producer of Women at Work at Harvard Business Review—10 seasons, 20 million downloads—I led every aspect of production. I ran pitch meetings that pushed us beyond episode topics toward actual ideas, each organized around a question we wanted to explore and why it mattered. I designed episodes around those ideas, deciding whose expertise and experiences to bring in, and how. A string of lightly narrated listener stories? An interview with a professor? Questions from newsletter readers? Some episodes had all those elements; others called for something entirely different.

I develop ideas by testing their originality and utility, then finding their shape. And that shape doesn’t have to be a podcast. I grew the Women at Work newsletter to over 110,000 subscribers and produced live events where attendees felt part of the conversation rather than spectators. Underlying all that work was a simple practice: ask audiences who they are and what they need instead of assuming you know. I made big surveys. I made little in-email polls. I wrote and responded to tons of emails. Once you really understand your audience, creating stuff for them becomes…maybe not easy, but intuitive.

I develop hosts, too, by seeing what they’re capable of and giving them the structure, feedback, practice, and confidence to communicate what they know. At HBR, I coached at least seven, including several first-timers, and watched them grow as interviewers, improvisers, and storytellers.

You might come to me knowing you have something to say but not what to do with it, with a partially formed idea that needs fleshing out, or with a project you already know you want to make. We can start at any of those points. In working with Andy and Kelsey, I’m looking for clients with bona fide expertise who care as much as I do about making something useful and making it well.