Google NotebookLM’s Podcast Feature For Design Engineering Sessions In The Zoom Age

No matter the framework you utilize to design solutions, or even the type of solutions you are providing, the process of Solve For X (and Y, and Z) is mired in complexities that can become overwhelming.

Design Thinking, for example, gives a great outline on what steps you may take and offers methods to achieve each step, however, no framework can capture everything while accounting for the elephant in the room: the human factor. Side conversations, topic drift, and general focus is hard enough to factor in for ideation. Add the complexity of the Zoom world we live in to the mix and comments fall through the cracks and focus becomes more taxing than usual.

Leave no user behind! [Photo by Maksim Goncharenok: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-touching-his-head-9929678/]

If we had an impartial observer able to point out our rudderless moments, our un-captured great ideas, our ambiguous goals, etc., we could be leaner and meaner which equates to value delivery quicker. Or, at least, this function should equate to failing faster to get to the correct outcome.

“AI-All-The-Things!” has been the rally cry the last couple of years as firms struggle to find real-world use cases and understand how to leverage a catch-all term for a field of technology that is really just “compute this stuff stuff a billion times quicker than a human.” Boards and C-Suiters have line items in their 2025 OKRs (because they do OKRs wrong, natch) for AI as a magic black box to solve all of their shareholders’ value problems and it stresses us all out while we tackle last year’s tech debt and unfinished promises. Here’s a use case using Google’s NotebookLM that may solve for some of the human problem in both designing solutions and those lofty OKRs.

What is NotebookLM?

Rather than distill it down, here’s OpenAI’s description of NotebookLM:

Google NotebookLM is an experimental AI-powered note-taking tool designed to enhance productivity by helping users organize and analyze information more effectively. Introduced in 2023, it’s part of Google’s push into integrating AI with daily workflows.

Key features of NotebookLM include:

AI-Assisted Summaries: It helps generate summaries of documents or research materials, making it easier to digest large volumes of information quickly.

Contextual Information Retrieval: Users can ask questions about their notes or materials, and the AI will provide contextually relevant answers, akin to having a research assistant.

Linking and Cross-Referencing: NotebookLM can help cross-reference different pieces of information within your notes, connecting ideas and suggesting insights that might not be immediately obvious.

Content Generation: It can assist in generating content like outlines or drafts based on the user’s input and notes.

It’s intended to help students, researchers, and professionals manage and make sense of complex information by leveraging AI-driven insights and organization. Google positioned it as a tool that helps augment human thinking and learning by acting as a companion to traditional note-taking apps.

It’s a cool tool, for certain, and it achieves all of those things but ChatGPT is missing the latest release: it can now create a 2-person podcast based on your material!

How In The World Does An AI-generated Podcast Solve My Problem?

Session scribe notes, stickies, video and audio to painfully review haven’t quite worked. Additionally, you’ve used every trick in the book at this point, I’m sure, to explain a problem set and potential solution. From Rubber Ducking to Feynman, these approaches can help distill down the complex to the root element, surely. The issue is that we may be (and often times are) missing key elements which is why you are reading this use case piece in the first place.

Help these poor ducks understand your Job To Be Done [Photo by Anthony 🙂: https://www.pexels.com/photo/yellow-duck-toy-beside-green-duck-toy-132464/]

Having an ideation session put into podcast form means it must be well (enough) understood to have a conversation created from the source material, i.e., a transcript of the Zoom session (or a brief if if you are not using transcripts and are a sadist). If you listen back to the podcast, it should make sense and have the key elements you need to move forward. If not, repeat Step N in your process.

Sweet! How Do?

NotebookLM is free and all it requires is a Google account.

1. Goto https://notebooklm.google/ and login
2. Click “Try NotebookLM”

3. Click “New Notebook”

4. Add your Source — this should be the audio transcription or an mp3

I used the first thing that popped up in the Google machine for “sample transcription” for this piece: https://www.ctas.tennessee.edu/eli/sample-meeting-transcript

5. Select “Deep dive conversation” after uploading your transcript file

Note that there is a summary available and you can start querying NotebookLM against your topic immediately. Hitting the “Notes” button will get you to the other features such as creating a Q&A, etc.

6. Click “Notebook guide”

7. Click “Audio Overview” to listen to you sweet podcast!

Sit back, listen to the AI podcasters as they dive into your content. For this example, I now know pretty well how the CTAS County Commission operates its meetings (and who needs a new laptop and how to get it!): give it a listen. You should have the same takeaway from your ideation sessions or it’s time to start over.

Go forth and be more productive.