Revisiting the Scoring Mode
You'll get this if you’ve ever tried to find a golden nugget inside a mountain of podcast episodes.
Today, I found myself in a familiar situation. I knew the information I needed was buried in the depths of a podcast episode. That one time, Alex had explained pricing in a way that finally made sense to me. But instead of easily finding it, I was left skimming titles, playing guessing games, and hoping I stumbled upon the right episode. It was a frustrating experience.
But I didn't want to complain about the problem. I tried to solve it. And that's precisely what I did with the ChatBot. But ... with 895+ episodes, even the most diehard fans can’t remember where to find what. And when I was trying to do something, like set a price for one of my products, I didn't want a motivational monologue. I want a strategy. Clear. Tested. Actionable.
The old scoring system was simple: “Show the latest.” But recency isn’t always relevant, mainly when trying to build something.
What I Built (And How It Works)
So, I built a scoring system that thinks like an entrepreneur. First, I asked Claude what a great score system would be for this type of content. We had a back-and-forth until I found something that I liked. I sent it to Replit and asked what could be improved knowing the current tech stack and disability.
The result is that it ranks episodes using five weighted components:
- 35% Business relevance (is this about pricing, scaling, or hiring?)
- 25% Actionability (are there frameworks, steps, or tactics?)
- 20% Depth of expertise (is it surface-level or hard-won knowledge?)
- 12% Recency (yes, it still matters—but not everything)
- 8% Content quality (is the transcript clean, the message clear?)
Here’s the scoring in action:
Episode Score = (Relevance × 0.35) + (Actionability × 0.25) + (Expertise Depth × 0.20) + (Recency × 0.12) + (Quality × 0.08)
It also uses smart keyword multipliers. For example, if many queries start with “how to,” the system boosts actionability by 50%. If I'm looking for customer acquisition tips, it prioritizes marketing-related episodes and ensures I'm not just getting five versions of “run more ads.”
And yeah, it has a built-in diversity filter. I’ll get a broader mix: paid strategies, organic growth, referrals, sales team process, and retention angles—because sometimes what I need isn’t what I thought I were searching for.
That’s what this is really about.
Not just a faster search. But smarter discovery. Business intelligence that understands context, depth, and intent and helps you get from question to action without digging through hours of audio.