How Sadaf Kazmi Went From Audible Listener to Audible Leader

“I feel a responsibility to give back to my community in some way, and it’s always been an important part of my life,” says Sadaf Kazmi, Audible’s Head of Creator and International Products. In her role, Kazmi leads teams in ensuring a seamless product experience for creators who work with us, and she helps to strategize our expansion and growth around the world. Kazmi is also focused on creating inclusion and making a positive impact for girls and women pursuing STEM careers.

At Audible’s Women’s History Month panel in March, Kazmi described inclusion as “being able to bring your whole self to work—your perspective, your background, whatever it is that makes you different—and feel comfortable doing that.” She talked about the importance of representation, and how it drives her to be purposeful about sharing her background as a Muslim, a mother, a woman of color. Not only does it help to challenge and redress stereotypes, but “it makes my team feel comfortable sharing about themselves.”

The Boston native is able to stay close to her large family as she works from our Cambridge, Massachusetts hub, where a portion of her team is based. One of Kazmi’s main areas of focus is the Audible Creator Exchange (ACX), our all-in-one marketplace for creating audiobooks, distributing them to a global audience on Audible, tracking insights, and optimizing earnings. She and her team work to understand what ACX creators and listeners need and what their pain points are, and then build a customer experience to solve for those and grow the business. The team also works alongside other product and cross-functional teams to enable Audible to expand globally while localizing our capabilities.

We caught up with Kazmi to learn a bit more about her career journey and the personal philosophy that led her to work at Audible.

What drew you to Audible?

I love Audible. I was an Audible customer for many years before I joined the company, and now I get to help bring Audible to more listeners and creators across the world. I have a philosophy that I will only work for companies whose product I use (and have used before I got hired) and believe in. I want to feel good about what I’m asking customers to use and buy, and this feels like the most authentic way for me to do that. So far, I’ve been able to maintain this philosophy and it has never failed me.

As a leader, what is your “super power”?

Execution. I’m good at getting things done and not giving up, and I’m good at helping my team do the same. I am not easily discouraged.

What are some left turns you took on your career journey?

I’ve had a couple, but the one that sticks out to me is that after graduate school I intended to work in real estate investments. I have an MBA/JD, and I was a real estate major in business school and had a real estate concentration in law school. I finished graduate school in 2008, right before the biggest real estate downturn in US history—so my timing was perfectly bad! I had a job offer that quickly disappeared and many people in my major were in a similar situation. I spent some time looking for other opportunities, but the recovery was slow and I decided to go back to tech. It was a great decision, and in retrospect, tech is a much better fit for my skills and passions. No regrets.

If you were stuck on a desert island (with an unlimited supply of electricity) and could only bring one piece of tech what would it be and why?

Definitely my phone. Is there another answer? It does everything and it’s compact. I would need internet access, though!

Lightning round

• Coffee or tea? In the morning, coffee (three times), black. In the afternoon, English Breakfast tea with milk, no sugar.
• Morning person or night owl? Night owl, although parenthood has made me want to sleep way more and go to bed much, much earlier.
• Where are you working from currently? The Audible Cambridge hub in Kendall Square.
• How long have you been with Audible? Almost three years.
• Dine in or take out? Definitely dine in. I love eating out and trying new places. I follow all the new restaurant openings in Boston.
• Favorite outside of work hobby? Volunteering. I serve on the Trustees Council of Penn Women and volunteer for the MIT Venture Mentoring Service. I also recently started volunteering with the local Girl Scout council as a member of their board nominating committee. I generally feel a responsibility to give back to my community in some way and it’s always been an important part of my life. The focus of my volunteer efforts have been on some combination of girls’ and women’s issues and STEM.
• Favorite Audible listen, go. There are so many, but recently I finished Project Hail Mary, which is an Audible Original. The performance brought this great story to life. I was sad when it was over!