Remember when a certain credit card company used to remind us that membership has its privileges? Well, owning the membership and subscription ecosystem at this renowned publishing company also has its privileges. Among them: constant collaboration with some of the sharpest minds in the industry; the challenge of bringing in new users and making existing ones stick; and the chance to have a real impact on the bottom line of a legendary firm. If you’re a seasoned product owner with an analytical bent and a real thing for growth, we’re most eager to hear from you.
Nitty Gritty
It’s really straightforward when you boil it down: Converting customers and engaging existing customers. But of course everything’s straightforward when you boil it down — that’s the whole point of the boiling process, right? — so here’s a bit more of the day-to-day. You’ll be leading a cross-functional team whose purpose is to own digital (web, desktop, iOS, Android) subscription products and manage the membership ecosystem. Although you’ll technically be an employee of a subsidiary, your bailiwick will extend across the parent company and the other subsidiaries. That’ll mean working alongside a slew of co-conspirators as you conduct user research, establish a product vision and strategy, define specs, create user stories, and plan and execute roadmaps.
The development process will be heavily user-centered and iterative, working in an agile/LEAN environment and requiring constant collaboration with research and analytics teams as you learn everything you can — through customer interviews, audience research and traffic study — about what makes your users tick, what they like, what they hate, what puts butts in seats and keeps them there. And it won’t just be those research folks with whom you’ll collaborate: you’ll sit down with senior stakeholders to hammer out a vision; you’ll do your nuts-and-bolts stuff with people in tech, UX and project management; you’ll work with sales to come up with new revenue-boosting products; you’ll develop go-to-market and communication plans with your colleagues in marketing and editorial. And just generally, you’ll apply a good deal of your energy to identifying and evaluating new opportunities to drive engagement and smash KPIs.
Hired Gun Profile
Product management in the worlds of digital media and news publishing has been your thing for three-quarters of a decade now. You can point with pride at some impressive new-product work you’ve done, and you’ve reached expert-level facility with such tools of the trade as Omniture, Jira and Trello.
Your natural analytical mindset has been reinforced through years of disciplined adherence to a data-based approach to decision-making; not only are you accustomed to quantitative analysis, but you are fully capable of conducting your own research. You’re the last person anyone would accuse of hunkering down in a silo; you love cross-functional work, getting to pick the brains of and contribute to the success of people all across the company. You’re relentlessly optimistic and eager to create and execute without hand-holding.
Inside Skinny
Obviously, membership/subscription experience is going to be a big help here. And if you’ve got investment/financial services anywhere in your background, be sure to sing that song.
Net Net
It’s not often that we see a role with this much cross-functional and cross-company exposure. We think it’s a rare opportunity to make a serious splash at a well-known and well-performing organization. Membership truly does have its privileges.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, creed, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status, disability, or any other status protected by applicable law.
