🧭 Product management

A product is a service or good that creates an exchange of value. Product managers contribute to the strategy, development and launch of a product. This role can be found in very different fields.

In the music industry, product managers guide the career and new releases of your favourite artists and the apps on your phone have product managers working on the latest update.

In April 2022, I learned about product management applied to journalism and the news, when I started working as a Digital Product Manager for CTV News.

I contribute to the operations, performance, vision and development of digital news products for CTV News, and I support other brands that are under the News portfolio of Bell Media: CP24, BNN Bloomberg and Noovo Info. I work closely with cross-functional teams and business stakeholders to drive content and video consumption, increase ad inventory, focus on the customer experience & feedback, data analysis, and grow the digital news audience.

What does that look like? My day-to-day work is about building responsive experiences on the website, staying informed about the latest trends in digital news to stay competitive, monitoring reviews on our news apps to collect users’ feedback, responding to operations requests or preparing different reports.

The role of a digital product manager requires:
⏱️ The ability to prioritize initiatives, according to the time and resources available
🗓️ Strategic planning or the ability to see the bigger picture and set up goals with plans to achieve them
📊 An analytical eye and research skills to find data and turn it into insights that help improve a product
👤 Notions of user-centered design to help build successful digital products
🧩 Understanding of the agile design methodology to deliver working products, continuously updating

Applied to news, product management looks at the overall experience users have when consuming journalism. Think of it as a bridge role that connects audience, business and technology, with users in the centre.

If you want to learn more about product management, I recommend you to visit Product Plan and the Product Kit by the News Product Alliance. I learned about the News Product Alliance at the same time that I started in this role. The Slack community is a great place to connect with other product thinkers and exchange ideas. In 2022, I was accepted in the first cohort of the their mentorship program. Thanks to my mentor Mariah Craddick for her support!

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