Main takeaways:
- Find your north star to develop great products
- How that single metric matters in an overwhelming data informed world
- Product development process across cultures and territories
10. How to develop new products
- To measure is to know
- Our wider product approach
- Taking our product approach across cultures
11. About the FT
- 930,000 paid for customers
- 730,000 digital only subscribers
- 1.9 million daily readership
- We operate with a strict paywall
- Subscription based digital company
35. Our product vision
Help our readers make better business decisions to advance their
career/business by providing them the most relevant information
to them, without obscuring the FT view and saving them time
72. One team
“Nikkei Asian Review provides
original, quality insight that
enables professionals with an
interest in Asian business to make
informed decisions and gain
competitive advantage”
We needed a
common
purpose =
product vision
82. A product approach across cultures
- A product development approach can work across cultures
- Tailor how you work together as you implement that
approach
- It is hard...try, learn & repeat
84. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management, Coding, Data, Digital
Marketing and Blockchain courses in San Francisco, Silicon
Valley, New York, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Austin, Boston,
Boulder, Chicago, Denver, Orange County, Seattle, Bellevue,
Toronto, London and Online
Notes de l'éditeur
Cover
Sub-section
This statement is not rocket science but you would be surprised as to how many times product managers have gotten hung up on the wrong metrics when defining success of their products
Simply put - if you cant measure something - you cannot learn from it or improve upon iteration
However, Its hugely important to measure the right things
Lets talk about some common pitfalls that face product managers
Metrics are proxies - what you measure needs to tie to success
Its the difference between numbers and numbers that matter
Base your metrics on your goals and you are off to a flying start
Lets look at some examples
Netflix measure total time spent
However, their real value is viewing interesting content - with their metric what if someone falls asleep whilst watching their content?
Ive done that many times - does this mean my total time spent was valuable!?
What they are really trying to measure is the real value - are we as customers viewing interesting content
Facebook’s metric was time on newsfeed and interaction.
Their real value was bringing people together - they didn’t catch the problem with viewing content that upsets you still engages you
the real value they were trying to measure was connecting with people you care about
The second pitfall is the sheer number of possibilities for metrics
Engagement is highly important at the FT - but its a buzz word - how do we measure it?
These are all examples of evidence touchpoints that someone has engaged with us
It doesn't tell us the full story - we want to understand what drives habitual use + loyalty and retention
The 3rd pitfall is an overwhelming amount of data
Collecting data is no longer an issue - we have qual and quant data at our fingertips
There are no shortages of tools out there to just grab every metric desired
The real issue is the LACK of Focus
Identify metrics that matter the most
Keep it simple for you to be able to succeed in your product development
Ensure they correlate to your goals & your product vision + customer needs
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
For a long time news organisations thought they would give their news away for free and benefit from advertising and scale of global distribution. The scale argument - unfortunately - never quite worked. There are other players out there - 2 particularly big - who will always have significantly more scale. And digital ad revenues simply plummetted. It is now clearer than ever that there is no future in ad supported news media.
The other scary trend - which I could ask crowdsource your perspectives on - but will take you out of your misery - is about changing trends in how people read the news. 50% of digital news readers now consume news via social platforms. Publishers use them as a way of raising brand awareness. Yet research suggests that 2/3rds of readers here in the UK do not remember the source of the news they read.
So publishers give away their news for free, hoping for brand equity. In most cases they don’t get it, and don’t make much ad revenue along the way either. It’s not a hugely rosy picture. Which is why we ask people to pay. But it’s hard. REALLY hard to convince a free reader to become a paid reader. Especially when your product is relatively expensive.
Which is where our data intelligence comes to bear. Where we understand what drives purchase and renewal behaviour.. And how we use this data to drive improvements.
Some news orgs give news away for free and they sought to generate revenue through advertising + scale of distribution
Scale never worked
Digital ads revenue plummeted
Another scary trend is readership = 50% of users consumer digital news through social media, when asked they dont even remember who they read the news with
Its not a pretty picture but thats why we are a paid for news publisher
Its hard to convince free readers to turn into paid readers but we have to do it. Its costs 5 times as much to acquire new users as it does to retain ones you already have
This is where our data intelligence comes to the forefront
Through it we are able to understand drivers for purchasing as well as renewal of our subscriptions, we use this to help in product development
Are about creating habits
I used the 3 R’s of habits here, except reward is replaced by habit
The reminder is the cue or the trigger - it could be an email onboarding programme, my FT which we will speak about or push notifications
The routine is about the action taken - we recommend onward journeys for our users and they consume more content with us
The habit or reward is what the customers get from coming to the FT, It could be bringing you or I closer to in depth analysis of a topic - it could help me inform my company about mergers and acquisitions, it could be helping me inform my company about a lawsuit…..if this is positive the cycle repeats itself
In all of the models we built - whether to drive customer acquisition or retention - one driver stood out more than any other
Usage is the key to customer value - a great churn predictor, and of likelihood to buy in the first place
Demonstrated the relationship between these components + acquisition + retention of new readers
Means we linked engagement to revenue – gave us confidence this was the right thing
Data model built and optimised over time
Comprising of 3 metrics
Recency - the lower the score the better
Frequency - the higher the score the better
Volume - the higher the score the better
We boiled it down to 3 components
Blend using maths
Score each and every user
All usage across all platforms and channels
We started to segment across 3 dimensions
We wanted to increase the volume of engaged users & understand this tipping point so we could scale sustainable audiences
Segmentation allowed us to keep focussed on opportunities, after all telling product managers to simply focus on engagement is unworkable but if we ask them to look for segments of opportunities suddenly there is focus
Full bleed
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Full bleed
•A Twitter-like follow topic feature
•Daily email digest / on-site feed page to articlesw topic feature
•Daily email digest / on-site feed page to articles
MY FT - lots of investment and built over 3 years! Operational and development costs of over 1.1 million
Why did we continue to invest in it
Because it significantly drives engagement for us
Full bleed
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Again we were able to then prioritise lots of investment in our infrastructure to make sure our site was as fast as possible
And won an award in 2017 for doing so
Full bleed
We previously had a web app and relaunched our app into the i0s store
We found the median rfv score to be increased and sustained over time for all these 3 groups of users
This verified our decision to go back into the iOS store and again continued signalling to us that we needed to invest in our app
Lastly on the app when we started experimenting with push notifications we were then able to use engagement to measure what number were most effective for our readers
Full bleed
Find your single simple metric that makes most sense to your business
Let it help you focus your efforts in product development
But continually challenge it
Is it working - have you been able to change your numbers, does the correlation remain valid and true
Now I have talked a lot in detail about how we use metrics at the FT as part of our product approach
I wanted to use the last remaining time to talk a bit more in general about our wider product approach
And then what I did when I joined a project that was not using it and how that played out
So what we always do is focus on business outcomes
We are always asking ourselves what business outcome is this piece of work going to drive - engagement, acquisition
To us a strong product vision is incredibly important
It creates a common goal - for your team, your stakeholders - basically everybody
As I have previously explained measuring our success is very important
Once we have defined the business outcomes we are trying to move we always ask ourselves how do we measure whether we have indeed made a difference
And we always try to be as lean as possible
We follow the learn, build, measure & learn cycle
Try to be as agile as we can
So what happens when a product approach is not followed
Nikkei bought the FT in 2015
They have an english speaking business publication
Which the FT are partnering with
To transfer what we have learned at the FT
To nikkei to accelerate business growth
As we look to improve their customer facing products, newsroom and marketing systems
We were not following our product approach and it was making life diificult
We were back finding pitfalls and the first was because we had no clear direction
We had slipped into the pattern of delivery big things not several small things that built up to a vision or bigger picture we were trying to create
We had abandoned all of our lean and agile ways of working
The risk on the project was really high
We were delivering huge things - a new website and a new CMS - all to tight deadlines so we had to go waterfall to manage the risk
Lastly we were in a long distance relationship and they are hard!
We are here and they are all the way over there
There is an 8 hour time difference in the summer and a 9 hour difference in the winter
This gives us little overlap
All our meetings are done over hangout and written conversation over email and slack
We were really struggling to make it work
So I arrived s a product manager in April and the first thing I did was put in many of our product approach as this enabled the team to better deliver
We needed to better operate as one team
So we created a product vision and that gave us our common understanding and our shared purpose
We did this collaboratively
This helped us break down cultural boundaries
It also acted as a mini reset - we had many reset moments over the summer but this was definitely one of them
As it was really important that we moved from a client & supplier relationship to one that was more of a partnership
We introduced a lean product development approach
We would focus on the problem we are trying to solve for either the business or customers
Build something to test our hypothesis
We did this whilst being mindful of cultural differences
So in Japan group consensus is highly important
But we were at the point where we were trying to make tiny design decisions with group of 25 people on a google hangout
WHich was really slowing us down
So we took this cultural aspect but made it work for us
Full bleed
So i guess my three main takeaways for taking a product approach cross cultures