Head of Product

Cambridge, MA

MIT Technology Review is a globally leading technology publication owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At ‘Tech Review,’ our mission is to help people understand emerging technologies and their impact on how we all live and work. We want to foster better decision-making about technology so it can become a greater force for good. We attack that mission in a variety of ways and on a variety of mediums—including written media across digital platforms, a world-class print magazine, podcasts, events, and industry intelligence products. Our work is cited by civic and business leaders,

In addition to being a standout in its coverage and content leadership, we are also proud to be a healthy and growing media business, with nearly half (and growing) of our total revenues coming directly from our paying users.

This Role

The Head of Product will report directly the CTO and lead a small team of product and program managers to own, drive, track, and evolve the roadmaps of external and internal technical products at Tech Review. This includes publishing tools, CMS, business and marketing platforms, data systems, and editorial special projects.

Tech Review is an ideal place for a Head of Product who will relish being both an Individual Contributor, and a Manager. You will own and drive key roadmaps as primary owner, as well as manage others who do so. As the company’s top Product leader, you also have the opportunity to (in concert with the CTO, CEO, EIC and broader leadership team) set vision and goals for all products and services at Tech Review.

The Tech Review Head of Product understands the leading and supporting inherent in working on products with multiple stakeholders, is well versed in the use of data to inform decisions at all stages, and above all is expert in the most important aspect of Product Management — effective communication.

We are seeking a Head of Product that is excited to bring processes, structure and tools with them from pervious roles, and desires to build a team and work style that is effective, healthy, and sustainable.

The role is fulltime, and based at Tech Review HQ, in Cambridge, Mass.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities (Essential Functions**):

  • Orchestrate the vision, design, development, and implementation and iteration of core digital products, in support of the journalistic priorities set by Editorial team and the business goals set by Consumer Revenues, Advertising and Events.
  • Work cross-functionally with each team in the company to develop product strategy and prioritize features that deliver a world-class, market leading journalism experiences to our readers, viewers, and listeners.
  • Manage the overall agile-style process engaged in by the product and engineering teams, including planning, sizing, in-sprint, and retros as needed.
  • Work with engineering lead and design lead members on implementing on the product roadmap.
  • Manage the product development process from conception through design, release, and iteration.
  • Collaborate with Lead Engineer to ensure projects are scoped, planned, prioritized, shipped, and iterated upon in accordance with business goals and feasibility within our team and partners.
  • Collaborate with the design lead to own UI/UX Design and the effort to design experiences that facilitate a great user experience and deliver against defined business goals.
  • Identify product and design solutions to help solve key enterprise business problems, and create new opportunities.
  • Drive the product roadmap for consumer-facing products as well as internal tools and systems required to support digital operations.
  • Manage Product and Program Managers and all activities related to overall resourcing and timeline of the overall Tech team.
  • Quantify, measure, and report on (in concert with our data lead) effectiveness of product development efforts to affect defined business goals.
  • Research and understand broad user behavior trends and be a constant conduit for industry developments and emerging best practices to shape product roadmap and the larger enterprise.
  • Encourage a deep institutional understanding of our users and the different modes and platforms on which they consume our content via ongoing user research initiatives.
  • Ensure that the product design works across business units is consistently excellent and up to brand standards.
  • Foster a team with excellent executional results, and a culture of respect, professionalism, empathy, collaboration, and diversity.

Supervision Received:

  • Reports to CTO

Supervision Exercised:

  • Supervises current and future Product and Program Managers (1)

Education and Experience: 

  • Minimum of 5 years of experience managing the creation of digital products, including consumer web and/or native applications.
  • Bachelor’s degree required, plus significant relevant work experience as a dev, UX designer and/or Product Manager.
  • Experience with modern JavaScript implementations (Node and React). Experience and comfortability with WordPress CMS (and associated services & tools).
  • Experience developing product strategy, defining product requirements, prioritizing product roadmap, building and leading product teams, and working cross-functionally to deliver results
  • Strong project management skills with attention to detail and situational fluency, ability to influence and motivate others, and perseverance to handle challenging business situations and make trade-offs at all levels of management
  • Experience working in an agile software development environment; track record of building productive relationships with developers and other functional areas
  • Proven quantitative, analytical, and problem-solving skills; must be comfortable performing data analysis and making data-driven decisions, both independently and in collaboration with analytics teams
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills; ability to explain and simplify technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
  • Ability to identify and solve problems, take initiative, and act collaboratively with team members and internal partners
  • Ability to juggle multiple competing priorities while delivering results.
  • Desire to be both a manager and mentor – creating space and opportunity for growth for your team.
  • Enthusiasm for technology, and for the mission of modern Journalism and digital media.

PREFERRED:

  • Minimum of 3 years of experience in digital media or publishing, or contributing to relevant products.
  • Experience in purchase/signup/subscription flows, conversion funnels and optimization tools and processes for same.

 


** To comply with regulations by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), the principal duties in job descriptions must be essential to the job. To identify essential functions, focus on the purpose and the result of the duties rather than the manner in which they are performed. The following definition applies: a job function is essential if removal of that function would fundamentally change the job.

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