Lead Product Manager, The Athletic
Consumer
$145-175k
Subscription based publisher of sports content
Be an early applicant
Subscription based publisher of sports content
501-1000 employees
Be an early applicant
$145-175k
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To produce smarter coverage for die-hard fans and redefine the way fans get access to sports content by flipping the normal model for sports journalism.
Role
Who you are
- 4+ years of highly relevant product management experience at a fast-growing consumer company (sports/media is a plus), or demonstrated success in a similar role
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate business goals into product features
- Expertise in consumer digital products
- High familiarity with and love for sports and journalism
- A bias toward action and the ability to rally teams to deliver results - you need to get things done
- Excellent collaboration skills and ability to influence without authority
- Excellence with data - analyzing data, deriving insights, and making data-driven decisions
- Empathy for users that translates into intuitive, delightful experiences
- Eagerness to try new things and learn - and a willingness to fail
- Experience working with and coordinating a diverse set of stakeholders
What the job involves
- Product plays a pivotal role at The Athletic, spearheading critical cross-functional initiatives and leading teams of engineers, designers, newsroom staff, marketers, and analysts to execute seamlessly on behalf of the business and our users
- As a Lead Product Manager, Consumer, you will lend your domain and functional expertise to build compelling experiences that sports fans love and propel the business forward
- You will tackle complex initiatives that require cross-functional strategic, operational, and technical alignment to help make The Athletic an indispensable daily destination for sports fans
- This is an advanced individual contributor role, and you will be critical to the success of the Product organization
- You will report to the Director of Product, Consumer
- Your primary focus is to deliver impactful consumer-facing features and experiences across The Athletic's digital platforms (Web, iOS, and Android) that drive fan engagement and retention
- Creating compelling user experiences that showcase our premium sports journalism
- Developing features that deepen user engagement with our content (articles, newsletters, highlights, podcasts, and more)
- Building personalized experiences that connect fans with the teams and leagues they're passionate about
- Enhancing discovery features to help users find relevant content across our platforms
- Define the strategy for your product area(s) to meet business objectives
- Operate as an internal advocate for the fan by bringing a deep understanding of sports fans' needs and behaviors to inform product decisions
- Work closely with the rest of the Product team to align initiatives and dependencies, so that we create a cohesive global product experience
- Develop and manage a roadmap that balances immediate user needs with longer-term strategic goals in the service of a cohesive experience across all touchpoints in the fan’s journey
- Articulate the "why" behind product strategy to gain and maintain alignment across stakeholders
- Champion features that drive our north star metrics
- Build and lead cross-functional teams that ship with quality and velocity
- Create a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement
- Transform user feedback and data insights into product enhancements
- Foster a highly collaborative cross-functional environment focused on shared metrics and objectives
- Work closely with other leaders to improve collaboration and execution velocity
- Help establish best practices for product development and experimentation
- Navigate complex stakeholder environments with diplomacy and clarity of purpose
- Invest smartly in platforms that will allow us to experiment at scale - thinking through complex systems and building products that unlock outsize impact on the business
- Begin informing the work of other teams through direct and indirect mechanisms, including mentoring PM colleagues as appropriate
- To succeed, you will need to:
- Understand sports fans' behaviors, needs, and motivations through both qualitative and quantitative insights
- Partner with newsroom leaders to translate editorial strategy into product experiences
- Work closely with engineers and designers to deliver high-quality features that drive our key metrics
- Balance short-term wins with longer-term strategic initiatives
- Make data-driven decisions that improve our audience engagement metrics
Our take
The Athletic provides authentic, in-depth coverage written by journalists who know the teams they write about inside out. Its model bucks the trend of traditional sports journalism outfits by asking for a subscription rather than relying on ad-revenue.
Despite initial doubts that users would be willing to pay for sports journalistic content, the Athletic has found significant success and was acquired by the New York times in 2022.
This collaboration was criticised at the time by investors who believed that the Athletic was undersold. However, despite The Athletic operating at a loss since the takeover, it's clear that the New York Times perceives the subscription magazine as a long-term investment, predicting that it will be operating at a profit within the next 4 years. This will be aided by accelerated customer growth and the growing trend of subscription-based sports news.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Jan 2020
$50m
SERIES D
May 2019
$21.8m
SERIES C
Total funding: $139.5m
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Adam Hansmann
(President & Co-Founder)Previously a McKinsey Business Analyst and then Associate at Calera Capital.
Alex Mather
(CEO & Co-Founder)Vice President at startup building a community for athletes called Strava before founding The Athletic
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