In this ProductTank talk, Jo discusses the challenges she faced in trying to turn News UK into a product-centric organisation.
When starting this move you find some common characteristics, Jo says. The roadmap will likely be a collection of stakeholder requirements and you’ll be often told to just get on and do it. There's a lack of strategy to develop digital products.
Product teams were acting on requirements decided elsewhere in the business. Jo decided to build a strategy-focused product team, manage loved products, and work up a new approach to product development. She introduced product lifecycles and mapped products to the lifecycle.
Jo says that to drive change, you must get people to agree with your overall goal. For example, moving The Sun from an editor-led requirements approach to a more product lifecycle-centric one meant some difficult conversations. The change was agreed upon and represented by the vision for The Sun “to be the number one news brand in the UK”.
In the digital space, this meant setting a target of 45 million unique visitors per month. This target allowed every piece of work or requirement to be prioritised against the vision and goal. If it didn’t contribute, it didn’t get onto the roadmap.
Watch the full talk here or explore other episodes in our Sunday Rewind series.
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