Upasna Gautam: evaluation

Transcript context

…Compared to the rest of product management as a discipline and the tech industry, product management in news is still in its, I will say infancy. And that's just because it hasn't been an integrated role for as long as it has been in big tech. But it is starting to become more and more not just prominent now, but people are realizing the value and power of it because especially in smaller newsrooms... I mean, CNN, places like The New York Times, The Washington Post, we have great, embedded, strong product teams. But that is not the case for the majority of newsrooms across the country and the world. Newsrooms are strapped for resources, they are strapped in all resources, including financial resources. And so first, bringing in product and tech talent is expensive, and that in itself has forced editorial staff and journalists to take on other jobs that they never signed up for. And so they've had to learn how to do things product management, and engineering, and coding hacks, because there was nobody else to do it. And so it's interesting because a lot of times when you talk to editors and journalists, they're doing so many other things other than just their reporting of the news, right? They've had to take on other roles because of those restraints in the newsroom. And so there was a group established and a community established during the pandemic called the News Product Alliance. And there was like a realization occurring all at the same time that, "Wow, there's a lot of us doing this work. [NEW_PARAGRAPH]"Like, what do we call it? Is this product management?" And it was, it's product management at so many different levels. And so the News Product Alliance was formed during the pandemic in 2020 I believe by several media and news executives, who had been there and have seen people in their newsrooms do that. And the goal of it is to increase the awareness and education of product thinking and product management in newsrooms, while also increasing the diversity of thought and the diversity of people in those positions as well. And making the resources more readily available, especially for those smaller newsrooms that don't have the money to hire tech talent. And that in itself has... So that group, the News Product Alliance, has grown dramatically in the past three years since I've been a part of it, since the beginning. And we regularly produce the resources that are catered... Product management resources that are catered to working in a newsroom, because it is different, it is very unique. But there are of course frameworks and processes that are still relevant, right? Like editors who have been cobbling together how to make this thing that they want, but hey, maybe this PRD framework will help you, just to keep it on track. So these very simple, like rudimentary types of things have helped them so much. And so last year we kicked off a mentorship network in which we had about 400 people apply. , just to keep it on track. So these very simple, like rudimentary types of things have helped them so much. And so last year we kicked off a mentorship network in which we had about 400 people apply. We accepted 150 mentees from across the world, and matched them with 50 mentors from different newsrooms across the world in leadership positions. And each mentee defined a goal that they wanted to work on, and all of course having to do with product management. And some of them were creating a product management role for themselves in the newsroom. Some of it was creating a product management practice, maybe they were given the title of product manager and said, "Okay, you can hire a couple of people." But it was all on them, and they had no idea what to do, right? And so some of it, it's across the board, and it's amazing to see people doing this from scratch who never in a million years thought they'd walk into it. You know, they're not coming from big tech, they don't have startup backgrounds. They had journalism degrees from around the world, and they're learning how to do product, and build... Not just learning how to do it, they're building product practices, they're actually building and developing products and features, and they're creating more leaders in this space as well, and across their newsrooms to empower each other. So it's been really amazing to see, and it's the most valuable professional organization I've been a part of just because it is so niche that talking about product management is always fun. But when you talk about it at a level that specific, it becomes even more valuable. That is some really impactful product work. Where can people find that if they want to maybe participate, maybe apply if you're doing another cohort in the future?…

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