I have to admit, I have not visited Medium for a while to see what new thinking and opinion had been raised there. So, it was refreshing to be interrupted on my Sunday morning by their weekend reads email. Simple, targeted and understanding what is important to me, it hit the spot and lead me to these 2 great pieces:
Editor, Product Manage Thyself
from Paul Smalera
readers are being trained to expect simple yet elegant complexity in their online experiences. Woe to the media company that is not scrambling to deliver both.
When people get confused about “BS metrics”
from Josh Elman
What is important about a key metric is that it is uniquely tied to the business value of the company and indicates there is some set of growing adoption and usage of that company’s products.
I have been working (and thinking through) both areas over the past 2 weeks in my new job, and there is a start of a tide change within the world of journalists and media companies to understand that it is the experience they are providing to their customers that is most important, not just the content. Also, that using vanity (“well, I got loads of readers”) metrics is great, but pointless, if you are not keeping a close eye on the actionable metrics that drive the business or acquisition, activation or retention/referral for customers.
Lots to be gained (and lost) if journalists and also media focused product managers understand that it is a focus on the customer experience and the convenience of this to the customer that will delight readers/customers and those that matter … a little like the Medium email that drove me to these reads in the first place.
can do meta 