Associate Product Manager, Growth

Santa Monica, CA

KCRW is seeking an Associate Growth Product Manager to join our growing team of product owners, digital marketers, designers, developers, and technical consultants, as we evolve from a beloved public radio station to a multi-platform media and culture community.

Working collaboratively with stakeholders across the organization, the Product Manager will research, scope, define, design, launch, maintain, analyze, and expand digital multimedia experiences to serve audiences across KCRW’s owned and operated digital properties on web and mobile apps, as well as third party platforms, connected devices, and more -- from podcasts to smart speaker skills to new content formats -- all distributed locally and nationally on traditional and emerging platforms. The ideal candidate has experience working with a wide variety of digital technologies, a passion for digital innovation, unique storytelling, service-based journalism and public media, and a desire to build the future for KCRW. This role is a mix of tactical, hands-on, urgent work and longer-term, strategic, impactful development.

The ideal candidate is a KCRW fan and excited about the opportunity to amplify the independent voice of music, news, and culture in Southern California. You understand there are trade-offs in working at a fast-paced non-profit but are excited for the sense of purpose that comes with uniting curious minds and creating a more informed community.

This is a full-time, non-exempt individual contributor position reporting to the Director of Digital Product Management. This position is in the SAG-AFTRA Bargaining Unit.

We will not review applications without cover letters. Please be sure to provide examples of previous products you have managed and delivered, with a focus on growth initiatives, web and mobile applications, database-related projects, and other digital platform or multimedia content format innovation.

Position Responsibility:

Support KCRW's product vision and roadmap, define product requirements, and translate requirements into user stories to prioritize digital product backlog.
Maintain and manage product backlog, with well-defined acceptance criteria to ensure developers are working on stories and technical work that advances KCRW's audience growth and user journey framework.
Perform discovery externally, including competitive research and direct audience testing, as well as internally, through cross-functional collaboration to identify pain points, business requirements, and stakeholder needs. Incorporate competitive and user research, testing, and design thinking to surface the voice of the KCRW audience.
Create engaging and financially sustainable digital experiences with KCRW’s Music, News & Culture content via our website, mobile apps, live streams and on-demand audio and video media, podcasts, email newsletters, and more. In doing this work, lead cross-functional project teams in delivering quality editorial products, balancing the complexities of our content goals, revenue goals, audience needs, editorial workflows, and technical capabilities.
Identify project goals and tasks, including product objectives and KPIs.
Establish metrics and goals for audience growth, engagement, and conversion for our products. Oversee and structure teams' work to achieve these goals, including working with our digital consultants and internal stakeholders to establish product analytics reporting in line with KCRW’s user journey framework.
Manage conversion rate optimization and A/B testing.
Manage projects to successful completion, with end-to-end ownership on experiences and product functionality decision-making when necessary.
Perform user acceptance testing on features as well as supporting in regression testing for software releases.
Proactively scan and identify audience experience issues and concerns raised by users and stakeholders.
Prioritize issues and features to ensure their resolution.
Negotiate budget and manage relationships with current and potential platform vendors.
Bring comprehensive knowledge and best practices of podcast, newsletter, and digital editorial products to the station.
Establish oneself as the internal subject-matter expert on relevant digital products and our business models.
Stay apprised of media industry and technology trends, and independently work to bring these best practices to multiple departments at KCRW.
Support the Marketing Operations Manager in growth marketing and housekeeping for third party streaming services, voice assistants, and connected devices, including maintenance of and enhancements to RSS feeds, voice command skills, exporting reports, troubleshooting issues.
Support with content management system data entry, QA, technical SEO (as needed).
Miscellaneous digital projects, as assigned by team lead.

Required Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

Strategic thinker who can focus our product roadmap and promotional activities to grow audience engagement, retention, and drive audience conversion towards membership, KCRW’s ultimate metric of success.
Curiosity and passion for understanding and engaging audiences.
Well-organized and timely project manager who can keep the trains running on time with diplomacy.
Data-driven decision-maker with a growth mindset and the ability to convey technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
Extensive experience in using digital platforms such as: website content management systems (Plone, WordPress), CRMs (Salesforce), email and marketing communications platforms (HubSpot), audio streaming and hosting platforms (StreamGuys, Anchor), social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook Twitter, Sprout Social).
Experience with web and mobile app analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Firebase).
Experience with project management tools (Confluence, JIRA, Trello, etc.).
Experience with third party platform analytics platforms (e.g. Apple Podcasts, Apple News Publisher, Spotify, NPR One, Podtrac).
Experience with digital advertising platforms (e.g. Google Ad Manager, AdsWizz).
Experience in interpreting, monitoring, and analyzing audience analytics, both requesting and interpreting data.
Experience with audience analytics sources (e.g. Google Analytics, Nielsen broadcast data) and in doing analysis (e.g. using Excel, Google Sheets, SPSS, R).
Able to build consensus and buy-in by effectively communicating strategic vision and value. Also able to clearly and concisely communicate technical, operational, and business requirements to a variety of stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to make business decisions under conditions of uncertainty, with incomplete information, and produce effective end results.
Bias toward action, transparent communication, and value delivery.
Proactive in identifying key barriers, and by applying prior experience and expertise, establishes goals, prioritizes activities, and follows through on delivering complex projects.
Mature communicator who can represent the organization in external communications with content and distribution partners.
Must be a great collaborator (very comfortable sharing work and knowledge), communicator and listener.
Must demonstrate a commitment towards advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Familiarity with the audio and podcast landscape, third-party platforms (e.g. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora), voice assistants, smart speakers, and connected devices is a plus.
Familiarity and experience with SEO, paid media, audience conversion metrics, and A/B testing, is a plus.
Experience in content, public media, or non-profits is a plus.
Experience with agile transformation is a plus.

Education and Training:

Bachelor’s degree with related field, or equivalent combination of education, training and experience. Advanced degree or certification(s) is a plus.
Minimum of 3 years of experience in a digital product management role and/or demonstrated first-hand experience in growing, engaging, and converting audiences.
Preference will be given to candidates with CSPO, CSM, PMP certification.

What we offer:

Salary
Premium working holiday pay rate
Sick leave award
Vacation leave accrual
Paid holidays
Health insurance (including medical, dental, vision, FSA, life and AD&D) eligibility
403(b) with company match