harvard business review’s digital transformation
TRANSCRIPT
HBR: A Study in Transformation
Eric HellwegExecutive Director, Product Management and Digital Strategy@ehellweg
HBR Back in the Day
The HBR brand is stronger than ever
Reaching circulation high Improving willingness to pay of core customers Developing new products based on solid customer knowledge Driving much of the growth of the brand from website Increasing CPMs
But things weren’t always so pretty…
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We want to impart three lessons:
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1. Be something (we’ll explain)2. Be patient3. Be obsessed with the user
Started with a simple framework
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Forget Borrow Learn
Lesson #2: Be Patient
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Transformations seem daunting at first…• Nine years ago, HBR was:
> Print only> 200k subscribers> 200k web visitors who only purchased reprints
• Nine years ago, HBR had no:> Social media profile> Original online programming> Vision of the future
Lesson #3: Become Obsessed with User
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• Created “Advisory Board” for continuous conversation with users• Connected marketing feedback with editorial insights• Segmented users• Designed database to track user behavior and segments• Launched conjoint to get a better idea of how elements complement• Began prototyping new products based on user responses
Lesson #3: Become Obsessed with User
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1. Don’t waste our users’ time. 2. Prioritize flexibility– quickly adapt.3. We are not the users. Think from the outside in.4. Always speak to our users in a consistent, friendly, respectful tone.5. Test, test, test will be part of all launch activities.6. Prioritize a long-term relationship over a short-term transaction.7. Whenever possible, prioritize users over other stakeholders.
Product Management @ HBR
“The ability media companies have to innovate and compete in this tech-eats-everything-world is fully dependent on how they view product and product management. As of now, it seems very few (traditional) media companies are able to agree on these terms internally.”
—Espen Sundve, “The Need for Product Management in Media” https://medium.com/managing-digital-products/the-need-for-product-management-in-media-fe02cddf5ec3
Product Management @ HBR
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User Need
Is It Feasible?
Business Goal
Product Management @ HBR
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Editorial
Product Management @ HBR
1. What do our users want?2. What are our business goals?3. What is feasible to get done?
(Research, analytics, user-testing, iterative design and development)
A-LA CARTE PRODUCTS SITE “PRODUCTS” & EXPERIENCES
PRODUCT MGMT FOUNDATION
• Maintain high price• Find new product sources• Support branded lines• Modular components
• New features• Incremental improvements• Video and audio• Libraries
(Guides+Video, HBR Tools, etc) (Visual Library, Archive, Emails, Assessments, etc)
Increase Willingness to Pay Lower Costs of Acquisition and Retention
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
FY13 FY15 FY18P
HBR.org only
Digital Replica
Print + HBR.org
All-Access
Print Only
Shift to All Access
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Thank you!
@ehellweg