How to transform teams and products - Mel McVeigh (Condé Nast, The Telegraph, Vogue)
Oct 18, 2023
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Mel McVeigh, VP of Product at Condé Nast, discusses transforming teams and products in a global mass media company. Topics include challenges of building products at Conde Nast, collaborations with editorial teams, and creating captivating narratives for events like the Met Gala.
Building products for large-scale events like the Met Gala requires collaboration between product and editorial teams to enhance the overall user experience and drive audience loyalty.
The success of building products for the Met Gala has allowed Conde Nast to scale their capabilities and apply them to other brands and tentpole events.
Deep dives
Building Products for the Met Gala
Building products for the Met Gala is a unique challenge due to the scale and global interest in the event. The product team at Conde Nast, led by Mel McVee, VP of Product, worked on creating a destination experience for the gala, starting from a basic informational page to a full-fledged digital hub with features like a countdown clock and red carpet galleries. By partnering with editorial teams and aligning on shared goals, the product team was able to enhance the overall narrative experience for users, maximize engagement, and drive audience loyalty. The success of the Met Gala product also led to the adoption of similar capabilities for other Conde Nast brands and tentpole events.
Collaboration between Product and Editorial
The collaboration between product and editorial teams at Conde Nast has been crucial in creating successful digital experiences. Through trust, partnership, and collaboration, product managers and editors work together to build amazing experiences that meet the needs of the audience. This collaboration involves understanding the requirements of editorial teams for crafting stories, creating engaging narratives, and optimizing content for search engine optimization (SEO) and navigation. Through shared goals, data-driven insights, and experimentation in safe spaces, the product team and editorial teams have been able to bridge the gap and bring together their expertise to create compelling digital products.
Product Development and Iteration
The product development process for the Met Gala and other events involves careful planning, iterative testing, and scaling of capabilities. The team at Conde Nast follows a program plan approach, setting clear goals and targets for audience development, video views, engagement, and conversions. They leverage prototypes, workshops, and mockups to present ideas and gain buy-in from stakeholders. By testing features in safe spaces like other events or occasions, they ensure that the product meets the needs of users and aligns with the editorial vision. Additionally, they leverage shared metrics to assess the success of the product and make data-driven decisions for further optimization.
Scaling Product Capabilities
The success of building products for the Met Gala has allowed Conde Nast to scale their capabilities and apply them to other brands and tentpole events. By leveraging a brand and platform capabilities mindset, the product team ensures that the technologies and features developed for the Met Gala can be reused and adapted across different brands and events within the organization. This includes features like countdown clocks, voting, and narrative-driven experiences. The iterative process of scaling product capabilities involves learning from previous successes, adapting to different formats and contexts, and aligning with the specific goals and requirements of each brand and event.
In this week's podcast, we invited Mel McVeigh, VP of Product at Condé Nast. In our conversation, we discuss all of the unique challenges of building products within a global mass media company and hear from Mel how to transform products and build teams.
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
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