Debbie McMahon, Interim Chief Product Officer at the Financial Times, shares her journey from the Department for Work & Pensions to leading product strategy at one of the UK's most iconic newspapers. She discusses the FT's evolution from a traditional paper to a digital powerhouse, emphasizing the importance of transparency in hiring and balancing idealism with real-world challenges. McMahon offers insights on transitioning to a CPO role, fostering collaboration among teams, and the growing influence of AI on journalism and product development.
The Financial Times has evolved from a traditional newspaper into a comprehensive digital intelligence platform, enhancing business decision-making processes.
Efficient product management at the FT is crucial for building trust through consistent delivery of high-quality outcomes amidst changing operational dynamics.
Transitioning to a CPO role necessitates a shift from micro-management to fostering collaboration and addressing broader organizational challenges effectively.
Deep dives
Building Trust Through Delivery
Trust in product management, especially in larger organizations, is primarily built through consistent delivery of quality outcomes. Leaders cannot rely solely on their job titles to earn this trust; they must demonstrate their ability to produce results. Many colleagues express skepticism due to past experiences of projects that took too long or failed to meet expectations. By prioritizing efficient processes and encouraging teams to focus on fewer tasks while improving quality, organizations can foster a culture where trust is established through tangible results.
Evolving the Financial Times
The Financial Times has transformed from being solely a print newspaper into a multifaceted digital intelligence platform, serving business leaders with timely information and insights. While the publication still maintains its iconic print version, it now encompasses a portfolio that includes events, specialist titles, and B2B services, all aimed at enriching the business decision-making process for its audience. Adapting to this change involves managing the inherent risks of venturing into new areas while ensuring that the core journalism and content remain prioritized. This balancing act is crucial as the organization looks to expand its services without alienating existing loyal readers.
Organizational Structure and Product Management
The product organization at the Financial Times is structured around customer needs, fostering a client-focused development approach. With a team of around 100 professionals—including product managers, analysts, designers, and researchers—different segments of the business are managed to reflect the diverse demands of both B2B and B2C clients. The challenge lies in ensuring that all parts collaborate effectively, especially when shared elements like the homepage and advertisements serve multiple audiences. A core platform team supports the infrastructure necessary for content delivery, emphasizing the importance of coordination to mitigate dependencies between various projects.
Navigating Executive Leadership
Transitioning to an executive leadership role shifts focus from micro-managing outputs to addressing broader organizational challenges and ensuring alignment across diverse teams. As a chief product officer, the need to facilitate higher-level conversations while empowering directors with the necessary tools and autonomy presents a significant shift in responsibilities. Senior leaders must be adept at understanding the distinct dynamics of a portfolio business, where individual team outcomes cannot be easily compared or directly aligned. This transitional phase also requires balancing operational tasks with strategic oversight to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation.
Promoting a Strong Product Culture
Encouraging a strong product culture within an organization requires active communication and transparency about ongoing initiatives and decisions. By consistently sharing updates and engaging in discussions around product direction, leaders can alleviate colleagues' fears and build a collaborative atmosphere. Addressing skepticism by demonstrating the value of product initiatives through clear outcomes enhances stakeholder confidence in the product team. This approach also emphasizes that every idea is subject to scrutiny and should be grounded in empirical evidence, fostering a culture where stakeholders feel encouraged to contribute without fear of hierarchy.
In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on 🙂
About the Episode
In this episode, I speak with Debbie McMahon, interim Chief Product Officer at the Financial Times, one of the UK's most well-known and distinctive newspapers. Debbie started out working at the Department for Work & Pensions, moving into a product strategy role there before spending time at the BBC and onwards to the FT.
We cover a lot, including:
All about the FT and its move away from being "just" a newspaper
How the FT structures Product; size, scope, dependency management and whether they have product owners
How to advocate for the value of product management with non-tech leaders and editorial stakeholders
Balancing product management idealism and book principles with the real world of the FT
The importance of being honest upfront about your organisation's context when hiring people
Making the jump to CPO; what was different, what was the same
How CPOs can avoid being seen as ivory tower thinkers or, worse still, "poop and swoopers"
