Sneha Rao, VP of Product for Platform at The New York Times, spearheads digital transformation in a storied media giant. She discusses the shift from print to a multi-product digital platform, emphasizing the importance of adapting to new consumer needs. Sneha shares insights on enhancing developer productivity and optimizing cloud systems. She delves into innovative strategies for attracting younger audiences, including engaging games and podcasts, while maintaining journalistic credibility in a fast-evolving media landscape.
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insights INSIGHT
Defining Platform
The New York Times platform is the user experience, whether through an app or website.
Behind the scenes, many platforms support the user-facing one, requiring integration and optimization.
question_answer ANECDOTE
NYT Digital Transformation
The New York Times' digital transformation occurred over the past 10 years, shifting from print to digital.
Sneha Rao witnessed this firsthand, leaving in 2015 and returning later to contribute.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Spotify Experience
Sneha Rao left The New York Times for Spotify to gain experience in a digitally advanced company.
She learned about scaling tech and product, returning to The New York Times with valuable experience.
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In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Sneha Rao, VP of Product for Platform at The New York Times.
The New York Times, founded in 1851, has undergone a significant digital transformation over the past decade, evolving from a print-centric business to a digital-first news and lifestyle platform. With over 10 million paid subscribers and more than 100 million weekly active users globally, the company has a market cap of over $9 billion and annual revenue of $2.4 billion.
As a Platform Product Leader at The New York Times, Sneha is passionate about building and scaling robust platforms that empower developers to create innovative products. Her focus is on enhancing developer productivity, optimizing cloud infrastructure, and ensuring the reliability of our systems across news and standalone products like games, cooking, wirecutter to name a few.
In this episode, we explore Sneha's approach to building and scaling platform products, strategies for driving digital transformation within a large enterprise, and The New York Times' expansion into a multi-product media company. We delve into methods for identifying leading indicators of revenue growth and the science of running multiple experiments to enhance the user experience.
What you'll learn: - Sneha's approach to building and scaling platform products at The New York Times. - Strategies for driving digital transformation within a traditional media company. - How The New York Times is expanding into a multi-product media company. - Methods for identifying leading indicators of revenue growth in a platform environment. - The science of running multiple experiments to enhance user experience in news consumption.
Key Takeaways👇: - Platform Efficiency: Sneha emphasizes the importance of building efficient platform teams that can support diverse product offerings without overshadowing the core business. - Rapid Experimentation: She advocates for shortening the time from idea to deployment, enabling faster learning and adaptation in the digital space. - Balancing Innovation and Tradition: Sneha highlights the necessity of maintaining The New York Times' core journalistic mission while driving digital innovation. - Metrics for Success: She outlines key metrics for platform success, including time to market for new features and experiments, and cost to serve for new ideas. - Future of News Consumption: Sneha shares insights on how The New York Times is positioning itself to meet changing reader expectations in an increasingly digital world.
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Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Sneha Rao
The Product Podcast