The SmarterTravel Media business unit encompasses five travel brands catering to diverse audiences. Through branded newsletters featuring curated content, we enhance user engagement, striving to establish ourselves as a trusted resource for travel research and purchases.

As the Product Manager for SmarterTravel Media, your role will involve setting quantitative targets aligned with our strategic vision. You will lead a cross-functional team consisting of editors, analysts, and engineers, driving them toward achieving these targets. Conducting thorough research, you will develop a roadmap for our suite of brands and supporting infrastructure, with a focus on expanding the number of engaged users within our target personas.

This role is based in Cambridge, MA, and is primarily an in-person position.

Job Duties: 

• Own the entirety of the user experience within the scope of the managed brands

• Coordinate, drive, accelerate, and unblock as needed the execution work of your team

• Understand, evolve, and articulate to internal and external stakeholders the target personas for each of the operated brands

• Develop and promote the use of analytics dashboards covering all key indicators of brand and business unit health, and scope remediation steps as needed

• Author, in narrative form, quarterly plans detailing targets for the business unit, investments required to achieve them, and the framework for executing and tracking progress

• Experience with SEO tools and web analytics applications

• A proven track record of growing rankings, traffic, and or revenue through SEO tactics and experimentation

• Articulate a succinct product roadmap to deliver business value and share with stakeholders, elevating your team’s results and becoming a product matter expert

• Build and maintain a working knowledge of user experience best practices in the travel industry

• Partner with STM technical leaders to understand and leverage opportunities to improve customer experience and/or efficiency with new and evolving technology developments

• Develop a complete knowledge of the ecosystem, including partnerships, site operations, and revenue and event tracking

• Constantly evaluate revenue partnerships and how they fit with business strategy, and scope new opportunities to grow site revenue

• Supports business development in sourcing new advertising partnerships and growing newsletter revenue through increased audience engagement

• Evaluate and incorporate into planning activities all aspects of brand execution, including site improvements, partner integrations, and SEO optimizations, balancing business value, speed, and maintainability of infrastructure

• Ensure appropriate compliance with all applicable laws, prioritize a positive long-term customer experience, and protect/develop brand reputation

Core Skills:

• Excellent leadership and organizational skills with an ability to prioritize amongst competing requests and projects

• Strong technical and business acumen with the ability to drive change through influence

• Excellent communication skills, including written and group presentations for varying audience levels and expertise

• Experience with data visualization tools

• Familiar with agile development environments

• Project management with the ability to initiate, plan, execute, control, and close projects

Required Education, Training, Knowledge, and Experience:

• 4+ years experience in product management with 2+ years of people management experience

SmarterTravel’s Leadership Principles

• Take Big Swings - Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders strive to spend their time exclusively on what’s important, and they shed the rest. They seek out the highest return on their team’s time and effort.

• Data-Driven - Leaders work backward from the solution to generate plans. They use data to be sure their time and effort are always leveraged at the most impactful work. They admit when they are wrong and use the data to eliminate their blind spots.

• Make Moonshine - Leaders create value from spare and under-utilized parts. They’re resourceful and tenacious. They expect and require innovation and invention from their teams, and they find ways to simplify. They are situationally aware; they look for good ideas from anywhere.

• Insist on the Highest Standards - Leaders keep the standards relentlessly high. They demand high-quality products, services, and processes because they deliver high-quality products, services, and processes. Leaders solve root problems and ensure that when problems get fixed, they stay fixed.

• Bias for Action - Leaders run everywhere they go. Many decisions and actions are reversible and don’t need extensive study. Leaders value calculated risk-taking because they know that in business, speed wins.

• Have Integrity; Earn Trust - Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is difficult or embarrassing. Leaders are not arrogant. They benchmark themselves against the best and identify their gaps.

• Hire and Develop the Best - Leaders raise the bar with every hire and promotion. They want to work with other leaders. They recognize exceptional talent and enthusiastically propel them throughout the organization. Leaders are serious about their role in coaching others.

• Ownership - Leaders think long-term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They own all the inputs to their business. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team.

• Disagree and Commit - Leaders respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or awkward. They have conviction; they do not compromise in the name of social niceties. Once a decision is reached, they commit wholly.

• Dive Deep - Leaders operate at once with immense perspective and granular detail. No task is beneath them. They audit frequently, and they are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ.

• Deliver Results - Leaders focus their time on the key drivers for their business. They pursue them obsessively to deliver results with the right quality and in a timely fashion. They rise to the occasion and never compromise.

Professional standards expected of all employees:

• Professionally interacts and maintains effective and open communication with all personnel, vendors/manufacturers, and customers

• Maintains a professional and positive manner and appearance at all times

• Performs all duties safely and in a manner consistent with the policies and procedures of SmarterTravel

• Adheres to all applicable department, production, and company related Operational, Safety, and Human Resources policies and procedures

• Performs all duties as assigned

Salary Range:

$150,000 - 190,000 + equity

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this fiction.  They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees assigned to this position.  Other duties may be assigned.  The Company reserves the right to revise the functions and duties of the job or to require that additional or different tasks be performed when circumstances change (e.g., emergencies, changes in personnel, workload, rush jobs, or technological developments).