10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
(New York time)
About this module
We talk about our audience as a collective. But this whole is made up of many many individuals. Who are these people? What characteristics do they have in common? And how do we group them? In this session we’ll learn about how important it is to connect back to the individual and how to understand
Key themes for this module- Speaking directly to readers
- Developing target audiences with cohorts and personas
- Identifying behaviour patterns
- Consumer motivation
Today's classes
10:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. (New York time)
Welcome and introductions
Join Product Initiative lead and the moderator, Jodie Hopperton, for an introduction that includes a brief overview of the master class.
10:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. (New York time)
The HuffPost listening tour changed us, here’s why
Originally a brand-building editorial exercise, the HuffPost listening tour took a bus to the streets of America
to listen to readers firsthand. They found out what was on their minds, what was keeping them up at night, and how
HuffPost could help. The two tours ended up having implications throughout the organisation, including the idea
and launch of a brand-new product. In this session you will hear from the Hillary Frey, the HuffPost’s executive
editor at the time, on why it is so important to speak directly to readers and how the trip changed her and the HuffPost.
10:45 a.m.-11:15 a.m. (New York time)
Setting, defining, and putting target groups to use
Julie will talk through the details of how they identified target groups for the NHST titles, a couple of case
studies showing how these were put to use to develop products and features, and — all importantly — the learnings they had along the way.
11:15 a.m.-11:45 a.m. (New York time)
Identifying and re-engaging light readers
Touching on how Yahoo defines cohorts, Don will then focus on how to identify under-engaged users and how to
re-engage them using data. In this session, you will learn more about cohort analysis and how to mimic desired behaviours.
11:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. (New York time)
What motivates users?
Using typologies, Jessica and team looked at the habits, behaviours, and motivations for certain groups such as
the “steadfast neighbour” and “civic hero.” By doing this, they could tailor product marketing to encourage
user journeys that would deepen, engage, or encourage behaviours. Learn how they decide on typologies, how they
got to understand what motivated users to make decisions, and how they acted upon it to make great products.
In this session Riske will take you through the ways in which they use customer feedback at Mediahuis in the Netherlands and why it is important to keep a common sense approach in mind when translating data into product ideas. She will also touch on about a new initiative that they are trialling to understand their customers and measuring customer satisfaction.
When the FT moved to a new web technology, it gave an opportunity to create a new offering that allowed users to create their own product by following topics relevant to them. James led this project, bringing together customer research and a number of ‘orphan’ features that could be best served within a new holistic structure. In this session, you will learn how myFT came about, when customers lead, how technology facilitates, and why onboarding is so important. 
User Research lead and author of 'Research Practice: Perspectives from UX researchers in a changing field’ will talk us through some best practices at Condé Nast and managing demand from multiple titles.
By using regular polls disseminated across multiple channels, including via social and other channels NWSE has n learnt a lot about their audience. This has enabled them to get to know their customers better, and open dialogue with non users which has generated leads for new subscribers. In addition to this they have turned the information gleaned from polls into a whole new product that has attracted advertising and drives engagement. In this Session Silke will run through what they have learned, and how they learned it.
This is a behind-the-scenes look at how The Atlantic conducts 
An audience survey run by The Conversation gave some surprising results. Taking this information and comparing it to audience
behaviour online gave some concrete recommendations. This not only informed their climate editors of user needs during
COP26 but also kickstarted a process to better package their climate/COP26 content and eventually culminated in the
launch of an entirely new product.
Given that subscription revenue is crucial for success, and products are fairly mature, what can we learn from those that have created products that customers pay for? What are the critical success factors to understand consumers in order to engage and retain them? In this session INMA resident experts Grzegorz Piechota and Ariane Bernard join us to share best practices in the work they have been doing on customer insight to inform subscriptions and data respectively. 
We have formed hypotheses based on customer needs. We’ve done the work and launched the product. How do we make sure we are pulling meaningful data reports that help us benchmark behaviours against expectations? Brian has developed such a process that helps fellow product managers check in with a product or feature post launch to see if customers are using it as expected. In this session he talks about how to set measurable targets, benchmark products and how to use this data to make tweaks post launch. 
In this session, we look at different ways to understand the customer. FAZ has gone one step further and has been restructuring teams around the customer lifecycle. Making customer feedback central to the product organisation, Nico will talk through why they restructured, what the new structure looks like, and some of the choices he and the team made along the way.