Experience & Passion for Medium.com
Why Medium.com Should Hire Me for Their “Director of Product, Membership” Role
“Not only am I qualified, but I’m a true success story of the power of Medium.com to shape users’ lives.”
Today I ran across an advertisement put out by Medium.com for a “Director of Product, Membership” position. They’re looking for someone to “develop and drive the product strategy and roadmap for Medium Membership, aligning it with the overall company vision and goals.”
That’s no small task, of course. But how amazing would it be for Medium to locate and hire this person from within its own ranks of long-time users?! (And what a story it would be if said candidate actually used Medium.com itself for a cover letter!)
So, that’s my goal — to explain, briefly, why I’m an ideal candidate. (Hope that sounds like fun, JobsAtMedium.) So, let’s start with the stated requirements. They would like:
- At least 2 years experience as a Director of Product or similar leadership role, preferably in a membership-based platform or subscription service.
I’m well acquainted with membership organizations. For me, this dates way back to my early career in Washington, D.C., where a massive number of major nonprofit organizations have their headquarters.
Later in my career, I held a senior management position at an international membership organization, an environmental group called the Air & Waste Management Association, which had 10,000 members around the world. Our mantra was to “always provide member value” in all that we did.
I’ve also worked in newsletter publishing, on the staffs of numerous subscription-based products.
And finally, as a web developer later on, I built a number of subscription-based applications myself. So, I have a fine understanding of this business model, from numerous angles.
- At least 8 years of experience working in Product Management with hands on experience with consumer products.
Definitely! The publishing work, mentioned above, is/was extremely similar to what would be found via Medium. I’ve been involved therein as an editor, writer, marketer, and tech developer.
- Deep understanding of platforms that include user-generated content and social interactions.
On the user side, I started out blogging with blogger.com ages ago, and have used numerous platforms over the years, finally landing with Medium.com in 2017. Here, I’ve published something like 700 articles ove the past 7 years! (I have three of my own publications here, and have written for a handful of others.)
On the company side, I’ve worked as a consultant specializing in building/installing content management systems like Wordpress and Joomla for platform owners. Many of these owners are/were quite active with users either via on-site commenting and/or integrations with social media platforms.
- Strong track record of successfully leading and delivering complex product initiatives.
I’m absolutely comfortable with large-scale, complex project mangement. This dates back to my early career with Deloitte — where I held responsibility for multi-million-dollar consulting proposals — and continues to this day with my work in the crypto industry, regularly spearheading large international teams that produce millions of dollars in sales.
- Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate cross-functional teams.
As I hope is clear here, my approach is to be thorough and clear in my communications. In my most recent work as a tech consultant in the crypto space, this quality is absolutely vital, as it touches all areas and individuals involved in each project. (I’ve spearheaded ~30 such projects, with more than $40 million in total sales since 2021.)
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a data-driven approach to decision-making. A big bonus would be if you have experience with SQL and able to write your own queries to pull the data you need.
I’d rank my tech and analytical skills as uncommonly high. As a programmer in the crypto space and as a former web development consultant for the past decade, being able to solve problems (eloquently, one hopes!) has brought me great success.
In fact, I’m quite transparent with my methodologies in this regard. For example, when I was trying to figure out how generative NFTs work, I took to Medium.com to blog about it. This was far earlier than almost anyone else was writing about NFTs. And that blossomed into something absolutely unexpected: Thousand and thousands of people started reading my blog, my partner earnings skyrocketed, and it wound up changing the course of my career; I pivoted into NFTs full-time and created $40+ million in revenue in about a year.
So, not only am I qualified, but I’m a true success story of the power of Medium.com to shape users’ lives. Who better to help develop and drive product strategy than someone for whom “the dream” happened right here on the platform?!
→ → → Oh, and I’m a Jedi master at SQL! Most of my webdev experience was in writing database applications. ← ← ←
- Passion for creating exceptional user experiences and driving customer satisfaction.
Absolutely! I can trail this all the way back through my career, certainly beginning with my publishing roles early-on, but most prominently with my recent work as a web developer for a decade and as a consultant in the crypto industry where user satisfaction must be truly over-the-top. In each of these tech roles, there are additional similarities with Medium.com in that, as we build out user bases, we also have to continually educate as we onboard and maintain these user bases.
And with that I’ll conclude my piece on why @JobsAtMedium should consider me for this “Director of Product, Membership” role.
My full resume appears here: https://jpd3.com/
🙏Thanks for your consideration!
ps Tagging a few people I’d love to have read this — e.g., Ev Williams, Tony Stubblebine
