A US political media network with a flagship property (65M+ monthly views) and 16 vertical properties. The flagship product is a curated link list: three daily editions of editorially selected articles that has served a loyal audience for over 15 years. The brief was three words: "modernize the site." Underneath it sat fragmented properties, no measurement culture, sacred editorial workflows, failing Core Web Vitals, traffic dependency between subsites, and a domain authority score any migration could damage. Everything on that list made the same demand: modernize without breaking what already worked.
The challenge
The brief was "modernize the site." Behind that:
- Legacy platform. 50+ second average session duration, 60%+ engagement rate, 2.4+ pages per session. Failing Core Web Vitals, outdated CMS.
- Fragmented ecosystem. 16 properties with inconsistent design and navigation. 30 to 65% of subsite traffic depended on flagship referrals.
- No measurement culture. Baselines existed but weren't tracked against targets. Features shipped without feedback loops.
- Conservative client. Low expectations, cautious about complexity. The editorial link list process was sacred.
- Domain authority at risk. 65/100 DA that any migration could damage.
The solution
The team turned the ambiguous directive into a growth-led roadmap: every initiative tied to an audience or business KPI, and a phased migration that protected the existing audience.
My role
Product Manager at 70% allocation, partnering with a DRI (Senior Creative Strategist), Experience Design leads, Content Strategy, Technology Director, and Executive Producer. Strategic product inputs fed two Managing Directors who handled the primary client-facing sessions.
Strategy and approach
The engagement introduced a requirements-first methodology, new to the agency.
Before: "I need a homepage hero" leads to design exploration leads to feature definition.
After: "I need newsletter promotion" leads to KPI mapping leads to requirements documentation leads to design system component selection.
Every feature had to justify its existence through a KPI or audience need before visual exploration. The team defined five "how we win" strategic territories: access to everything you need to know, clarify editorial perspective, evolving story tracking, dynamic templates, ecosystem clarity.
Key features defined:
- Topic Tracker. Story-following for evolving news narratives.
- Editorial Perspective. Modernized link list with 4 view options.
- Newsletter integration. Strategic placement throughout user journey (primary growth KPI).
- Click-to-expand articles. Friction reduction for multi-article consumption.
- Section pages. Consolidated subsite architecture preserving SEO equity.
Planning
A full Current Requirements Document was built in Airtable. Every initiative carried acceptance criteria, T-shirt sizing (XS to XXL converted to hours), a KPI mapping, a strategic pillar alignment, and a sprint assignment across a 4-sprint design phase.
Subsite consolidation followed a phased approach. Energy, Health, World, Policy, and History would fold into the flagship as section pages, one at a time, with weekly SEO monitoring, rollback capability, and traffic checkpoints.
Deliverable gates: Midpoint Presentation (May 5) and Final Define Presentation (May 23).
Cross-functional alignment
- Experience Strategy. Shared CRD ownership, audit-first methodology identifying 3 to 4 redundant link list variations.
- Content Strategy. Subsite consolidation analysis with data-driven evaluation criteria.
- Technology Director. Feasibility validation for every feature, consistent "yes, this is possible" responses built client confidence.
- Analytics partnership. Measurement strategy and tracking requirements for all features.
- Workshop facilitation. Brought Experience Design, Content Strategy, Design, Technology, and Production together for complex feature definition.
Stakeholder trust
The room itself took managing: two Managing Directors with different appetites for ambition versus deliverability, a DRI working with a PM for the first time, and a client with low expectations who preferred conversational feedback over formal written responses.
Data-driven scope recommendations kept the ambition-versus-realism gap workable. When formal client feedback ran slow, conversational signals from presentations, meeting transcripts, and proactive tollgate reviews with the MDs before client sessions filled it.
Before and after
| Dimension | Before | After Define Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Brief clarity | "Modernize the site" | Every initiative tied to a measurable audience outcome |
| Methodology | Design-first | Requirements-first (CRD as single source of truth) |
| Subsite strategy | 16 independent properties | 5-subsite consolidation plan with SEO protection |
| Measurement | Baselines not tracked | 25+ KPIs across engagement, discovery, retention, SEO |
| Feature justification | Design instinct | Every feature mapped to KPI or audience need |
| Scope | Ambiguous | T-shirt sizing, sprint assignments, prioritization workshop |
| Agency methodology | Design-led | Requirements-first adopted as model for future projects |
Tooling and reporting
- Product management. Airtable (CRD with full KPI traceability), Confluence (documentation).
- Design. Figma (wireframes, component specs), workshop outputs.
- Analytics. Google Analytics (baselines), analytics partnership (measurement strategy).
- Platform (planned). Headless CMS, consent management platform, newsletter API, React with ISR.
- Frameworks. OGSM, RICE, MoSCoW, T-shirt sizing, Jobs to Be Done.
Results
- 100% initiative-to-KPI traceability across the modernization roadmap.
- Requirements-first methodology adopted as agency model for future projects.
- 5-subsite consolidation strategy with SEO monitoring and rollback protecting 65M+ views and 65/100 DA.
- 25+ KPI measurement framework with documented baselines.
- CRD approach (Airtable-based) becoming the template for future agency projects.
- Design phase transition defined with a 4-sprint structure.
Why this worked
Forcing every feature to justify itself through a KPI was cultural change inside a design-led agency. It worked because nobody fought the design culture; the CRD simply handed it better inputs. Design, technology, content, and strategy all contributed to that one artifact, so by the time the client saw the work, alignment was already built in.
The subsite consolidation strategy protected revenue by design. Folding 5 properties into the flagship as section pages, one at a time, with weekly SEO monitoring and rollback capability, meant the 65M+ monthly views were never at risk from a single decision. The measurement framework made it possible to verify after every step.
A loyal audience wants their site, just better. Forget that, and modernization turns into destruction with a design brief.