Major League Soccer

Market Analysis

Product Strategies

Operations

Explore

Operations

Product Management

Budget and Capacity Planning:

Estimate costs for prioritized initiatives, forecast ROI on marketing partnerships.

Secure necessary budget approvals from the league and relevant stakeholders.

Assemble a cross-functional team with representatives from marketing, technology, finance, and operations.

Discovery and Hypothesis Testing:

Conduct focused research on target groups, including surveys and market analysis.

Engage fans directly to validate engagement ideas and gather feedback.

Test assumptions with prototypes and beta versions of digital offerings.

Technology Considerations:

Comprehensive evaluation of current platforms, including CMS and mobile apps.

Assess existing technical debt and create upgrade roadmaps.

Execute a thorough RFP process to vet and select third-party vendors.

Plan and implement the migration of key systems where necessary.

Partnership Development:

Identify and prioritize potential partners that align with MLS's strategic goals.

Develop compelling value propositions for each partnership.

Initiate outreach and network building within potential partner organizations.

Strategically align partnership development with overall fan engagement initiatives.

Launch Process:

Design and implement a seamless fan onboarding experience for new initiatives.

Execute targeted marketing campaigns to raise awareness and drive adoption.

Utilize analytics to closely monitor the performance of each initiative.

Establish a framework for continual optimization based on performance data and fan feedback.

Prioritization and Backlog Management:

Continuously prioritize initiatives based on potential impact, resource availability, and strategic alignment.

Maintain a backlog of lower-priority projects for future consideration.

Managing Technical Debt:

Develop a plan to address and reduce technical debt without hindering new development.

Balance the need for innovation with the sustainability of the tech infrastructure.

Talent Acquisition and Team Development:

Acquire new talent with the necessary skill sets to drive the strategy forward.

Invest in training and development for existing staff to align with new technology and marketing approaches.

Performance Monitoring and Feedback Integration:

Set up robust monitoring systems to track the performance against key metrics.

Integrate fan and stakeholder feedback into continuous improvement processes.

Product Culture

Successfully executing technology-focused growth strategies requires cultivating an organizational culture oriented around product. Key elements include:

Change Management

Secure executive buy-in

Communicate vision for product-led culture

Incentivize desired behaviors

Appoint change ambassadors

Getting stakeholder alignment on a product-focused culture and conveying the urgency for change will be instrumental.Rewarding cross-functional collaboration and user-centric thinking helps reinforce behaviors.

Embedding Product Thinking

Develop intuitive understanding of fan needs

Instill passion for creating fan-centric solutions

Maintain nimble approach open to new ideas

Continually optimize for business and fan value

Product thinking requires going beyond features to craft cohesive, user-friendly solutions. Cross-functional "tiger teams" can build this muscle through rapid testing. A feedback loop between fans and builders is critical.

Enabling Product Operations

Create dedicated roles (owners, managers)

Provide specialization tracks

Develop playbook for product processes

Give teams autonomy on execution

Clear ownership and purpose-built teams allow product focus to permeate decisions.documenting playbooks provides institutional knowledge transfer while preserving teams' ability to self-organize.

Drawing Product Talent

Articulate product career paths

Enable lateral moves across functions

Train high-potentials in PM skills

Recruit externally from tech/media

Given product talent scarcity, exploring internal transfers and reskilling is prudent. Development programs focused on product management fundamentals can build critical capabilities.

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