Table of Contents
Product management often requires navigating ambiguity, but at a global news organization like CNN, ambiguity is replaced by high-stakes chaos. When a major story breaks, the tools used by journalists to write, edit, and publish content must perform flawlessly under immense pressure. Building the internal Content Management System (CMS) for such an environment requires a unique blend of technical rigor and emotional resilience.
Upasna Gautam, a Product Manager at CNN Digital, sits at the intersection of technology and journalism. Leading the team responsible for the CMS used by CNN’s journalists, she offers a rare glimpse into how product principles apply in a 24/7 breaking news cycle. From "dress rehearsals" for global crises to utilizing mindfulness as a professional superpower, the strategies employed at CNN offer valuable lessons for product leaders across all industries.
Key Takeaways
- Equanimity is a PM superpower: In high-stress environments, the ability to maintain mental calmness and pause before reacting is more valuable than technical knowledge.
- Operationalize stress testing: CNN utilizes "Breaking News Dress Rehearsals"—scripted simulations of major news events—to test both their platform and their team's communication protocols.
- Engineers are partners, not resources: Embedding tech leads in the earliest stages of product discovery helps teams understand the "why" and determines feasibility faster.
- Adapt language to the user: Successful internal tool adoption requires PMs to speak the specific vocabulary of their users (in this case, journalists) rather than forcing tech jargon upon them.
- High agency is the ultimate hiring metric: The most critical trait for a PM is the ability to point to something tangible that would not exist without their specific initiative.
Thriving in Chaos: The Role of Mindfulness in Product
While "thriving in ambiguity" is a standard bullet point on product management job descriptions, the newsroom environment demands the ability to thrive in chaos. Upasna, who is also a long-time meditation teacher, argues that equanimity—mental calmness and composure—is the most critical skill for navigating this landscape.
In a standard tech company, a roadmap might shift quarterly. In a newsroom, priorities can pivot in seconds. If a planned user testing session conflicts with a breaking news story, the product team must pivot immediately without frustration. This requires a level of emotional regulation that prevents reactive decision-making.
Equanimity is one of my favorite words. It means mental calmness, composure, evenness of temper, especially in crazy stressful situations. It's the ability to remain unrattled in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
Reactivity is often the root cause of friction in product management. By cultivating the ability to pause before responding to a frustrated stakeholder or a sudden roadmap change, PMs can break negative patterns. This pause allows leaders to translate user feedback—even when delivered as venting—into constructive product development velocity rather than taking it personally.
Practical Mindfulness for Busy PMs
You do not need an hour on a cushion to cultivate mindfulness. It can be integrated into daily routines. Upasna suggests starting with a simple task, such as brushing your teeth, and committing to doing only that task with full sensory awareness. This practice of "single-tasking" builds the mental muscle required to listen deeply during stakeholder interviews, ensuring you are hearing the user's actual pain points rather than confirming your own biases.
Bridging the Gap: Collaborating with Journalists
Building internal tools for journalists presents a unique stakeholder dynamic. Journalists are power users with strict deadlines and zero tolerance for friction. To bridge the historical gap between product and editorial, CNN’s product team implemented a robust system of four distinct touchpoints.
1. Weekly Demo Days
These sessions serve as an open forum for the entire business, not just the editorial team. The product team uses this time to deep dive into existing features, preview upcoming releases, and evangelize the platform. In a migration from a legacy system to a new platform, smart repetition through demos helps normalize change.
2. Working Sessions
Initially called "user testing," the team rebranded these to "working sessions" to foster a more collaborative environment. These are two-hour deep dives where product teams recreate specific workflows with journalists. This allows the product team to witness friction points in real-time while journalists feel like co-creators of the platform rather than test subjects.
3. Office Hours
To ensure continuous support, the team holds open blocks of time weekly. This provides a low-pressure environment for users to ask questions, troubleshoot issues, or provide ad-hoc feedback. It signals to the editorial staff that the product team is consistently available and listening.
4. Breaking News Dress Rehearsals
Perhaps the most innovative operational tactic is the dress rehearsal. The team scripts a fake breaking news scenario—complete with email triggers, photo desk requirements, and video production needs—and runs a live simulation.
This stress tests the platform and the people. From the moment the initial alert goes out to the moment the story is published, the team observes how the software handles the velocity of data and how the humans handle the pressure. If the platform cannot serve the needs of breaking news during a simulation, it is not ready for the real world.
Engineering as Discovery Partners
A common pitfall in product organizations is treating engineering capacity purely as a resource for execution. At CNN, the product team has shifted to viewing engineers as strategic partners in the discovery phase.
Tech leads join user working sessions, design jams, and editorial planning meetings. By hearing a journalist's frustration firsthand, an engineer can understand the why behind a feature request much faster than reading a ticket. This direct context allows engineers to define technical feasibility with greater precision and often propose solutions that product managers might not have considered.
It's so important to think of your engineers as partners and not just resources. When they are embedded into the process right up front, it makes the whole process in general more efficient.
This approach democratizes knowledge. The tech lead becomes an expert on user needs and passes that context down to the rest of the engineering team, creating a cohesive unit that moves faster because everyone understands the mission.
The Shift Toward Product Thinking in News
The discipline of product management in newsrooms is still in its infancy compared to Silicon Valley. Historically, resource-strapped newsrooms forced editors to cobble together technical solutions, acting as de facto PMs without the formal title or training.
However, the industry is shifting. Organizations like the News Product Alliance are working to formalize this intersection. They provide resources, frameworks, and mentorship to help journalists adopt product thinking and help product managers understand the nuances of media.
This professionalization is critical because news products impact democracy. Whether it is ensuring an election map loads correctly or that a breaking news alert reaches millions of phones instantly, the technical infrastructure of news organizations plays a vital role in how the public consumes information.
Hiring for High Agency
When building a team capable of handling this environment, technical skills often take a backseat to character traits. The most valuable trait for a PM in this space is high agency.
To assess this, Upasna asks candidates a specific question: "What is something that would not exist without your initiative?"
This question cuts through buzzwords. It requires the candidate to demonstrate ownership and the ability to drive a result from zero to one. It doesn't need to be a massive software launch; it could be a process change or a team ritual. The key is that the candidate identified a gap and took personal responsibility for filling it. In a newsroom, where the path forward is rarely clear, this ability to act without waiting for permission is essential.
Conclusion
Building product at a legacy news organization requires balancing the velocity of a startup with the stability required by a global broadcaster. By operationalizing stress (through dress rehearsals), prioritizing mental clarity (through mindfulness), and treating engineers and journalists as true partners, CNN provides a blueprint for how product teams can execute effectively in even the most chaotic environments.
The ultimate lesson is one of integration: product management is not a siloed function of ticket-writing, but a connective tissue that binds technology, editorial needs, and business goals—even when the world is breaking news around you.
