James Webb

I'm a product leader who has spent 15 years working out why people subscribe to news, and why they stop. Most of that time was at The Economist, where I was a Group Product Manager, and the FT, where I was a Product Director.

Now I work with media teams as a fractional or contract product leader, and occasional hands-on individual contributor. I like getting close to the numbers, finding where readers get stuck and helping a team fix the right thing first. I'm also using AI to take the grind out of that work, from analysing feedback to automating workflows that eat a team's week.

Where I can help

• AI and workflow: using AI to save teams time without adding risk or noise
• Onboarding and activation: improving the first sessions that decide whether someone becomes a habit or a one-time visitor
• Friction and conversion: finding and removing what holds back registration, subscription and retention
• Feature performance deep dives: showing what's working, what isn't and where the missed opportunities are across the customer journey
• Product-led growth: strategies that bring in readers at a lower cost of acquisition not just through both bar-raising features, but better collaboration across product, marketing and editorial
• Market and audience research: competitor, positioning and behaviour analysis that feeds directly into a roadmap