Case study · Crowd Content
Crowd Content: adding a subject matter expert network
In December 2021, Crowd Content launched a network of verified experts who review and enhance custom content, so customers could publish expert-level content at scale.
COMPANY
Crowd Content
MY ROLE
Product Manager
MARKETPLACE
Two-sided: writers and businesses
LAUNCHED
December 2021
THE CONTEXT
Where this started
Why did customers suddenly need experts?
Google's E-A-T update raised the bar: to rank, content now had to show real expertise, authority and trust. Like many startups, Crowd Content's roadmap was largely driven by Sales, and our enterprise clients were suddenly asking for expert-reviewed content.
What was I responsible for?
I owned turning that demand into a new revenue stream: prove it worked, then scale it from a service our team ran by hand into a feature built into the platform.
How I rolled it out
1
Manual beta
Our content managers ran expert reviews by hand for enterprise clients, before we built anything. Success was sales-led: influenced closed deals and increased revenue.
2
Self-serve
Once it worked, we opened it up on the self-serve platform and watched order activation, plus growth in expert-heavy categories like health, law and finance.
3
Built in
We integrated it into the platform, so expert review became part of the product.
01 · THE PROBLEM
Expert content doesn't scale by itself
Customers needed expert-level content to rank in Google and earn reader trust. Finding one expert was hard. Finding enough to keep up with a large content program was harder.
The problem in three lines
The need: expert-level content that ranks and earns trust.
The bottleneck: finding enough experts to keep up with a large content program.
The answer: a matched network of verified subject matter experts.
02 · THE KEY DECISION
Make the team that resisted it a co-owner of the build.
IT WASN'T
“Push the build through over the team's objections.”
IT WAS
“Make their manager a co-owner, so the team helped shape what we built.”
An internal team pushed back on adding an expert layer. Giving their manager real ownership turned resistance into buy-in.
03 · THE TRADE-OFF
What made v1, and what waited
✓ What launched
Matching verified experts to each customer's industry. Experts reviewed content for accuracy, added their own insights and, optionally, their byline.
→ Left for later
Automated expert matching. We deprioritized it and let customers favorite experts, just like they could with writers and editors. Ordering content written fully by experts came as a fast follow after launch.
My role: As Product Manager, I took the SME and fact-checking layer from idea to a new revenue line, and won over the internal team that resisted it by making their manager a co-owner of the build.
04 · THE OUTCOME
What happened next
New
revenue line, taken from idea to launch
1st
real throughput metrics for leadership, now a standing line on their weekly dashboard
100s
of experts across most industries at launch
Crowd Content now operates as Stellar.
In their words
What my teammates said
“Her ability to strategically manage product lifecycles, from ideation to launch, was impressive … Stefanie excelled in aligning business objectives with technical solutions, often quickly bridging gaps between different departments.”
Paulo Roberto
Engineering Manager, worked with Stef at Crowd Content · LinkedIn recommendation →
“She goes above and beyond her responsibilities making sure everyone is comfortable and has what they need to do their job to the best of their abilities.”
Cat Panetta
DataOps Engineer, worked with Stef at Crowd Content · LinkedIn recommendation →
05 · WHAT TO TAKE FROM IT
Lessons for new PMs
1
Co-ownership beats persuasion
When a team resists, give their leader a real stake in the build instead of a better slide deck.
2
Ship the metric with the feature
The build gave leadership their first real throughput metrics. A feature that makes the business more measurable is easier to keep funding.
3
Test it by hand first
Running the beta manually with our content managers proved enterprise demand before we built anything. By the time we did build, we knew exactly what to automate.
Sources: Crowd Content launches Subject Matter Expert Network, PR Newswire, Dec 1, 2021. Image: Stellar (formerly Crowd Content).
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