Newsela is a forward-thinking educational technology company dedicated to transforming the way students and teachers engage with content in the classroom. At the core of our mission, we aim to deliver meaningful and impactful learning experiences to every student.

We are seeking a talented Senior Product Manager to join our Discovery team. In this role, you will enhance the Content Discovery experience on our platform, helping educators and students easily find relevant and engaging materials. You will leverage your strong analytical skills, collaborate cross-functionally with teams spanning Content, Engineering, Design, and Data Science, and take ownership of the vision, strategy, and roadmap for the discovery experience. Your expertise in product management, coupled with a passion for education, will guide your efforts as you drive impactful enhancements in search relevance, recommendations, and personalization.

Explore our interview guide to prepare for your journey with Newsela. Let’s get started!

Submitting Your Application

The first step is to submit a compelling application that reflects your technical skills and interest in joining Newsela as a Product Manager. Whether you were contacted by a Newsela recruiter or have taken the initiative yourself, carefully review the job description and tailor your CV according to the prerequisites.

Tailoring your CV may include identifying specific keywords that the hiring manager might use to filter resumes and crafting a targeted cover letter. Furthermore, don’t forget to highlight relevant skills and mention your work experiences.

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV happens to be among the shortlisted few, a recruiter from the Newsela Talent Acquisition Team will make contact and verify key details like your experiences and skill level. Behavioral questions may also be a part of the screening process.

In some cases, the Newsela Product Manager hiring manager stays present during the screening round to answer your queries about the role and the company itself. They may also indulge in surface-level technical and behavioral discussions.

The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the recruiter round will present you with an invitation for the technical screening round. Technical screening for the Newsela Product Manager role usually is conducted through virtual means, including video conference and screen sharing. Questions in this 1-hour long interview stage may revolve around Newsela’s product features, user experience, and data analysis skills.

In the case of Product Manager roles, take-home assignments regarding product strategy, roadmapping, and user experience analysis are incorporated. Apart from these, your proficiency in metrics creation, experimentation, and data-driven decision-making may also be assessed during the round.

Depending on the seniority of the position, case studies and similar real-scenario problems may also be assigned.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Followed by a second recruiter call outlining the next stage, you’ll be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. Multiple interview rounds, varying with the role, will be conducted during your day at the Newsela office. Your technical prowess, including product management capabilities and cross-functional teamwork, will be evaluated against the finalized candidates throughout these interviews.

If you were assigned take-home exercises, a presentation round may also await you during the onsite interview for the Product Manager role at Newsela.

Quick Tips For Newsela Product Manager Interviews

• Know Newsela’s Educational Goals: Ensure you are familiar with Newsela’s mission to improve classroom learning through personalized content discovery experiences. Understand the company's products and how they serve educators and students.

• Be Data Driven: Newsela’s interviews assess how well you can provide business-driving insights with data analysis. Brush up on your knowledge of metrics creation, hypothesis testing, and user data analysis.

• Communicate Clearly: Practice responding to behavioral questions with answers that highlight your ability to work cross-functionally, manage product strategy, and break down complex topics into understandable chunks.

Typically, interviews at Newsela vary by role and team, but commonly Product Manager interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

• What metrics would you use to determine the value of each marketing channel? Given all the different marketing channels and their respective costs at Mode, a company selling B2B analytics dashboards, what metrics would you use to evaluate the value of each marketing channel?

• How would you measure the success of the banner ad strategy? An online media company wants to experiment with adding web banners into the middle of its reading content to monetize web traffic. How would you measure the success of this banner ad strategy?

• How would you analyze the performance of a new feature without an A/B test? As a data scientist at LinkedIn, you are working on a feature that allows job candidates to message hiring managers directly during the interview process. Due to engineering constraints, the company can't A/B test the feature before launching it. How would you analyze the feature's performance?

• How would you measure the health of the Mentions app and attribute engagement increases? Facebook is rolling out a new feature called "Mentions" for celebrities to connect with their fans. How would you measure the health of the Mentions app? Additionally, if a celebrity starts using Mentions and interacts more with fans, how would you attribute the increase to the app versus the celebrity's desire to engage more?

• What would you investigate to diagnose changes in user engagement and email open rates? As a data scientist on the engagement team, a product manager informs you that the weekly active users metric is up 5% but email notification open rates are down 2%. What would you investigate to diagnose what's happening?

• Write a function pick_host to determine the optimal friend to host a party based on location. Given a group of (N) friends represented by a list of dictionaries where each value is a friend's name and their location on a three-dimensional scale ((x, y, z)), write a function pick_host to return the friend that should host the party. The goal is to minimize the total travel distance for the group.

• How would you evaluate whether using a decision tree algorithm is the correct model for predicting loan repayment? You are tasked with building a decision tree model to predict if a borrower will pay back a personal loan. How would you evaluate if a decision tree is the right algorithm for this problem? How would you evaluate the model's performance before and after deployment?

• How would you determine if a new delivery time estimate model is better than the old one? You want to build a new delivery time estimate model for food delivery. How would you determine if the new model predicts delivery times better than the old model?

• How would you determine which search engine performed better and which metrics to track? You are working on building a better search engine for Google. After building it, how would you determine if it serves better results than the existing one in production? Which metrics would you track?

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand? Explain the benefits of dynamic pricing. How can you estimate supply and demand in this context?

• How would you design a machine learning model to classify major health issues based on health features? You work as a machine learning engineer for a health insurance company. Design a machine learning model that, given a set of health features, classifies if an individual will undergo major health issues or not.

• What is an unbiased estimator and can you provide an example for a layman to understand? Explain what an unbiased estimator is in simple terms and provide an easy-to-understand example.

• What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand in this context? Describe the advantages of dynamic pricing and explain how to estimate supply and demand when using this pricing strategy.

• How would you design a machine learning model to predict major health issues for a health insurance company? As a machine learning engineer for a health insurance company, outline how you would create a model that classifies individuals based on health features to predict major health issues.

What is the average salary for a Product Manager at Newsela?

Q: What does the Senior Product Manager role at Newsela entail?
As a Senior Product Manager on the Discovery team, you'll focus on enhancing the Content Discovery experience on Newsela. Your responsibilities will include leveraging your analytical skills to identify impactful opportunities, managing core functions of the discovery experience, and collaborating with teams in Content, Engineering, Design, and Data Science. Your goal will be to improve search relevance, recommendations, and personalization to help teachers and students find valuable content.

Q: Why would I love working at Newsela as a Product Manager?
You will have the autonomy to take ownership of your team and develop a vision, strategy, and roadmap based on Newsela’s high-level goals. You’ll work closely with engineering, design, research, and marketing colleagues to bring your ideas to life, all while being encouraged to take risks and propose impactful new ideas. Newsela offers a collaborative environment where you can make a substantial impact on the educational experience for students.

Q: What qualifications make me a great fit for this role at Newsela?
You should have over 4 years of experience in Product Management, specifically with products featuring search capabilities. Additionally, you should have at least 2 years of experience in the K-12 education sector. Strong skills in product strategy, roadmap planning, and data-driven decision-making are essential. Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally are also crucial for this role.

Q: What is the compensation for the Senior Product Manager position at Newsela?
The base compensation for this role ranges from $125,000 to $140,000, depending on your experience. In addition to the base salary, the total compensation package includes incentive stock options and benefits.

Q: How can I prepare for an interview at Newsela?
To prepare for an interview at Newsela, research the company’s mission and its products, particularly the Content Discovery features. Practice common interview questions and focus on articulating your experience with product strategy, data analysis, and cross-functional collaboration. Utilize resources like Interview Query to help you practice and refine your interview skills.

As a Senior Product Manager on Newsela's Discovery team, you'll play a pivotal role in enhancing the Content Discovery experience, helping teachers and students find meaningful content for their classrooms. This position offers the opportunity to drive significant impact through data-driven decisions, cross-functional collaboration, and a focus on search relevance, recommendations, and personalization. You'll be empowered to own your team's vision, strategy, and roadmap, working alongside engineering, design, research, and marketing to bring innovative ideas to life.

Passionate about optimizing content discovery and equipped with strong analytical skills, you will thrive in a culture that values experimentation, encourages risk-taking, and prioritizes meaningful user experiences. With a background in K-12 education and proven success in product management, you are uniquely positioned to drive Newsela’s mission of transforming classroom learning.

If you want more insights about the company, check out our main Newsela Interview Guide, where we have covered many interview questions that could be asked. We’ve also created interview guides for other roles, such as software engineer and data analyst, where you can learn more about Newsela’s interview process for different positions.

At Interview Query, we empower you to unlock your interview prowess with a comprehensive toolkit, equipping you with the knowledge, confidence, and strategic guidance to conquer every challenge in the Newsela interview process.

You can check out all our company interview guides for better preparation, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Good luck with your interview!