An Interview with Chao Li, Product Manager of Emerging Platforms, Group Nine Media


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Article Image class="p1">Name With the Face: Chao Li

Job Title: Product Manager of Emerging Platforms

Organization: Group Nine Media

URL: groupninemedia.com

 

Job Function

As product manager of emerging platforms at Group Nine Media, a family of digital media brands, Chao Li’s primary responsibilities are to identify new technologies that will help all of Group Nine’s brands (NowThis, The Dodo, Seeker, and Thrillist) create more impactful storytelling and share stories across diverse platforms.

Says Li, “People hear buzzwords like ‘AI’ or ‘VR’ and make assumptions about what these technologies can do. It’s up to our team to make sure they have the right expectations and understand both the limitations and potentials of those technologies.”

 

In a Day’s Work

Li says that working on a small team means “I get to wear many hats. You might find me giving a demo to colleagues on the sales team of VR or a voice assistant app, hosting a brainstorm session, or looking at user data coming in from our various experiments.” She does copious research, reading tech news, research papers, and tech documentation about new platforms.

 

Most Memorable Customer Encounter

“I was doing a VR demo for our sales team of the Mount Everest app, and someone who had never tried VR before said, ‘Oh, I know what this is all about.’ She was the last person to put the goggles on, and when she saw the cliff she had to walk over in the game, she gasped and screamed loudly, ‘This is so cool!’ Now she’s a huge advocate for people on her team to try VR demos themselves.”

 

View From the Desk

“I love our office culture because people work hard, but they also know how to have fun. If the Olympics or the World Cup is happening, we often have it playing on our TVs. But my favorite thing about our office is all the animals: a few dogs sleeping or chewing on a toy or the adorable kitten being fostered by the engineer on my team.”

 

Outside Interest

“On the weekends, you’ll find me reading or playing video games on the couch with my two cats. I also love cooking big meals for myself and my fiancé.”

 

If Not Econtent, Then What?

“I studied digital journalism in graduate school, so I’m one of those rare cases where I’m doing exactly what I studied in school. If I weren’t at Group Nine, I’d be working in the tech industry for a startup with a mission that I believe in.”


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