Case Study: Council on Foreign Relations
The Challenge
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) provides expert analysis and resources on foreign policy and global affairs. Their online presence serves a broad constituency—policy experts, academics, media, and the general public. Balancing a vast content library (reports, articles, event materials) with an accessible, user-friendly interface required a forward-looking approach that met diverse, global audience needs while upholding CFR’s reputation for authoritative commentary and research.
My role as Product Manager
While overseeing project timelines, budgets, and communication as a producer, I also stepped into product manager responsibilities by:
• Gathering and interpreting feedback from CFR leadership, research teams, and editorial staff to define key features and user-facing priorities
• Shaping a product roadmap that integrated CFR’s institutional goals (expanding reach, facilitating discourse) with user needs (discovering reliable, in-depth analyses)
• Leveraging data insights (site analytics, user surveys) to guide iterative improvements to navigation, article layouts, and resource discovery
Planning and execution
I divided the project into focused sprints that addressed core aspects of the user journey—content organization, event and publication listings, search capabilities, and multimedia integration. Frequent stakeholder reviews allowed us to adapt quickly to emerging policy discussions or time-sensitive content. By running usability tests and analyzing engagement metrics, we refined the platform to streamline navigation, highlight high-value content, and make it easier for users to share and reference CFR’s resources.
Results
• Improved content discoverability: A reorganized site structure and enhanced search functionality helped users—from government officials to journalists—quickly locate in-depth research and timely insights
• Increased audience engagement: By integrating multimedia elements (videos, podcasts, interactive data), CFR’s content appealed to a wider audience, boosting session duration and repeat visits
• Streamlined editorial workflow: An updated content management system allowed the editorial team to publish and update resources efficiently, keeping the platform aligned with breaking global events
Why this project stands out
The Council on Foreign Relations needed a dynamic platform that could serve as both an authoritative resource and an engaging destination for learning. By combining producer-level coordination (budgets, scheduling, stakeholder communication) with product management expertise (user-centric feature prioritization, iterative design based on analytics), I delivered a flexible, user-friendly website that scales with CFR’s evolving research and publishing needs—supporting CFR’s mission to foster understanding of global issues.