The hardest part of hiring Sneha was hiring Sneha.
The second hardest part was coming up with her job title.
Usually, the drill goes like this—you first figure out who you need in your team. Product Manager. Developer. Staff Writer. You write the Job Description. Upload. Go for lunch. Very simple.
A few months ago, for the first time at The Ken, that changed.
At one of our internal weekly metrics meetings, in the middle of a heated debate about a number, it became apparent that we needed someone with a very specific set of skills. Someone who could help unlock a massive untapped opportunity across our products, our stories, and our subscribers.
Then we argued about what to call this role.
Several options came up. Community Manager is what most digital consumer companies use, until they find out a few months down the line why community managers rarely make an impact. Some others use Audience Development Manager, but that didn’t make much sense either. We weren’t looking to develop a passive audience.
Six months and 300-plus applicants later, Sneha Samaveda joins The Ken as our Subscriber Engagement Manager.
In fact, she’s probably the only one in the world with that job title.
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Sneha’s role is to be creative and analytical. It is to understand our product, and to write about our stories. To talk, listen, understand what subscribers want, and to make hard decisions that they may not always agree with.
It’s a role that embraces creativity, analytical skills, and effective communication to define and create value for tens of thousands of The Ken subscribers across the world.
In the past, Sneha’s done marketing at a diverse set of companies—Chumbak, Ogilvy, Razorpay, Intel, and LinkedIn. Also, she doesn’t believe in half-measures. She’s a professional dancer, and trained for four years to reach the highest possible level at Shiamak Davar’s Institute For Performing Arts, the biggest dance academy in India. Oh, and for fun, she also spent two years and got herself licensed as an international Zumba instructor.
We now know what we’re planning for our next offsite.
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You can reach out to her at sneha at the rate of the-ken dot com.
