Product Lead Jobs in California

About Substack

Substack is building a new economic engine for culture, giving the brightest, most interesting, and most creative people on the internet the power of their own publishing platform. Substack empowers independent writers, artists, videographers, podcasters, and creators of all types to create, share, and make a living off their work through subscriptions — offering them creative freedom, ownership, and a direct connection to their audiences.

The Role

This role is focused on Creator Activation: helping new creators reach early traction quickly and confidently, by shaping the product experience, guidance, and feedback loops that turn “starting a Substack” into sustained publishing and meaningful growth.

You’ll work at the intersection of creator understanding, onboarding/education, product analytics, and network distribution. Success in this role means: clarifying what creators are trying to achieve, identifying the early behaviors that predict long-term success, and building scalable product systems that encourage those behaviors and make progress visible.

What You’ll Do

Creator Activation Strategy

• Develop a deep understanding of why creators choose Substack, what their goals are, and Substack’s competitive position vs. other platforms
• Identify the “first-mile” actions that set creators up for traction and success, and define how the platform communicates, reinforces, and rewards those actions
• Map creator journeys across segments (e.g., bringing an existing audience vs. building on-network), and define activation paths that meet creators where they are

Measurement, Analytics & Insights

• Measure the growth of new creators and overall network health: are creators able to bring existing audiences into Substack, and also benefit from distribution within the Substack network?
• Define activation and retention metrics, build dashboards, and establish leading indicators that help teams understand what’s working (and what’s not)
• Identify gaps in product analytics and instrumentation, and partner with Data/Engineering to design solutions to fill them

Roadmap & Execution

• Build a compelling roadmap across short-term, medium-term, and long-term horizons to improve creator activation and early success
• Help design and spec projects across the spectrum from experiment, to feature, to large-scale initiative
• Partner with your EM counterpart to inspire and lead a cross-functional team of engineers, designers, and analysts, creating clarity and accountability at every level

Cross-functional Leadership & GTM

• Work closely with Product, Partnerships, Growth, and Creator teams to align activation strategy with broader company strategy
• Drive go-to-market strategy and product storytelling for activation improvements: what changed, why it matters, and how creators benefit

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years of experience as a Product Manager
• Strong creator empathy and a clear mental model for why creators choose platforms and how they evaluate tradeoffs
• Excellent analytical skills, competence in SQL, and experience with BI tools; comfortable defining metrics and building measurement frameworks
• Experience running experiments and shipping iterative improvements to onboarding, education, or activation funnels
• Comfortable operating at every level of abstraction (from high-level product strategy to “what should this CTA say” level details)
• Deep experience with software design; demonstrated ability to balance ease of use with flexibility across creator segments
• Strong communication skills: able to write compelling strategy docs, internal or external blog posts, and present to the company regularly
• An ability to roll up your sleeves and do what needs to be done

Why This Role, Why Now

Creators are arriving at Substack with higher expectations (and more alternatives) than ever. The biggest leverage in improving creator outcomes is often in the first days and weeks: clarity on what to do next, confidence that progress is happening, and early signals that the network can help.

This role exists to turn creator intent into momentum: building the product systems, guidance, and analytics that help new creators find traction, bring audiences with them, and benefit meaningfully from on-network distribution — strengthening both creator outcomes and overall network health.

Compensation

Substack's compensation package includes a market-competitive salary, equity for all full-time roles, and exceptional benefits. Our cash compensation range for this role is $190,000–$230,000. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise.

Substack is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or transgender status), age, national origin, veteran or disability status. We’re seeking people passionate about enabling independent expression and building a better business model for creators. If you want to see what media, communities, and content can become when unmoored from advertising models, and you have the skills and experience to contribute, we’d love to meet you.

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