Michael Hardesty

I'm a

About

My passion is leveraging data to strengthen an organization's relationship with their community. I am an experienced leader at non-profit societies, first with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently at the National Academy of Sciences, where I strive to play a dynamic role in the publishing industry as a digital product and platform manager. Using data analysis skills with a focus on UX, I am driven towards crafting innovative products.

Manager, Digital Products and Platforms

Leading the cross-functional Product team and driving digital strategy for a high-impact, prestigious scholarly publisher.

  • Industry experience: 7 years
  • Email: michaelhardesty@gmail.com

A member of the Senior Management Team for the scholarly journal publisher, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), I am responsible for setting the digital strategy for all products and platforms within the publishing operations department and execute on a variety of technology projects. Product owner for the www.pnas.org website and associated publishing technologies. I lead the cross-functional Product team that delivers impact by supporting the organization's goals and objectives.

Facts

Experienced in both product and people management, I have been invited to speak on topics including accessibility and first-/zero-party data strategies for publishers. At both the National Academy of Sciences and American Association of Advancement for Science, I have been a recipient of staff-nominated awards.

Years in product management

Years in people management

Speaking engagements

Awards

Skills

A generalist in every sense, I am experienced in managing digital products, working within an agile framework, analyzing and visualizing large datasets of web metrics or dimensional data warehouses and leading and coaching a team of cross-functional subject matter experts.

Product Management 90%
Web Analytics 90%
People Management 75%
Content Strategy 70%
UX Design 70%
Usability Research 55%

Resume

My passion is using data to help organizations better know their customer base. First serving the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and now the National Academy of Sciences, I strive to play a dynamic role in venerable scholarly publishers seeking to transform for success in the digital world. Using data analysis skills with a focus on UX, I am driven towards crafting innovative products.

Summary

Michael Hardesty

Innovative and strategic thinker that is motivated to lead organizations in their digital strategies. With over 5 years of experience leading product strategies in the scholarly publishing industry, I have a proven track record of delivering value to the scientific research community.

  • Washington, D.C.
  • michaelhardesty@gmail.com

Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Finance

2009-2013

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Graduated with a Finance major and minor in Economics

CIMBA Study Abroad Program

2012

CIMBA, Paderno del Grappa, Italy

Spent a semester abroad studying marketing, international finance and management

Professional Experience

Manager, Digital Products and Platforms

2020 - Present

National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.

  • A member of the Senior Management Team for the scholarly journal publisher, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, leading digital strategy for all products and platforms within the publishing operations department.
  • Launched www.pnas.org on a new hosting platform including a migration of 1 TB of data and a holistic rebranding of the digital product.
  • Created the first Product team at the organization, serving its mission to create the most value for authors and readers of the PNAS journal publishing program.

Digital Product Strategist

2017 - 2020

Science Magazine, Washington, D.C.

  • Launched the metered paywall for News from Science and grew subscriber base every month over the first two years of the product. Implemented donation model that is still in use today.
  • Implemented an analytics data layer (page and events) across AAAS digital products while migrating tag managers from Adobe DTM to Launch.
  • Product owner and project lead for redesigning global navigation across multiple hosting platforms.

Featured Project

I led a multi-year website migration project that culiminate in the 2022 rebrand and redesign of the www.pnas.org website. The project deliverables included converting 1TB of data, implementing a modern UX/UI, and establishing a new visual identity for the high-impact PNAS journal. The website launch marked the 25th anniversary since PNAS first went online.

Tools

I have varied and deep knowledge of modern technology products and platforms.

Figma

Prototyping and wireframing to aid in the requirements gathering process

Atlassian

Backlog management in Jira and artifact creation in Confluence

Google Analytics

Web analytics in GA4 and tag management in GTM

Salesforce

Administering a cross-functional CRM and Case Management system

Tableau

Crafting insightful stories out of data via visualizations and dashboards

Screaming Frog

Crawling the web and optimizing websites for crawl budget