I recently did an e-mail based Q&A with Social Media Portal, which focused primarily on my experiences working in product management to drive PRWeb.  Here is an excerpt:

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your full job title and role at PRWeb.com?

Jiyan Wei (JW): I’m the Director of Product Management – I drive product platform strategy and roadmap execution for PRWeb and support strategic business planning, partnerships, marketing and sales. It is sort of like being the Sous Chef at a restaurant. You work closely with your developers (cooks in the kitchen) to create a product and then support the waiters and waitresses (marketing & sales) who go out and sell the product. Ultimately you report to the head chef (a CMO or CTO) and the owners of the restaurant (executive team, investors).

SMP: Briefly, tell us about PRWeb.com and its target audience

JW: PRWeb.com takes an old tool in the PR toolkit – the press release – and turns it upside down.  Old PR is trying to hit journalists and media hoping they will write a story about you; PRWeb is about helping our clients get their message directly to the audience through the Internet.

Because we primarily leverage Internet channels (instead of closed, proprietary networks) we are able to deliver a product at a significantly lower cost than many other “traditional” newswires.  This means our audience ranges from technically innovative global companies all the way down to your Main Street mom-and-pop shops, like plumbers, wedding-planners and retail stores.

SMP: What was the most challenging part of building the service (and after the acquisition)?

JW: Vocus (PRWeb’s parent company, NASDAQ: VOCS) a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management, and tends to have some very polished clients  but the majority of PRWeb customers actually are small business owners and marketers.  These segments all have different requirements and determine ROI in different ways.  Developing a depth of understanding for these new segments and then building a product that would satisfy everyone was and continues to be one of the most challenging – and exciting – parts of building the service.

Read the full interview