Mckennah Spagnola Isn’t Afraid to Get Into the Weeds

Discussing why she joined Equinox Media, how she ensures meetings are effective, and her re-discovered love of horseback riding!

Hi! Introduce yourself, please.

Hi I’m Mckennah, I’m the product manager for the Community/Content Experience squad. We oversee some of the new community features like the live player and other live community features where you can [redacted: secret product info]. Currently, we’re heads down in building [redacted: more secret product info] to launch beginning of next year. So, exciting stuff!

I know you joined Media over the summer, what brought you here?

Funny story, actually I interviewed for two other roles before ending up in the role I’m in. I wanted a product role, but they weren’t sure if they were hiring for a PM. So I interviewed for these two other roles and eventually they circled back and were like, “Actually, you’d be great for a PM role.” So I ended up in this role, which is great, because I love it.

What piqued my interest in Equinox Media was, I’ve always been into fitness — it’s always been a big part of my life. I played soccer growing up and in college. So I’ve always been tapped into all of the latest health trends, but for me, I’ve never been a big gym person. I’m more of a class person. So it’s great to be able to work on our classes as opposed to things that are just in the gym, because that’s definitely the sweet spot of my interests.

What do you love about your role?

I think the best part is that you’re doing something different every single day. I constantly feel like I’m learning.

And it’s also fun to kind of be the nucleus of everything that’s happening — you get to touch so many different teams and have a hand with what’s going on with the company and being able to influence that.

So it’s a nice mix of being able to be look big picture and think What’s the roadmap? Or what’s the product strategy for 2021? But then also get in the weeds with the tech team of debugging things and feeling like you have control of what’s going on.

I started out my career in management consulting, and while you get that big picture view as program managers, it would be frustrating because you need these two things to happen, but you didn’t have the skills to jump in and get them done with the tech teams. So I appreciate being on both sides.

I know there’s a lot of organization skills required as a PM. What’s a habit you implement to stay organized?

My biggest thing is very old school — just having a notebook to jot things down. There’s so many things that come up in meetings and being able to refer back to your notes is crucial. Even if you think it’s something that isn’t important at the moment — in the future you might have another conversation and realize it is. So I’m always writing things down.

In meetings there can be a lot of different conversations going on. Being able to reference my notes to recap for the group what we talked about and what the action items are is super helpful. We might have a really great conversation, but then nobody knows who should do what. So making sure that there’s always a recap and actionable items for people is important.

I know I’ve been in the situation where that doesn’t happen and progress can stall or trust amongst members of the team erodes, which is not good.

Changing gears now, when not working, what do you like to do?

I love to horseback ride. I grew up horseback riding but gave it up when I became more serious with soccer. Now that I’m past soccer, I wanted to get back to other hobbies. So at the start of the year, I started horseback riding again. It’s just the best, it’s my absolute happy place. Like all I think about and want to do on a weekend.

That’s great! I think a lot of people have either started new hobbies or reconnected with old ones they used to do. I’m curious what’s your favorite part of horseback riding?

I’ve always been obsessed with horses, I love them so much. The really cool thing about riding as an adult, as opposed to when I was a kid, is there’s so much more language you have to build with your horse. Even though I did that as a kid, I don’t think I fully appreciated the details and finesse of it.

When you’re getting a horse to go, for example as a small kid, I would try to kick as hard as I could — any way to get the horse moving. The horse probably thought I was like a fly on top of it (laughs). Whereas now there’s so much precision in where your leg is placed, how much pressure you apply, or which leg you put on first… all of these little details.

It’s something that you would never do in any other like aspect of your life. And it’s something that’s still challenging to me in a good way. It’s always interesting and challenging because even something small like moving an inch can make a big difference.

What are you most excited about at the moment?

At Media there’s always stuff to be excited about. We’re launching stuff at the fastest pace that I’ve ever done anything. We have a lot of really exciting things coming that we’ve been talking about for a while, and soon they will come to life.

It will be a more cohesive experience for users, as opposed to launching this or that feature, which were kind of table stakes. And starting to blend the in-life experience with the digital experience of fitness to provide something unique in the industry.

Last question — a book, music, TV, or movie recommendation?

The Queen’s Gambit is amazing. I have now bought a chessboard and like to think that I am Beth from the show. Chess is gonna become my new after dinner hobby because it’s better than just sitting and watching reality TV!