A CPO's core function is to enable their team by removing obstacles. Just Eat Takeaway's CPO identifies the need for organizational change when she senses friction, dependencies, or slowing delivery times. Her focus is on creating an environment for success, not dictating product specifics.
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As companies grow, collaboration and culture don't scale as quickly as headcount. To maintain product excellence, organizations need dedicated roles like Product Operations to act as "the product manager of the org itself," intentionally designing and improving ways of working.
CPO Jessica Hall admits to changing her 750-person team structure multiple times. She views org design as solving for the current problem, not finding a perfect, permanent solution. This adaptability is key to maintaining effectiveness as the business and its challenges evolve.
The traditional product management skillset is no longer sufficient for executive leadership. Aspiring CPOs must develop deep expertise in either the commercial aspects of the business (GTM, revenue) or the technical underpinnings of the product to provide differentiated value at the C-suite level.
The "ICCPO" (Individual Contributor Chief Product Officer) model requires leaders to use AI tools to self-serve answers directly from company data. This shifts the executive role from pure delegation to hands-on experimentation, modeling a culture of self-sufficiency and inspiring the team to adopt new tools.
The CPO's responsibilities have expanded from product roadmaps to key business decisions like go-to-market strategy, partnerships, and defining the company's core focus. This strategic voice is becoming central to the C-suite, sometimes even before a CTO or CMO is hired.
When hiring for the C-suite, the importance of domain expertise varies by role. For Chief Product Officers, a deep passion and knowledge of the problem space is critical for setting vision. For engineering leaders (CTOs/VPs), specific domain experience is less important than relevant tech stack knowledge and transformation skills.
AI tools reduce the communication overhead and lengthy handoffs that traditionally separated product and engineering. By streamlining the path from idea to code, AI makes the combined Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) role more viable, enabling a single leader to manage both functions effectively.
As you move up the product ladder, your strategic time horizon expands. ICs and Directors focus on quarters, VPs on the year, and CPOs must own the 3-5 year vision. Thinking long-term is a core CPO responsibility that no one else in the product organization will own.
A common pitfall for new CPOs is using product-specific jargon with executives and the board. To be effective, they must communicate as business leaders, focusing on financials, succinct points, and simple customer stories that the entire organization can understand.
In government, digital services are often viewed as IT projects delivered by contractors. A CPO's primary challenge is instilling a culture of product thinking: focusing on customer value, business outcomes, user research, and KPIs, often starting from a point of zero.
