Bureaucratic bullshit: Why every company should have a Chief Product Officer

I was looking forward to the opportunity of working for a large company. The idea of balancing multiple projects excited the overachiever inside me. However, about two weeks into my product management internship, I had my first encounter with “bureaucratic bullshit.”

A leisurely stroll into the finance department to ask them a few questions about a small project I was working on, quickly turned into a hectic cross department meeting and an extensive list of “necessary” features. The director of product was no match against the CMO and CFO and suddenly my mini-project had taken over my entire internship.

What just happened?

Bureaucracy happened. As a company grows larger, it faces the necessary evil of implementing a hierarchical structure. The CEO heads the entire hierarchy, but right under the CEO is a handful of other C-level positions. These positions vary company to company, but here are the most common Chiefs:

• COO - Chief Operating Officer
• CMO - Chief Marketing Officer
• CFO - Chief Financial Officer
• CTO - Chief Technical Officer (new for the non-technical sector)

For lead positions that don’t fall under C-level titles, they are given president, director, or head titles.

Why does your official title matter?

Titles are power. If you are the head of product, that position holds intrinsic power over all other product managers at X company. However, the C-level executive that you are placed under in this hierarchal structure has power over you. Most commonly the head of product is put under the CTO. This power imbalance often leads to weighing technical opinions over good product decisions.

Why should product strategy be higher valued?

Well consider these two cases.

1. CTO and Head of Product: Through user testing, the head of product identifies an opportunity for a new feature. The CTO (or another C-level position) has three developers working on existing bugs. Before the head of product can move forward in the product process, he/she must go through the CTO. Firstly, the CTO has the power to postpone the meeting as long as necessary. Secondly, the CTO can make the executive decision to address technical debt before adding business value. Depending on the quantity of bugs and the schedule of the CTO, adding business value may be postponed so long that customers are lost.
2. CTO and CPO: Through user testing, the head of product identifies an opportunity for a new feature. The CTO (or another C-level position) has three developers working on existing bugs. Firstly, the CPO’s request to address the technical side of the new feature is just as important as the CTO’s request to fix bugs. The product manager does not have to go through the CTO to continue the product process. Secondly, the CPO asking the CTO to meet is prioritized because it is an executive level meeting. Thirdly and most importantly, the CTO and CPO need to come to an agreement. The CTO does not have the power to make an executive decision. The end result is business value is weighed equally to technical debt.

Conclusion

If the core value or even a large chunk of your business value stems from product, you need a C-level position for product. Having a CPO shows the world (and your employees) product strategy is just as important as technical/marketing/financial strategy. Since product strategy is really just about keeping customers as happy as possible through providing as much value as possible, a CPO could be the key you need to make your business a success.