What are the tasks and goals of Product Managers and when to hire them?
The position of CPOs on the market has been discussed for over 10 years, but companies still see this role in different ways, and the CPOs themselves do not always understand what exactly they are responsible for. At the same time, the demand for Product Directors is still growing in the market. Over the past quarter, our team has conducted over 100 interviews with CPOs and Heads of Products. Let us share the highlights with you!
Let’s start with the concept of СРО
“Products”, as they are called in the industry, are professionals who are responsible for creating, bringing to the market a new product, and/or developing an existing product throughout its lifecycle. A product can be a mobile app, an online service, or a feature within an app or a service.
In general, the Product Manager makes sure that the development of the product corresponds to the company’s strategy and brings measurable results: new customers, sales, and market share increase. His main goal is to launch and develop products that will be in demand among users and bring profit to the company.
What professions do people come from in CPO:
- marketing
- IT
- sales
The general concept of product roles
Now let’s talk about the structure of the company. It can vary from company to company, but there’s usually a general concept of product roles.
The CEO thinks globally and gives the CPO a mission.
The CPO is the second head of the CEO; he looks outside the business and looks for opportunities. He/she is responsible for the business model, roadmap, and process management.
The Head of Product is responsible for strategy, for how to coordinate their products (most often several) to get to the right point.
The Product Manager makes the customer happy and through this increases profits.
What should happen for a company to decide to open a CPO role?
CPO doesn’t come into a company when all is well. The CPO comes in when there is an unsolvable problem. Sales are dropping, loyal customers are leaving, and metrics that can be tracked are falling. At the same time the actions that are being taken, change of salespeople, CRM implementation, and change of management, don’t work.
Businesses invite CPOs into their team at times when:
- The speed of product change is not enough for the market, there are other products that have moved on
- There is an understanding that it is feasible to make more money
However, when hiring the CPO, the business must be ready for changes.
If the CEO is not prepared for the fact that there may be conflicts of interest in the team, it is not worth hiring the CPO. For the first six months, this will be the person who will make everyone nervous, asking questions about the business model. If the CEO is not willing to give a certain number of decisions, it won’t work. If there’s no support from the CEO, there’s no point in the CPO coming in.
In today’s world, a directive approach doesn’t work at all; it’s important to be able to work as a team.
Tasks and goals of the CPO
Let’s skip the process of searching for the ideal CPO, it is not about that today, and imagine that such a person has already joined the company.
What tasks does the CPO need to accomplish and what are his goals?
Сhief Product Officer needs to make a successful product with a team. He/She:
- Understands the market, TA, segments, needs, his product, and competitors’ products
- Defines and agrees on the product concept and product development strategy
- Defines success criteria and makes decisions on product development (metrics)
- Responsible for the results of the team’s joint work according to the chosen success criteria
In fact, the Product Manager is the CEO of the product. At the same time, the CPO most often has no direct power over the team members. He needs to negotiate with everyone, from the top to the doers. The CPO’s position is about loyalty, you can’t go from a position of strength.
The CPO always closes the most problematic points for the CEO. The CEO gives the mission, and the CPO comes up with it all the way. If the company has a global goal, the CPO outlines the steps on how to get there.
Important competence: to know big data
What will the CPO do if he is tasked with rebuilding the business model?
For example, he is tasked with: growing, etc. First of all, it is important to assess the current state, and how the business works now. What the company earns from.
Then there will be a lot of work with data. It is necessary to digitize everything you can. It is not always possible for a CPO to come in and use analytics. The job of the CPO is not just to bring a product to the market, but to work with internal products. The language of the CPO is the language of numbers. It is important to have the competence: to know big data. Pull out the key product, and understand what product is not economically viable:
- Figure out which road to take
- Calculate everything
- Sell the idea to the СЕО (you need different approaches, for a hired CEO you sell the idea through fulfilling his KPIs, for a founder — through emotions, through achieving a global goal and profit)
Expertise in team building
The CPO also needs a lot of expertise in team building.
The project approach is not for the CPO, it is impossible to plan for a year’s worth of market changes and create an accurate budget. The product approach is based on the fact that no one knows about product changes for the long term. Budgeting (budget planning) for a year is not a product story.
There have to be quick agile processes, there has to be a willingness to spend money.
So, another task of the CPO is to build such processes.
So, what should the CPO be praised for?
- For the growth in metrics. The main one is money
- For the fact that structure is emerging in the company, for building product processes
- The atmosphere in the company, and understanding of where the entire team is going
- The excitement and development of the team
