CTOs on Product Management

Jase Clamp
Sep 8, 2018 · 2 min read

On August 21 2018 ProductTank Brisbane assembled a panel of CTOs to discuss product management.

We put the panel together with CTO’s at different phases of product lifecycle. Datisan was still pre-product in the R&D stage, LeapIn and Sniip were both startup (3 years and under) and Flaik had been going 10 years. On the panel were:

  • Alistair Cornish: CTO Sniip
  • David Wood: CTO Flaik
  • Matt Daniels: CTO Datisan
  • Jane Sheehy: CTO Leap in!

Here’s the video:

Event definition:

The relationship between those in software development who define the “what” (e.g. roadmap/backlog) and those who define the “how” (e.g. architecture) can be likened unto rally car driving where a driver is totally focused on driving and a co-driver is consulting a map and verbalising directions. Each one’s success depends on the other and their ability to work as a team.

Here are a few of the questions we covered. For the full rundown, watch the video.

Q: Was the event definition was an oversimplification?

Yes. The ‘why’ is also important. We want to make sure engineering is integrated into the process that explores

Q: How do you define new product?

Sniip had a product forum meeting where interested parties could come together and discuss the path of the product. With LeapIn the CTO was serving as product owner with marketing and the director feeding in.

Flaik shared how they’d gone from being a sales driven org where engineering would be yanked around by each new opportunity to being a product driven org. They had put in place a Chief Product Officer implementing jobs to be done. They’d research with customers and once they established a priority of jobs, they’d take those through design sprints and into build.

Q: For those in startup phase, what’s your next key hire.

Both Sniip and LeapIn answered that this might be a UX lead.

Q: How do you go at tracking metrics that indicate how you’re progressing to your goals?

All panelists mentioned that this is something they still need to implement well beyond the standard Google Analytics.

Q: Who is responsible for QA?

Sniip mentioned they had a testing capability in the team. Datisan said that everyone was responsible for testing.

    Jase Clamp
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