Situation

A company in a strong growth phase had a Chief Product Officer who couldn’t grow at the same pace. One of the co-founders, who until then focused on their client-side offering and impact, stepped in to cover the CPO role.

Approach

The co-founder, while having been key in developing the company’s product mechanics and offering, did not have any formal Product Management experience. The dual goal I faced was to ramp up the co-founder’s Product leadership knowledge & skills, as well as help her run daily Product development operations with no disruption.

• To quickly make up for the lack of Product experience, we developed a plan to gradually review the major building blocks of a best-in-class CPO and embed those into her activity. We applied the various ideas and frameworks to her current situation as we worked through them, thereby continuously improving the Product Management team’s impact.
• To ensure the day-to-day Product development would not be disrupted we urgently ensure the development was on the right track. I rapidly assessed the current goals, in-flight Product features, customer and stakeholder feedback, and interviewed several key people. As a consequence, we developed a set of focused goals and re-aligned the development roadmaps accordingly.

The double challenge was something new to deal with, and results have shown that it’s feasible! The company eventually went through an acquisition. I continued coaching the CPO throughout the integration of their Products into the broader parent company’s portfolio, along with navigating a wider organisational configuration and ensuring influence on the overall direction.