Head of Product or CPO (Chief Product Officer)

The Head of Product, or CPO (Chief Product Officer), depending on the organisation, leads the product function. They establish a shared direction, organise decisions on competing priorities across teams and develop product leaders. Their role is to connect user needs with the company’s objectives, then give teams a framework for making decisions and assessing their results.

The remit varies between organisations. It may involve directly managing Product Managers or managing leaders who themselves oversee several teams. This difference changes the work expected: supporting a team’s decisions, developing managers and coordinating the direction of a group of products do not draw on exactly the same experience.

The titles Head of Product, Product Director, VP Product and CPO therefore do not establish a hierarchy on their own. To understand a role, specify the products covered, the teams managed, the decisions delegated and the stakeholders involved in resolving competing priorities. The reporting line also needs to be made clear: the title alone does not indicate who has the final say.

Product leadership, product managers and technical leadership: who does what?

• The Head of Product or CPO takes responsibility for shared direction and decisions on competing priorities that extend beyond a single team’s remit.
• The Product Manager provides a point of comparison when defining responsibilities at the level of an individual product. Their autonomy needs to be specified within the chosen organisational structure.
• Technical leadership works with product leadership on choices that affect teams’ remits and dependencies. This cooperation does not imply a universal reporting relationship.

This job profile covers leadership of the product function. To prepare for recruitment, start with the work that will actually be entrusted to the new leader: the number of management levels and the scope of decisions on competing priorities reveal more about the need than the title alone.

The challenge for product leadership is to reconcile priorities that may compete with one another. A customer request, a usability problem and an ambition for development do not necessarily point towards the same choice. The product leader needs to examine them within a common framework, considering the expected benefits and the resources committed.

The quality of these decisions depends on an understanding of users and the economics of the product. A direction becomes difficult to defend if no one can explain the problem being addressed, the reasons for prioritising it or the results that would justify continuing. Conversely, a clear roadmap allows choices and their consequences to be discussed before several teams are committed.

Building a shared understanding of priorities

Fictional example: two teams want to draw on the same skills for different projects. One aims to resolve a difficulty users encounter; the other is preparing a new offering. The product leader gathers the available evidence, compares the expected benefits and examines dependencies. They then explain the choice, what will be deferred and what information might lead to the decision being revisited.

One recruitment risk is to assign responsibility for results without specifying the associated decision-making authority. If all priorities continue to be decided elsewhere, the new leader may lack the means to carry out their role. Clarifying this authority also helps distinguish between a candidate accustomed to supporting teams and one who has already managed managers.

Finally, the schedule alone is not enough to assess the effects of a strategy. Oversight also needs to examine the intended results and the data available to understand them. The aim is to be able to adjust choices when observed usage or the economic context contradicts the initial assumptions.

• Define a shared product direction connected to user needs and the company’s objectives.
• Resolve competing priorities across products or teams, explaining the choices made and the matters deferred.
• Organise a roadmap that takes dependencies and available resources into account.
• Bring knowledge of customers and usage into strategic decisions.
• Recruit and support product leaders according to the level of management responsibility assigned.
• Define expected results and examine the data needed to assess the effects of decisions.
• Share direction with other departments’ leaders and address disagreements that prevent teams from moving forward.

A path into product leadership may bring together experience in strategy, understanding users and management. These experiences prepare someone for different responsibilities: setting a product’s direction, managing Product Managers or supporting managers. Job titles alone do not adequately describe the responsibilities someone has held.

Moving from product work into management

Managing a product helps develop an understanding of user needs and the benefits sought for the company. Building a strategy also draws on the ability to choose priorities and revise direction in light of results. Contributing to a roadmap and taking responsibility for the decisions that shape it represent different experiences.

Managing Product Managers can prepare someone for a Head of Product role with direct management responsibilities. It adds experience of supporting a team to their product experience. Individual success in managing a product does not, on its own, cover this dimension.

Broadening responsibilities

Managing managers brings another kind of experience: delegating decisions, supporting leaders and maintaining consistency across teams. These capabilities are useful when the product function includes several levels of responsibility.

Developing skills in product strategy, business understanding and management can help someone take on a broader remit. These skills help connect user needs with company priorities and the way teams are organised. Preparation should build on responsibilities already held and identify those the person still needs to learn to handle.

To prepare the assessment, you can follow these steps and adapt them to the decisions that will actually be entrusted to the new product leader.

1. Define the criteria before the interviews

Write down the role’s defining responsibilities: product direction, decisions on competing priorities across teams, business understanding and management. Specify whether the candidate will manage Product Managers or their managers.

For each criterion, describe what a convincing answer should help you understand. Distinguish between contributing to a decision and actually holding responsibility for it. Use the same criteria to compare candidates.

2. Examine a past decision

Ask the candidate to describe an important decision involving competing priorities. What problem were they trying to solve? What options were considered? What information did they draw on? Who had the final say?

Ask them to clarify the user needs, expected benefits and resources committed. Then ask what was observed and what changed after the decision.

A positive sign is an explanation that connects the choices made with the information available at the time. Probe further if the candidate describes only what the team did without explaining their own contribution.

3. Present a decision similar to those the role involves

Fictional example: two teams request the same resources to improve different products. Provide user feedback, company objectives and a few dependencies. Ask the candidate to prepare a recommendation.

Observe the questions they ask before choosing. Invite them to distinguish between facts, assumptions and missing information. Ask what they would defer and under what conditions they would reconsider their recommendation.

Assess how consistent their reasoning is with the constraints provided. A very confident answer that ignores an important dependency calls for further discussion. Do not expect a single solution if several choices are defensible.

4. Explore management in depth

Ask about a situation in which a product leader needed to develop. What was the need? How did the candidate support them? What did they let that person decide?

For a role involving several management levels, explore the relationship with managers. Look for specific examples of delegation and development, beyond participation in product decisions alone.

Also examine a past hire: the responsibility assigned, the criteria chosen and the lessons learnt. A useful answer explains the choices and their limitations without consistently attributing difficulties to the team.

5. Test communication across departments

Invite the candidate to present their decision to a stakeholder advocating a different priority. Involve technical leadership when the case concerns shared dependencies.

Observe their ability to restate the disagreement, explain the consequences and propose a decision. Look for a discussion that stakeholders can understand, without confusing presentation skills with the quality of the reasoning.

6. Cross-check and make an explicit decision

With the candidate’s consent, use references to clarify the responsibilities they actually held and the situations discussed. Ask specific questions about their role in decisions and in supporting teams.

If the company lacks product expertise, involve a professional capable of examining product decisions. Those responsible for defining the hiring need should retain responsibility for the hiring decision. Finish with a summary of the criteria supported by evidence, the uncertainties and the support to plan for.