What is Chief Product Officer?
A Chief Product Officer (CPO) is one of the company chiefs who is responsible for the entire product organization. This is the head of the product department who aligns the product development with the company’s objectives to improve the customer experience and harness growth. A CPO makes sure that the deliveries are smooth, the marketing targets the correct audience and manages the whole product team.
In certain companies, a chief product officer can also be called the VP of Product or the Head of Product.
Chief Product Officer Responsibilities
A CPO’s job description covers several core tasks that are aimed at aligning product features with the company’s goals:
- Developing the product vision: product vision is the core idea of a product, or the value and the life-changing customer experience that the company is offering.
- Creating the product strategy and roadmap: a detailed plan of the product development to meet various KPIs measures the product performance and produces sustainable solutions. The main goal of a product strategy is to map technology on the go-to-market channels.
- Managing the cross-functional product team: a CPO needs to ensure effective collaboration of the whole product team that may include software engineers, product managers, UX/UI designers, analytics, and marketers. A CPO also coordinates multiple departments to develop and deliver a competitive product.
- Promoting the product: A CPO is responsible for product marketing and evangelism from matching the product to the right customers to ensuring their loyalty. For this, a CPO needs to understand the customer feedback and product analytics findings, and to present the product at exhibitions and conferences.
- Conducting customer research: closely related to product marketing is the need for continuous product analysis and research of the customer’s experience. A CPO must have a solid and grounded understanding of customer needs and desires based on research data.
Chief Product Officer’s Skillset
A Chief Product Officer needs versatile skills to be able to combine the technical knowledge, marketing insights, and people management:
- Communication skills: Communication is critical within a cross-functional team to coordinate their collaboration effort; at the same time, a CPO requires communication skills to promote the product externally outside the team and the organization;
- Leadership skills: As a chief officer, a CPO needs to handle various departments in a positive manner and shape the company’s image and philosophy.
- Decision making skills: Another side of leadership is making right decisions based on the information received in a fast and timely manner.
- Product analytical skills: A CPO needs to have a keen eye for detail and have a profound knowledge of the product and all its features. Besides, a CPO needs to understand all product-related analytics, measurement, and monitoring data.
- Customer engagement skills: A CPO needs to see customer feedback as a chief factor driving the product development. Therefore, a CPO needs to actively listen to customers and understand their needs to improve customer experience.
In a broad sense, a Chief Product Officer is a company officer who can translate technology to a commercially viable product.
