The Case for the CPTO: Unified Product and Technology Leadership

The table in the dry, overheated conference room is lined with too many people.  Engineers on one side.  Product team members on the other.  No one wants to be there…   These are people who feel burned, and whatever’s coming next is not something anyone is looking forward to.  It’s the dreaded “post-mortem.” We’ve all been in a meeting like this.  

A colleague once described the product-engineering relationship as ‘healthy tension.’ Translation? ‘They don’t trust each other. At all.’  The post-mortem is the end state of a working relationship that was unhealthy from the start.

And it starts with leadership.  I can remember more than one product brief I was asked to get my engineering team to build…  and my head literally tilted sideways, much like a German Shepherd hearing a high squeak, thinking “Huh, what? Why?” 

The brief was completely missing the data-driven insights that engineers crave. 

But before you accuse me of taking sides, my product-leading colleague is there feeling equally powerless, grappling with the engineering process without a clear understanding of the trade-offs involved. 

The result? A frustrating “black box” dynamic, where both sides are left in the dark, unable to align their efforts toward a common goal. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  In fact, the whole reason I work at UserVoice is because of this problem - bringing more customer-centric feeling to a whole organization unites teams to the common objective that they always had - delivering a successful project.

To improve the product/engineering relationship at companies whose product is delivered primarily through technology, I believe that Product and Technology teams should be the responsibility of a single person, the Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO).  This person owns product growth, in the same way that a CRO owns revenue growth.

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Tech-Savvy Product Managers: Bridging the Gap

Historically, Product Managers have been treated like glorified Project Managers.  Fortunately, this practice is falling by the wayside thanks to an increase in technology-savvy product professionals.  The modern product manager increasingly understands the intricacies of development cycles, technical constraints, and the importance of scalable architecture. They can effectively bridge the gap between what customers want and what technology can deliver. This dual expertise allows for more informed decision-making, leading to products that are both innovative and technically sound.

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Engineers with a Product Mindset: A New Breed

Likewise, we see a growing trend of technologists who have an innate passion for producing something that solves real problems. These individuals recognize the importance of user experience, market needs, and competitive positioning. Their ability to think beyond code and infrastructure enables them to contribute significantly to product ideation and development. If developers welcome a technology-minded product manager, the product manager should also rely on product-savvy engineers.

To leave no doubt that this is a valuable match, a CPTO heading the organization can ensure that technology decisions are always aligned with product goals, and that product goals are set at the highest levels of the organization to coordinate with overall company goals.

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Unified Accountability and Metrics

In many organizations today, the metrics tracked by product and technology teams have been distinct. Product teams focus on user engagement, adoption, and customer satisfaction, while technology teams track uptime, performance, and everyone’s favorite bullshit metric, velocity.

However, both teams ultimately share the same goal: delivering a successful product. A CPTO can set overall KPIs that satisfy real business problems, leaving the sub-metrics of each discipline to the teams themselves to drive continuous improvement.  A clear relationship between the business goals and day-to-day work is a very powerful motivator and an assist in day-to-day decision making.

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Healing the Rift: The CPTO’s Role in Team Harmony

An empathetic CPTO can de-escalate historical tensions between product, design, and technology groups. A leader who understands the unique challenges of each job, and how interconnected a team needs to be to perform at their peak will bring both delivery and satisfaction to an organization.  Four goals lay the foundation for success:

1. Establishing a Unified Vision: By setting a clear, shared vision for the product and how technology brings it to life, a CPTO ensures that all teams are aligned toward common goals. This reduces conflicts arising from misaligned priorities and fosters a sense of shared purpose.  This often forces the company as a whole to sharpen their overall goals, so that the product can rally around stable pillars.  Product briefs should reference this vision when enumerating their value.

2. Facilitating Cross-Functional Collaboration: A CPTO can break down silos by building cross-functional teams. This isn’t about a lot of meetings - this is about working together day-to-day to grow a product.  If there’s ever a “handoff,” a wall still needs to be broken down.  Open communication can’t be forced by touchpoints and standups alone; it’s born of trust and shared goals.

3. Balancing Competing Priorities: With a comprehensive view of both product and technology needs, a CPTO can make informed decisions that balance the demands placed on the team. Existing products need care and feeding.  Libraries with security holes need to be patched and tested.  Research needs to be done before projects can get underway.  A leader who can understand, organize, and prioritize at this level gives teams confidence.

4. Promoting a Culture of Empathy and Respect: By modeling and fostering a culture of empathy and respect, a CPTO can help teams appreciate each other’s contributions and challenges. This cultural shift can lead to an energized team - where good work is respected and celebrated.

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Balancing Power: The CPTO’s Strategic Role

One potential risk of hiring a CPTO is the concentration of critical responsibilities in a single individual. There’s no room for megalomaniacs in this role.  But if done right, the product and engineering teams themselves adopt the vision and get much closer to self-organization - reducing the impact of any turnover in the CPTO role. The right leader will find the breadth of responsibility and the opportunity to drive holistic change and growth deeply fulfilling, making them more likely to stay and thrive.

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Finding the Perfect CPTO: Qualities and Skills

Is a great CPTO a unicorn?  It’s an important role, for sure.  But we’re decades into a world where technology and tech-driven products are ubiquitous.  Finding versatile, multi-talented leaders is easier than ever.  Expensive?  Perhaps.  But not nearly as costly as the overhead and potential dropped balls of two very competent individual leaders.  A CPTO will need her generals to be sure, but the unification of process and goals is much easier to handle without competing priorities.

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Conclusion

“Healthy Tension” isn’t a part of a well-oiled machine.  Ask any engineer or product manager if they think that makes their day-to-day better, and I’m sure you’ll get a polite “no thank you.”

Unifying the reporting structure of the product and engineering teams is essential to optimize product quality, improve time to market, reduce employee turnover, and to succeed.