You REALLY nailed this one!! Having been a passionate Product Manager for over 18 years and across numerous companies (including startups to Fortune 100); the communication, leadership, accountability and breadth of functions/activities you touched on are what makes Product Management both rewarding and also at times overwhelming. But the Product Team is what truly “enables” us to ensure we deliver the correct solution to our customers!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Anne, I always love your posts—or the ones you seem to “stumble on” :-). Regarding your question; I’ve experienced VP of Product reporting to CPO who then reports to the CEO (Veritas), VP of Product reporting to CMO who then reports to the CEO (SPS Commerce), Head of Product (although not exactly that title) report to a Business Unit GM (my least favorite model), and when I was at a startup I lead Product and reported directly to the CEO. I would say that my least favorite model is when the “Head of Product” reports to CTO, COO or as mentioned a BU GM. In my experience, those reporting structures don’t allow for constructive-tension that must exist between product and the other main functions like Development, Finance and Operations. As a tenant of High Performance Teams; having the ability to openly disagree without fear of consequence or reprimand is how we ALL grow and develop and mature.
The CPO-CTO as peer pattern can be a nice check and balance, if they are able to form a strong partnership. The two want different things and as long as they're able to continually negotiate that tension, I've seen it work. It gets out of whack when they stop listening/working to/with each other.
Anne,
You REALLY nailed this one!! Having been a passionate Product Manager for over 18 years and across numerous companies (including startups to Fortune 100); the communication, leadership, accountability and breadth of functions/activities you touched on are what makes Product Management both rewarding and also at times overwhelming. But the Product Team is what truly “enables” us to ensure we deliver the correct solution to our customers!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Thanks for your comments, Chad. In your experience, what do you think is the best reporting situation for the Head of Product? CEO, CTO, CMO, etc.?
Anne, I always love your posts—or the ones you seem to “stumble on” :-). Regarding your question; I’ve experienced VP of Product reporting to CPO who then reports to the CEO (Veritas), VP of Product reporting to CMO who then reports to the CEO (SPS Commerce), Head of Product (although not exactly that title) report to a Business Unit GM (my least favorite model), and when I was at a startup I lead Product and reported directly to the CEO. I would say that my least favorite model is when the “Head of Product” reports to CTO, COO or as mentioned a BU GM. In my experience, those reporting structures don’t allow for constructive-tension that must exist between product and the other main functions like Development, Finance and Operations. As a tenant of High Performance Teams; having the ability to openly disagree without fear of consequence or reprimand is how we ALL grow and develop and mature.
The CPO-CTO as peer pattern can be a nice check and balance, if they are able to form a strong partnership. The two want different things and as long as they're able to continually negotiate that tension, I've seen it work. It gets out of whack when they stop listening/working to/with each other.