Mindset of a CPO – leadership book (e-book)

The Chief Product Officer decides what the company builds, and just as importantly, what it doesn't. Great CPOs combine deep customer understanding with business judgment: they set a product vision, choose the problems worth solving, build empowered teams, run discovery before delivery, make hard trade-offs on the roadmap and turn products into growth. This book explains how they think: the mindset shifts from product manager to product executive, how a CPO spends the week, the decisions that matter most, vision and strategy, discovery, roadmaps, metrics, pricing, working with engineering, design, sales and marketing, AI in products, the traps that derail new CPOs, and a 90-day plan.

• The mindset shifts from product manager to product executive
• Vision, strategy, discovery and roadmaps from the CPO's chair
• Building empowered product teams that deliver outcomes, not just features
• A 90-day plan and a self-assessment for new and aspiring CPOs
• Approx. 25 pages
• EPUB for e-readers and PDF for phone, tablet or print

The Person Who Decides What to Build

Every company has more ideas than it can build. Customers ask for features. Sales wants what the last prospect requested. Engineers want to rebuild the platform. The CEO has a vision. Marketing wants something to launch. Somebody has to decide.

That somebody, in a growing number of companies, is the Chief Product Officer. The CPO is responsible for the company's products: what they are, who they're for, how they create value, and how they evolve. Done well, product leadership is one of the strongest levers a company has. Done badly, it produces a bloated product that does many things and nothing well.

What the CPO owns

• Product vision and strategy: where the product is going and why.
• Product portfolio: which products and markets to invest in.
• Discovery: understanding customer problems and testing solutions.
• Roadmap and prioritization: what gets built, in what order.
• Product teams: product managers, often design and research, sometimes data.
• Product performance: adoption, engagement, retention and the revenue products generate.
• Often pricing and packaging, together with marketing and finance.

CPO, CTO and CMO

The CPO usually owns what and why; the CTO owns how; the CMO owns how the product is positioned and brought to market. The boundaries vary, and in smaller companies one person may cover more than one role. What matters is that the three work as a tight partnership, with clear ownership.

… The excerpt continues in the book.

1. The Person Who Decides What to Build
2. The Seven Mindset Shifts
3. How a CPO Spends the Week
4. The Decisions That Matter Most
5. The CPO's Toolkit
6. Discovery Before Delivery
7. Roadmaps and Prioritization
8. Building Empowered Product Teams
9. The Metrics That Matter
10. Pricing and Packaging
11. Working With the Rest of the Company
12. AI in the Product
13. Communicating the Product Strategy
14. Launching Well
15. Platforms and Technical Debt
16. When a Product Fails
17. Growing as a Product Leader
18. The Traps
19. Your First 90 Days
20. Self-Assessment

Format: E-book as EPUB (Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, Kindle via “Send to Kindle”) and PDF.. Made with the help of AI and tested by our quality control. Not tax, accounting or legal advice. Terms and right of withdrawal