The CEO Product Mindset
I nearly cried the other day when I learned one of our clients hired a big name IT consultancy who recommended their Head of Product report to their CIO. Ugh.
They could have saved a lot of money and heartache if they’d given us a call. The CPO or the Head of Product needs to have a seat at the table and report to the CEO or a division head. In our industry most often the CIO is the person who handles the back office technology. They keep email running, and the lights on for productivity tools. The CTO runs engineering and the software teams that build and maintain the solutions, and offerings built to sell. Best practice companies keep the CTO and the CPO as equals at the table.
I was speaking to David DeWolf, CEO of a great company, 3Pillar Global, that lives, eats and breathes the design, build and maintenance of data and information-intensive products. They build what our industry sells. I love this firm, what they do, this CEO, and the team members of his that I’ve met. Full disclosure, 3Pillar Global is this year’s Outsell Signature Event Underwriter. They’re that for a reason and it’s not because they’ve invested. It’s because they build world-class information offerings and have the mindset to do it.
David and I were talking about this confluence of positions and how in big enterprises the CIO is key and sometimes the CTO reports to him or her. That isn’t what goes on in best in class information companies. David is in the process of writing a book, “The Product Mindset”. It comes out in the first part of 2019, and we’ve asked him to tailor his findings and speak at the Outsell Signature Event about the CEO Product Mindset because I believe that best in class companies build best in class data and information, technology-driven products when the CEO has the Product Mindset too. It starts and stops at the top and that commercial mindset is KEY.
What works and what doesn’t? Come and find out why as we focus on Case Studies in Execution at the Outsell Signature Event co-produced with JEGI, 3–4 October at the beautiful Corinthia Hotel London. The event is by invitation only, for CEOs, COOs, MDs and Presidents in the global data & information industry. David will not disappoint. Together he and we can save you a lot of heartache and money and keep your head of product out of the CIOs domain. Come get the CEO Product Mindset.