On the Limits of One Mind
Why most CTOs should not lead Product
Ah, Product.
In product-led companies, it’s the thing that i) should steer the company, and ii) everyone thinks they can do it.
The second bit is similar to quants thinking they can do qual, data scientists looking down on data analysts, or backend engineers saying they can do frontend without effort if they wanted to. The latter tasks all deemed inferior to the former.
A common scenario I have the misfortune to experience multiple times is when the CTO takes over as the de facto CPO.
This manifests in several ways:
There is an exec-level (VP+) product person, but they have no actual authority
There is no exec-level product person, but competent product middle management (Head/Director)
There are only senior product ICs
Then, the most likely outcome is that the CTO—as a function of how technology is usually bundled with product—is asked to step in, perhaps as an interim. Hiring a product leader is our top priority, the senior management will say. The product function will be fine; the CTO runs half of the tech org anyway, they won’t be in the way.
Famous last words 💀
You can bet money on the opposite—they will be in the way, they will slow everything down, and it will be worse for both the engineering and product functions.
There are numerous explanations as to why, but they all stem from this one stat—you are expecting a single individual to excel in not one, but two domains, that are not even adjacent.
If you are an early stage startup, the CTO—who is probably also a founder—might have good product sense. There is probably no CPO on the horizon yet—they will come later, if ever, after several rounds of funding.
How has this CTO made their way into the company? If they are a founder, it is likely that they have been a software engineer in a previous life. But with no guarantees of having been a competent one. Sure, enough credibility to pass the investor check I suppose, but is that really a high bar? Historically speaking, not really.
If they are hired? Maybe they have been already a CTO somewhere else. Or perhaps, this is their first true exec position, after a long stint of middle management gigs. Regardless, in startup settings, the same lack of accountability applies—who watches the watchers? As in, who verifies the CTO is, in fact, a legitimate tech leader during the interview stage? The same profile of people in the previous paragraph…And how good are they, again?😬
Let’s consider the best case scenario. Instead of the blind founders leading the blind execs, your startup ended up hiring an excellent CTO. This person has a great strategic mind, and they specialise in running effective engineering orgs and have the experience to show for it. Well done on a great hire!
Because they are such a great tech exec, surely you can rely on them to run Product as well—I mean, what is product anyway if not your engineers releasing incremental feature releases of questionable business value every two weeks?! But green SLIs…
A CTO who is also a CPO, on average, will suffer from the following:
They will be spread too thin. These are CxO roles with wide remits. A great CTO can stay a great CTO, or become an mediocre CTO + CPO. There are cognitive limits to what one person can manage. They will not have the capacity to fully focus on either domain, and their divided focus will hurt both functions in the long run.
They won’t think like a Product person. They will come from a generally technical, specifically engineering background. They will lack true product thinking—i.e. user-centric mindset and product-first intuition.
They will be biased towards technical solutions. They will tend to prioritise technical elegance over usability and customer experience. They won’t empathise with the users and their needs. They will be emotionally attached to technical solutions—and when it comes to scrapping or radically changing technical work to achieve true business impact, they will resist.
They will lose their strategic edge. CxO jobs require strategic vision and operating at the highest level. The dual CTO/CPO setup will force the individual to get bogged down in tactical detail and implementation. Now, in addition to being mediocre in two exec jobs, they will also make other ICs life more difficult.
They will suck at communicating. CTOs speak a different language than Product. When forced to communicate as the product leader, they will struggle to convey the product vision to the rest of the company—if they even understand it themselves first.
They won’t effectively balance the two responsibilities. You’d think in a product-led startup, the tech (engineering) follows Product. If you actually worked in a product-led startup, you know that tech does tech—meaning: long discussions on agile/scrum rituals, when to pay back tech debt, are we getting 10% learning time so I can work on my side projects, no OKR accountability, questionable strategic value etc. Now the tech leader, the CTO, also runs Product, which runs counter to the above. Perhaps they can use ChatGPT to simulate their counterpart…
They will feel less comfortable with uncertainty. Engineers expect and prize clarity. Product thrives in ambiguity, multiple pathways, and rapid iteration of ideas. Ever seen a PM and software engineer from the same cross-functional squad not argue about this? This, but on steroids.
They won’t be market- and sales-savvy. Their CTO trajectory have taken them through different avenues. They won’t know much about markets, segments, and business models. This will lead to missed key opportunities.
They will fail at growing others. With Product often encompassing other functions, now the CTO needs to nurture Product, Design, UXR etc. people on top of software engineers. This is quite the burden on a single individual. The outcome will most likely to be senior ICs from non-engineering roles expressing deep dissatisfaction.
There are great CTOs who can lead Product; both historically and anecdotally. And it can definitely be done on an interim basis—in such cases, the CTO is effectively taking one for the team! But most of the time, you better recognise the value of a dedicated product leader. It does not happy to be an exec if you are not ready; but don’t risk demoting your CTO from good to average because it’s just ‘product’!