Retained executive search for Chief Product Officers, CPTOs and senior product leaders across Sydney and Australia.
Executive Search
Chief Product Officer search.
We scope every product leadership search around the craft the role needs as a baseline, whether the job is to build, scale or reinvent the product, and how the role will work with the founder or CEO.
The role
Which product leader the business needs
An early-stage business still finding its product, a PE-backed platform whose product team has outgrown the way it works, and a business that needs a different product rather than a better version of the current one are three different product leadership hires. Each needs real product craft as a baseline, and above it we scope for what the business is short of, with the CPTO as a fourth option where one leader has to own both product and engineering.
The Product Craft Leader
For early-stage businesses, and any organisation that has lost its product competence and needs it rebuilt. Lives in discovery, judgement and taste, and knows from experience what good looks like. Craft on its own leaves a large organisation unscaled.
The Product Operator
For scaleups and PE-backed businesses professionalising product, where the craft exists but the organisation around it does not. Scales the product function by developing people rather than adding process, and turns a talented but ad hoc team into a function.
The Product Visionary
For reinvention and new-category plays, where the business needs a different product rather than a better version of the current one. The rarest of the three, and a poor pairing with a visionary founder-CEO, where two visions produce conflict rather than a product.
The CPTO
For mid-market and PE-backed businesses that need one accountable owner of product and engineering and cannot or should not fund two leaders. The wrong structure once both disciplines are large enough to need their own depth.
Our approach
What we agree before the search goes to market
A product leadership brief turns on what the product organisation is short of and on the relationship the role will have with the founder or CEO. Five things get pinned down before we approach anyone:
- The craft floor. The level of product craft the role cannot do without, whatever else it carries.
- Build, scale or reinvent. Whether the product still needs finding, the organisation needs scaling, or the product needs replacing.
- The founder relationship. How the role will work with a founder or CEO who may hold strong product views of their own.
- CPO or CPTO. Whether product and engineering sit with one leader or two, and who each reports to.
- Time to outcome. The timeline the board or investors are working to, including any exit.
Where the product is the main lever on the value of the business ahead of an exit, we also plan with you for the points where a senior search can go wrong late, from a counter-offer to a long notice period.
Assessment
How we assess product leaders
Craft is the floor, so we test it first, through the product decisions a candidate has made and the judgement behind them, before we look at how they scaled a team or set a direction. The strongest product leaders can then connect product decisions to revenue and customer outcomes, operate at board level and align the teams around them, and we hold the shortlist to that.
Track record
Product leadership appointments
Our product leadership appointments include:
- A Chief Product and Technology Officer for a PE-backed consumer platform
- A Chief Technology and Product Officer for a corporate-backed consumer platform
- A Chief Product and Technology Officer for a PE-backed technology business
- A Head of Product for a PE-owned healthcare group, within a complete technology leadership build-out
Support
Frequently asked questions
CPO or CPTO: which does the business need?
A CPTO suits a scaleup or a platform that needs one accountable owner of product and engineering, and it is common in mid-market and PE-backed businesses that cannot or should not fund two leaders. Once both disciplines are large enough to need their own depth, a separate CPO alongside a CTO is usually the better structure.
How long does a Chief Product Officer search take?
A well-scoped search typically takes 8 to 12 weeks from brief to accepted offer. The quality of the brief and the speed of decisions once candidates are in front of you make most of the difference.
Can you place an interim CPO?
Yes, through our interim and contract practice, including interim CPOs and heads of product who can hold the function through a transition or while a permanent search runs.
Do you hire product managers as well?
Yes. Our technology recruitment practice hires product managers and product teams at every level, and it can run alongside the leadership search.
Insights
