Chief Product Officer Job Description Template

The chief product officer owns product across the company at executive level, including strategy, the product organization and often design and product marketing. The role is accountable for whether the company is building the right things, and it operates at the intersection of market understanding, technical feasibility and commercial reality.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Own the company’s product vision and strategy
• Lead product, and often design and product marketing
• Make portfolio level investment decisions
• Partner with the chief executive and executive team on company strategy
• Represent product to the board, investors and the market
• Build and develop the senior product leadership team
• Own the relationship between product strategy and revenue
• Set the standard for how product decisions are made and evidenced
• Drive customer and market understanding across the company
• Decide which markets and segments to pursue

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; advanced degree common

Required Skills and Experience

• 15+ years including executive product leadership
• Track record of products that achieved significant commercial scale
• Ability to set direction under genuine uncertainty
• Experience building and leading product organizations
• Board level credibility and communication
• Deep market and customer understanding in the relevant sector
• Strong partnership with engineering and commercial leadership
• Willingness to make decisive portfolio calls

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience through multiple company growth stages
• Prior founder or chief executive experience