The choice of VP Product hire can make or break a company’s trajectory. As CEOs navigate the journey of building and scaling their startups, the role of a product leader becomes increasingly paramount.
Adrian Borys, a seasoned Product and Marketing executive with over 25 years of experience and proven track record scaling SaaS solutions, shares invaluable insights on the VP Product hiring journey, tailored to each phase of a tech company’s lifecycle. From the exhilarating ideation stage to the pursuit of maturity and sustained growth, Borys offers nuanced advice on how CEOs can strategically approach VP Product hiring to drive business success.
What advice do you have for a CEO on a VP Product hiring journey?
My advice would be different for each part of a tech company’s lifecycle, from ideation to startup to expansion and scale-up to maturity and growth.
Ideation to Startup
This is where those in charge of product, usually the Founders, need to move quickly, fail fast, and validate their idea to capture the imagination of potential investors and early adopter customers.
My advice to a CEO is to partner with a product leader who is bold, passionate, and informed, someone who can hustle and sell the vision as much as the CEO. As you look for investment, you need your product team to test the hypothesis to see if there is a distinct need you have solved and that the designed approach is clearly differentiated. CEOs will need a very compelling product leader to partner with so they can focus on the “sizzle,” while the product leader focuses on the “steak,” and engineering can focus on the tech.
Expand and Scale
In many cases, Founders are still running the show, and I think the first piece of advice is to ask, “Are you ready to have someone else take the reigns of your vision?” It can often be difficult to allow someone else to take over what you have built and potentially overhaul or pivot it.
Having a product leader with experience designing and developing a defined product management process is critical because it allows the organization to validate its market position, define and quantify the opportunity, and make product choices that meet those needs in a unique and differentiated manner. The process also acts as the catalyst to shift the company to be more customer-centric and product-orientated. Shifting from being technology-led to more customer-led is a significant change in how an organization operates and requires a leader who understands how to make that shift.
This stage can be very personal to a CEO/founder, so I advise those CEOs to ensure that the person you hire is someone you trust. It is also crucial that the company’s values are clear so that the product leader can align with those values. With that trust, CEOs should be more comfortable being challenged and making critical product choices and investments regarding where the product needs to go. Having the courage to pivot to a place with the greatest opportunity will require tough choices, and with investors breathing down your neck, you need a confident product leader who understands what it takes to move the product to a place of more sustained growth.
Maturity and Sustained Growth
This is all about operational excellence around the product management process. Listening and working with your customers is critical because if the company becomes complacent, your competition can leapfrog you. I see success when a product leader can leverage the product management process with a more data-driven approach to understand customer needs, market opportunities, and market fit. With that foundation, aligning the organization and prioritizing the right customers with the right features and experience becomes easier.
How does a product leader impact the culture of a business?
Each phase has nuances as the company grows; the startup phase is fun and exciting, the expand and scale phase is stressful and full of pivots, while the mature and sustained growth phase is about scale, process, repeatability, and efficiency. In my opinion, a great product leader understands the impact of change and how to shift the organization as it matures.
The product is at the company’s core, and if the product vision is stagnant, stalled, or unclear, it will impact the Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and Operations teams. Ensuring alignment and leadership is essential because it avoids the “shock and awe” problem when a change is required.
I also believe marketing and product marketing play a critical role, and I have always advocated for tightly integrating those disciplines. A company’s brand is a great way to navigate the ups and downs and the choices a product leader will have to make, as the brand is the promise an organization makes to its customers, partners, and employees. If the messaging is clear and consistent, it makes it easier to navigate the tough times.
Looking back at your own experiences, what would you want first-time Founders to know about the value product management brings to a business and why it’s foundational to building a business?
A CEO needs to trust the product leadership and process so they are not biased by their opinion on the right product path. This is their baby, and no one wants to be told their baby is ugly, but a successful CEO will have the humility to let go of those reins for the company’s greater good.
Founders must trust that a good product leader will help to align sales, development, operations, marketing, investors, and the executive team. This alignment will allow all teams to make the right choices and work together toward success. It takes time; they say it takes years to become an overnight success.
The VP Product hiring journey is not merely a task but a pivotal move that can define the future of a company. Adrian’s guidance underscores the importance of aligning leadership, values, and vision throughout the hiring process. As Founders embark on their growth journey, they must recognize that investing in exceptional product management leadership is not just foundational but critical to building a thriving and impactful organization.
