The role of the Chief Product Officer has become popular over the last few years, especially in technology-enabled startups. Few people can hold this title and fewer people should even be responsible for the duties. In the time of change, and organisation continuity redesign, founders are the best positioned to lead product development and evolution.
Chief product officer (CPO), sometimes designated as chief production officer, is a corporate title referring to an executive responsible for various product-related activities in an organization (Wikipedia)
As we saw in Twitter when they had product problems, they brought back Jack Dorsey. In IROKO, when the radio business had some issues, Jason Njoku took over. In both cases, the founders became custodians of businesses they helped to create.
Founders bring vision, authority and trust necessary to change things when they are necessary. In this video, I explain why the best chief product officers are founders and if a founder cannot do that job, the startup should simply close the door.
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