The CPTO role from people who know

Last week, I facilitated a panel of impressive and accomplished CPTOs on the realities of the role, how they got into it and – especially in light of current AI developments – where they think it’s heading next. Here are some notes. No set path into the role The CPTOs were from a range of backgrounds, and they had really interesting career journeys. Broadly, two were from a product background and two from an engineering background (including one who started out working on building planes) but the theme that really came out was being people who solve problems. People who take ownership, and are adaptable, and as a result get additional responsibilities. You don’t need both backgrounds I asked the panel what was hardest to pick up about the discipline that wasn’t their background. One note was that with technology, no-one wants to own it, they are happy that you are taking care of it. But with product, suddenly everyone in the business wants a piece of it. Interestingly though, no-one…