Product professionals lack representation board level: Survey findings

Many technology and product leaders feel that their contributions are not well understood by the C-suite and investors, while also pointing to their strong commercial understanding, a survey of 100 European tech and product leaders by executive search agency Founders Keepers has found.

Only 51% of respondents had confidence their work was adequately understood by their CEO and peers. Of those who believe their CEO/C-suite actively lack sufficient knowledge (27), 23 were product leaders. 

Sixty percent of respondents said there was no tech or product representation on the company board, and 57% of respondents said that the success or failure of the technology/product/data function in a business relies too heavily on the communication and convincing skills of the CTO/CPO/CDO. Furthermore 92% of respondents said that, as CTO/CPO/CDO, they have a sufficient understanding of the commercial reality of the business. 

While cautioning against drawing too many conclusions from a cohort of 100 people, Founder Keepers partners Hannah French and Stephen Rosenthal emphasised that they had talked to “a unique cohort of talent looking to contribute to commercial success as well as innovation, ambitious for themselves as well as their companies, excited by the potential of emerging technology and calling out for more authority and autonomy”. Respondents came from a range of companies - from ”rapid-growth startups, scaleups, soonicorns, unicorns or multi-billion dollar entities”.

Jim Cruickshank, Chief Product Officer at Zooplus, said: “The invisible line in the board room is the biggest challenge the Product function faces. If we don’t tackle it, European Product will be under threat. I always tell my Product teams we need to learn the language of Commercial. It will never be enough to have great Product ideas without understanding of the key drivers of the P&L. If your commercial counterparts don’t see a direct connection to P&L drivers in Product, you will not succeed.”

The survey also found that the majority (55%) of respondents feel that too few technology/product/data leaders are appointed to CEO positions, even though they are commercially aware. Furthermore, 62% said that CTOs/CPOs/CDOs need to be accountable for revenues to have true impact. Namrata Sarmah, MD and Chief Digital Officer of 3t Digital said there was no reason why a commercially-minded CPO or CTO couldn’t be a highly-effective CEO, particularly in a SaaS company where the company is the product, adding “It’s about giving tech and product leaders  chance, I don’t feel we get one currently”.

Dave Wascha, a multi-time CPO and Product/tech advisor took a somewhat different view.  He said that Product and tech are experiencing a bit of a reckoning. Founders are fed up with being told that they don’t “get it” while also being told that product and tech leaders can’t be accountable for their actions.  “ This is real life. People are losing their jobs and businesses are failing,” he said. “You have to be accountable. All the CTO/CPO roles I was seeing in 2024 were saying ‘commercially-minded CTO/CPO’. They’re frustrated by the lack of business acumen in these execs. Tech and Product guys have to win back credibility.”

Former Mind the Product Co-Founder Martin Eriksson, who worked with Founders Keepers on the report, commented that there is exceptional tech and Product talent in Europe: “We often talk about Europe being five to 10 years behind the US, but that is simply not true any more… As technology and product leaders, we have cross-functional superpowers on the strategic use of technology to drive business transformation and success.”

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