A Day in the Life of a Chief Product Officer at Stanza Systems
A Chief Product Officer at an early-stage startup spends a significant portion of their day directly interacting with customers, "really trying to understand" their needs and "asking really good questions" to uncover the root problems, not just the surface-level issues. This involves a balance of building rapport to elicit authentic feedback and then objectively analyzing that information to guide the product development team, translating high-level vision into actionable specifics.
Communication, Problem-Solving, Leadership, Data Analysis, Customer Focus
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Stacie Frederick
Chief Product Officer
Stanza Systems
UC Berkeley
USC, MS Computer Science
Computer Science
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans
Video Highlights
1. Stacie emphasizes the importance of direct customer interaction to understand their priorities and pain points. She highlights that truly understanding customer needs often involves digging deeper than their initial statements of the problem to uncover the underlying issue.
2. A significant portion of Stacie’s day involves objective analysis of customer feedback, weighing different perspectives to avoid bias and identify the most valuable areas to focus on. This analytical skill is crucial for prioritizing development efforts.
3. Stacie describes her role in bridging the gap between high-level product vision and the detailed execution by the development team. This involves translating strategic goals into actionable tasks and providing guidance on critical design decisions.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a chief product officer look like?
For me, in the early stage of a startup, a typical day involves a number of calls with customers. I directly engage with them to understand their top priorities and identify any themes that align with our own goals.
It's incredibly helpful to hear their problems directly from them, including the specific words they use to describe them. A significant part of this involves a lot of listening and asking thoughtful questions.
After gathering this information, I conduct an objective analysis. This can be challenging because even after a great connection with a customer, you need to step back and be disciplined.
You need to review what you've heard from various people and determine the common problems that need solving. It's a balancing act: the human connection helps uncover real problems, but you must then detach to avoid personal bias from more enjoyable conversations.
The goal is to weigh these insights objectively and extract the right information to identify where the real value lies and the true problems customers face.
Sometimes, the core problem isn't what the customer initially states. They might say they need to do something in a specific way, but digging deeper can reveal a different underlying problem that their current method is just a workaround for. The aim is to discover the actual problem and explore alternative solutions.
Currently, in the early product development phase, a lot of my time is spent in conversations and gathering information. My day-to-day also includes working with the development team.
I strive to provide them with clarity on what we should be building based on customer feedback. This involves translating big ideas and objectives into specific details.
I guide them on what decisions need to be made regarding specific functionalities and fine details, discussing these at various levels, from the high-level vision to the granular details of implementation. Finally, we present these decisions to users for their approval.