Too many cooks spoil the broth
In companies that develop software products, it is not uncommon that besides a product manager and possibly his boss in the form of a Head of Product, there is also maybe a Scrum Product Owner and last, but not least, a CTO. How are these roles defined and do they not get in each other's way in terms of decisions regarding the roadmap, vision, architecture, etc.?
A CTO (Chief Technology Officer) often takes over the technical direction and strategy for the company and this includes working closely with product management, as he or she has a deep technical understanding and keeps an eye on the technical opportunities and challenges. This ensures that the technical implementation meets the requirements and goals of the company. The CTO can also help evaluate new product ideas and product concepts by conducting technical feasibility studies and providing feasibility and scalability assessments. In addition, the CTO can assist the product team with the technical architecture, design, and selection of technologies.
Heads of Products are responsible for the overall management of the product team and the coordination of the various stakeholders. They bring together the different perspectives and support the coordination of product vision, business goals and technical implementation.
Product managers are mostly responsible for the product vision, roadmap, and requirements definition for a single product. They work closely with customers, marketing and other stakeholders to understand the requirements and develop the product strategy. They tend to have the greatest understanding of market needs and customer perspective.
If the product development team works according to Scrum, there is also the role of the product owner, which exists as a central interface between the stakeholders and the development team. Ideally, the role is performed by the product manager. Prioritizing the product backlog, defining the requirements, and delivering a valuable product are the responsibility of this role.
Where and how exactly do discrepancies arise between these roles?
In a Scrum team, you work independently and self-organized. It is therefore the task of the development team to make the technical decisions and plan the technical implementation in order to achieve the goals of the product manager/product owner. The CTO should then, if necessary, serve as an expert and consultant who supports the development team and advises on technical challenges instead of making decisions. He coaches and develops the developers so that they can make informed decisions on their own. The Head of Product has the comparable task for the Product Owner, i.e. coaching the Product Manager/Product Owner. The goal of both roles is to make oneself unnecessary in the medium to long term and to put the Scrum team on its own two feet.
Unfortunately, many CTOs and Head of Products do not see themselves as coaches and supporters, but rather micro-manage the developers or product managers/product owners. Sooner or later, this either leads to tensions, as the Scrum team strives for and demands its own responsibility, or the team does not develop any further. Instead, the developers see themselves as implementers of the architecture and design defined by the CTO, and the product owner becomes the product backlog administrator, who merely logs the feature requests of the Head of Products like a secretary. This does not create real collaboration and the team does not learn act independently. Accordingly, personal responsibility suffers as a result: the team is used not to take it over, as it only implements and does not decide. An "implementation team" bred in this way is optimally ineffective, because thinking along and contributing one's own idea is considered undesirable. Contradictions in architecture, design or requirements are usually only noticed late in such an environment and costly conversion or rework becomes necessary. Enormous additional expenses are the consequence, quite apart from the fact that the completion is massively delayed. Worst-case scenario!
If there is a CTO as well as a Head of Product, a Product Manager and a Product Owner in a company, the product portfolio is usually very large and/or the individual product and its market is very complex and then it can make sense to fill all these roles. The goal of personal responsibility and independence of the Scrum team(s) remains the same. The CTO and Head of Product work as coaches to further develop the team members. They remain as consultants to help new team members with their expertise and experience and to maintain an overall view of the product landscape. In the transition phase to independent Scrum teams, it is very important that all participants communicate openly and contribute their perspectives in order to reach meaningful decisions together, but always keep an eye on the vision of the independence of the Scrum teams. An Agile Coach can provide sustainable support here and is also available in many companies, at least for the transition phase to agile working methods. Unfortunately, in my experience, the main focus is on product delivery and the Scrum team is trained. Coaching the CTO and the Head of Products as mentors and supporters is often neglected.
In a small company with only one or a few products, the roles of CTO and Head of Product are usually unnecessary. A CTO is often simply one of the experienced developers in a Scrum team and the Head of Product takes on the role of Product Owner.