Why The Product Manager To CEO Pipeline Is The Underrated Crash Course For Leadership In Tech
Traditional research on CEO career paths tends to focus on titles such as COO, CFO and divisional president. But the skills developed in product management may be just as relevant, argues Paysend CEO Ben Chisell. In this guest column, he makes the case that aspiring leaders should focus less on collecting prestigious titles and more on taking ownership of measurable business outcomes.
The path to the top in tech leadership isn't always direct, but there are alternative routes. According to extensive studies on S&P 500 CEO succession, four roles commonly serve as stepping stones: COOs, divisional CEOs, CFOs, and individuals promoted from lower C-suite positions. However, a separate 10-year CEO Genome Project reveals that the most rapid ascenders—those reaching the CEO position earlier than the 24-year average—didn't follow a linear corporate ladder.
Instead, they made unconventional career moves like taking charge of a failing division or creating something from scratch. The distinguishing factor wasn't pedigree but a specific skillset: decisiveness, reliability, adaptability, and the ability to rally people around a plan.
Product management, though not explicitly mentioned in CEO-pathway studies, is a relatively new function that aligns closely with the traits found in those sprinters. It involves owning a tangible outcome, obsessing over customer value, and making tough decisions. My own career in product and technology roles at Amazon, eBay, Starling Bank, and OakNorth led to a CEO position, driven by my ability to articulate my skillset to the board.
The core responsibilities are similar: making a product or business successful. While the scale changes, the skills remain the same: setting a vision under uncertainty, prioritizing ruthlessly, making decisions with incomplete information, and rallying a team.
Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan, both Google CEOs, exemplify this by transitioning from product management to CEO roles. Although the scope differs, the essential skills are transferable. A Product Manager's remit is narrower—product, roadmap, and team—but the core skills remain similar. The transition may seem daunting, but the skills are already honed.
This is especially true in start-ups and scale-ups, where a PM often assumes a mini-CEO role due to the lack of dedicated functions. The reason the PM-to-CEO pathway is often overlooked may be because the function is judged by its worst practitioners, who focus more on managing processes than owning outcomes. However, the best product managers build something akin to the CEO role, emphasizing outcome-oriented accountability.
Aspiring executives and entrepreneurs should choose a metric to be accountable for, whether it's monthly active users or EBITDA, and remain focused on outcomes. In essence, a well-executed product management role offers a perfect crash course for aspiring tech leaders.
Written by urgent.news from Crunchbase News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
