So when I started, I think there were four PMs and squads and they were reporting directly into the founder and CEO.

One of the early things that I had to do is just kind of think about the scalability of product and design and the squad structure overall.

It was clear to me, being in the US, that I needed leadership on the ground in London. If I were to come to every day six hours late, it wasn't going to work for this stage of company. I could not coach them in decisions or some of the ops day to day from here the way I wanted to.

Once we started the hiring process, PMs that were already on the team were asking a lot of questions about what role this person would play. So I ended up putting this together probably 40% of the way through the hiring process to explain, which was probably too late. Not only did this help establish what people owned and didn't own, and have an idea of how to collaborate, but it also makes sure there's a meaningful role for the new person coming in.


I would do this differently. How I did do it was to circle up with the people in the hiring loop and say we've met a few candidates, here's what I've learned, here's what I've liked, here's where we need to go.

So if you are in the hiring loop and you occupy one of these other roles, I want you to be thinking about whether this person really spikes in the strategic ways that I would expect of a lead. That was the first conversation. Then I went to execs.

But I would have inverted that. The business stakeholders or executive sponsors were critical for success here.

I didn't go for a traditional RACI. I just wanted something that was kind of scannable, that broke down those different themes on execution versus domain, and really was able to strike this balance between what do I own versus not own?

The business stakeholder is different depending on the squad.

It was often the executive who was the primarily responsible for the metric that that squad might be owning at that time or focused on for that quarter.

There wasn't a culture of shared ownership among engineering, design and product. The PM was solely accountable but they were not decision makers.

And my personal preference is to elevate the squad leads, depending on what, what initiative is going on, and actually have them be responsible and accountable across disciplines, not just the PM.

So this column is trying to reinforce that it's not just the product manager, but that within the squad there's leadership and decision making.


Lia Siebert

I developed this as I was hiring for a Product Lead to be on the ground (I was based in the US and the team was in London), to help the company understand how this role was different how how they would interact.

Flat, Product Leads and Pillars not fully established. Results in deeper involvement from leadership team across all.

Soon: Product Leads hired and accountable for roadmap and priorities short/mid-term. Leadership team accountable for feedback, escalation, clear company priorities.

Then: Leads established cross-fx for pillar overall

Assumptions: leadership team not 1:1 with pillars (apart from Growth?), this is a short-term zoom level problem, we hire for impact and fit now and not “when pillars are 50 people”, we do not yet need several Pillar leads to sit above squads at our current size (start with 1)

Q: specific to card, Product Lead for Card prioritizing lifecycle experience with monetization products, ideally card products, and anticipating everyday spending priority in the coming year.


[pending] Product Lead Expectations at Cleo

Product Lead Expectations

Sign up to see more