What does a Head of Product do?
A Head of Product is in charge of the entire Product Management division at a company, which encompasses building and scaling a product, plus growing a product team to carry out their vision alongside them. Head of Products typically report to CEOs or founders and spend their time building long-term strategies for the products their companies sell, and ensuring the success of a product in the marketplace.
How is a Head of Product different from other Product Roles?
A Head of Product is one of the most senior roles within the Product Management function, outside of perhaps a Chief of Product officer (although at many companies - a Head of Product and Chief Product Officer may be the same person!). Heads of Product are different from other individual contributor roles because they will often be responsible for hiring and growing a team over time to do things like carry out a product roadmap, oversee specific features of a product, help craft a monetization strategy, or more.
What is the typical background of a Head of Product?
A Head of Product is a senior leadership role at any company, and will typically require many years of experience (often 7-10 years) showing increasing responsibility along the way.
It's also worth noting that since a Head of Product needs to be so cross-functional, they will need to understand many different departments work within an organization - like marketing, sales, legal and operations. As a result, it can be helpful to hire Heads of Product that have experience in your particular field, since they may know the tangential, industry-specific requirements that need to take place in order to successfully launch a product.
For example - hiring a Head of Product at a Fintech company who used to work as a securities trader will help your team understand financial and federal compliance regulations you may need to follow in order to launch a new banking product.
It's also worth noting that since a Head of Product needs to be so cross-functional, they will need to understand many different departments work within an organization - like marketing, sales, legal and operations. As a result, it can be helpful to hire Heads of Product that have experience in your particular field, since they may know the tangential, industry-specific requirements that need to take place in order to successfully launch a product.
For example - hiring a Head of Product at a Fintech company who used to work as a securities trader will help your team understand financial and federal compliance regulations you may need to follow in order to launch a new banking product.