Chief Product Officer

The role of the chief product officer‍

The CPO leads product management, overseeing the development, innovation, and lifecycle management of the company's products to ensure they meet market needs and drive competitive advantage.

There may be some nuances among businesses between a chief product officer or a VP of product, and the differences may lie in whether they are a general manager with P&L responsibility over the business unit.

Generally, a chief product officer will not only oversee product, but they also see new product development and the launching of new products. If it's a credit card business that wants to pivot into small business loans, they will oversee that. They will also oversee user experience and everything a customer is interacting with, from the website to the physical product itself. Finally, they will also have responsibility over product analytics, functions and pricing.

The career path for chief product officers will look differrent depending on whether it's a lending or a non-lending business.

When to hire a chief product officer

This role is crucial when a company is focusing on expanding its product offerings or needs to innovate its current products to stay competitive.

What makes a world-class chief product officer?

A world-class CPO has a profound understanding of the market dynamics, exceptional product intuition and the ability to lead cross-functional teams towards delivering highly successful products.

Positions LF Partners has placed

• Director of Product, Keyway

Chief Marketing Officer

The role of the chief marketing officer‍

The CMO leads the marketing department, crafting strategies to enhance brand awareness, driving market research to guide corporate strategies and developing marketing campaigns that effectively reach target audiences.

A chief marketing officer's role in a very consumer product business includes the whole brand strategy, internal brand development, external advertising. It starts at the high level of what the brand strategy is.

Ultimately, it is about ensuring the brand promise that the company is actually standing behind is delivered on.

When to hire a chief marketing officer

‍A CMO is essential when an organization seeks to expand its market presence, launch new products or rebrand itself to capture new customer segments.

What makes a world-class chief marketing officer?

An exceptional CMO has a blend of creative vision and analytical prowess, understands digital and traditional marketing channels and has the leadership skills to inspire and guide a diverse marketing team.

A world-class hire likely has experience running marketing across the whole brand strategy from national advertising and omnichannel marketing through digital and non-digital channels.

Positions LF Partners has placed

• Head of Content and Brand Marketing, EasyKnock

Head of Digital Marketing

The role of the head of digital marketing

This leader focuses on digital channels to develop, implement, and manage marketing campaigns that promote the company and its products. They enhance brand awareness within the digital space and drive website traffic and acquire leads/customers.

The role is essentially orchestrating the activities across all of their digital channels, owning the budget, and then running the data behind it to determine which is most effective, highest ROI.

We often see two different profiles. Some will come from a marketing firm where they worked on paid search channels and direct mail. With lending businesses, we also also try to identify candidates that are highly analytical, maybe woth a business analyst background. Capital One, for example, has a marketing and analytics rotation where they integrate marketing with analytics and credit.

When to hire a head of digital marketing

A head of digital marketing is hired when a company aims to strengthen its online presence or needs specialized expertise in digital advertising, social media and content marketing.

What makes a world-class head of digital marketing?

A world-class leader in this position is not only tech-savvy but also highly creative, with a deep understanding of digital trends and consumer behavior online. They are exceptional at data analytics and campaign management.

What would separate someone world-class for digital marketing is their analytical horsepower, the ability to look at data and translate it to the business.

Positions LF Partners has placed

• Digital Marketing Manager, EasyKnock

Head of Marketing Analytics

The role of the head of marketing analytics

This role involves analyzing marketing data to inform strategy, improve campaign effectiveness and increase ROI. They provide actionable insights based on data from various marketing channels.

Data science, machine learning and AI all could get rolled under a head of marketing analytics role. Wheteras digital marketing might cast a broader net for a candidate profile, this position is more analytical and more focused around business analytics

When to hire a head of marketing analytics

‍A head of marketing analytics is critical when a company needs to refine its marketing efforts based on robust data-driven insights, particularly in competitive or fast-changing markets.

What makes a world-class head of marketing analytics?

A top-tier head of marketing analytics excels in statistics, possesses excellent problem-solving skills, and has the ability to translate complex data sets into clear, actionable strategies.

Positions LF Partners has placed

• VP of Product and Marketing Analytics, Merrick Bank

‍