A fully-realized chief of the technology accelerator team (a.k.a. product team) is an executive team level position. Not having that voice on your leadership team is part of why your organization has been so consistently stumbling when it comes to its technology.
If it sounds outlandish to put the product chief role on your executive team level, that may be an indication that you’re still viewing your technology as an I.T.-level operations or service function, rather than a highly consequential, ever changing strategic challenge that will continually set direction for the entire organization.
Before you had this role on the leadership team, your organization was making strategic decisions, forming plans, and assigning priorities, probably with near total disconnect from its ability to execute on them from a technology standpoint. You likely had representation from most other key stakeholders. Program could weigh in about the complexities of its upcoming calendar. Fundraising could speak about how to leverage the opportunities ahead. Communications resolve questions around relative priorities as decisions were weighed.
But when it came to technology, it felt like sort of a black box.
Now, once your chief is on the leadership team, you’re connecting your organization’s strategy and decision-making with its ability to execute in the real world. Now you’re setting strategy, goals, and timelines with a realistic sense of capacity and capability in the mix. Now you’re securing resources and staff at a realistic level to help technology initiatives deliver on their game-changing level of promise, instead of feeling hostage to a series of poorly-understood proposals and price tags that have been passed up the chain. Now you’re putting a strong organizational voice behind the bet that being able to harness the power and promise of technology is an essential ingredient for your organization to realize its potential.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just grab your IT person or a regular junior leaguer and stick them on the executive team. You should care about this hire just as much as a COO, a Development Director, or a Communications Director. You want someone with the ability to hold down a role with extreme competence and clear authority. You want a protector of the realm and a greatmaker.
But once you have one, the benefits of having that role in the leadership team will become quickly apparent. Put a skilled leader in charge of your product team, include that role in your leadership team, and give your organization a shot to become great at using technology to extend its impact.