How to be a great Chief Product Officer: motivation, knowledge, and skills

In the most recent episode of First Person I spoke with Linus Hakansson, Chief Product Officer at Gravitee. In a wide-ranging conversation Linus discussed how he became a Chief Product Officer by way of developing mobile apps, architecting cloud solutions, and a spell of consultancy. Throughout his career Linus told me he has succeeded by applying technology to solve real problems. Linus explained how his progression was due to a mixture of skill, hard work and good fortune, and explained how he views the AI revolution as a good thing for those entering the workforce – if they can be solutions orientated.

Mostly Linus talked about product, and how to be a great leader for product teams. He spoke about having core technical skills, being motivated to solve problems, and able to spot where gaps in existing products exist.

You can view our interview here, listen to it here, or watch in the box below:

Motivated to find solutions

Linus was coding from the cradle, learning from his father who was himself a developer. He is a big advocate for having sound technical skills as a basis on which to build a career. Once he completed his studies and whilst seeking a job Linus set himself the challenge of solving a problem with technology. That problem? Not sucking at Fantasy Football.

“I built one of the first Fantasy Premier League assistant mobile applications that helped figure out what teams you should rotate different players with and who might be an undervalued player,” Linus told us.

Not everyone who will make great products needs to have built successful software or learnt to code as a child. But it’s striking that Linus was able to spot the gap in the market, and had the technical skills to fill it. And although he made money from his project, the reason he remains proud of his app is that it worked and real human beings used it. (See also: Why empathy and collaboration are the keys to cyber success.)

He loved his first job for a similar reason. His code went into the real world and impacted users’ lives.

“My first job after university was as an Android developer,” Linus told us. “I was a mobile application developer at Sony Mobile. I got to learn what it was like developing things that are put into people’s hands and used.” (See also: Why diversity and inclusion is good for business.)

Understanding the problem

“I’m someone that needs to be motivated to build a better product,” Linus told us. When I asked what that means in practice, he pointed to the futility of building pristine technology that does something no-one needs. For one thing, good product means spotting opportunity: “I’ve been fortunate to be able to come into companies and quickly realize gaps in terms of where the market is moving,” Linus said.

But a gap is only an opportunity if there is a customer problem to be solved. In Linus’ view a good product person is someone who: “Decides what to build based on how end users work with technology and solve problems.”

He described his role thus: “As a Chief Product Officer, responsible for solutions engineering, my job is to see the value proposition to technical audiences on why our platform helps their life become easier.”

“Helping create products that solve problems. That’s the main thing.”

Before you go: Watch First Person and meet the most interesting people in IT.How to be a great Chief Product Officer: motivation, knowledge, and skills – ComputerworldRead More