How To Become A Chief Product Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a chief product officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Sachin Tuli

A chief product officer (CPO) is a business executive who oversees the development and distribution of products for a company or an organization. These individuals can work in a variety of fields, such as manufacturing, software, retail or service-related industries. The CPO is responsible for how products are developed, created, and marketed. The main goal of a CPO is to facilitate the creation of products that deliver value to customers and generate revenue for the company. The CPO is also known as the VP of product and reports directly to the CEO of a company.

The average CPO has a bachelor's degree in business, economics, marketing, or a related field, and many companies require about 10 years of experience in product management. These individuals should possess strong communication, leadership, and organization skills, as well as be comfortable managing staff and vendors. A CPO should also have a working knowledge of product development, sales, and marketing.

Most CPOs make up to $104,000 annually, and the job market is expected to grow 4% in the next 10 years.

What's a day at work look like for a chief product officer?

Sachin Tuli

Director, International Business Major, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The pandemic accelerated ongoing shifts with work-from-anywhere and use of remote meeting technologies. With mass adoption at all levels, these trends are likely to persist to some degree across fields and industries. There will likely be less travel for a number of years, but concurrently we may see more cross-team and cross-national collaboration and coordination. From an international business perspective, firms do plan to continue their globalization efforts and we know that graduates themselves increasingly seek potential global opportunities and mobility when choosing which organizations to work for.

ScoreChief Product OfficerUS Average

Salary

8.5

Avg. Salary $134,865

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

1.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.64%

Asian 7.47%

Black or African American 3.67%

Hispanic or Latino 7.56%

Unknown 3.88%

White 76.77%

Gender

female 28.57%

male 71.43%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.0

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a chief product officer

Explore chief product officer education requirements

Most common chief product officer degrees

Bachelor's

47.8 %

Associate

16.9 %

Master's

13.3 %

Start to develop specific chief product officer skills

Skills	Percentages
CPO	24.83%
Patrol	11.39%
Patients	7.68%
Safety Hazards	5.24%
Criminal Justice	3.88%

Research chief product officer duties and responsibilities

Manage day-to-day research & development, manufacturing, quality control, branding, logistics, and customer support.
Monitor and assess patients with responsibility for managing medications, treatments and emergency response.
Manage horizontal UX prototyping resource needs, implementing effective collaborative expectations and cross-product timeline allocation strategies.
Instruct lifeguard, CPR, and a classes.

Get chief product officer experience

Generally, it takes more than 10 years to become a chief product officer. The most common roles before becoming a chief product officer include security officer, cashier team lead and sales associate.

Prepare your chief product officer resume

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