Essential Work Samples for Evaluating Chief Product Officer Candidates

The Chief Product Officer (CPO) role is pivotal to an organization's success, serving as the strategic visionary who shapes product direction and drives innovation. This executive position requires a unique blend of leadership, strategic thinking, technical knowledge, and business acumen. Finding the right CPO can transform your product organization and significantly impact your company's market position and growth trajectory.

Traditional interviews often fail to reveal a candidate's true capabilities in the complex, multifaceted role of a CPO. While resumes and conversations can provide insights into past achievements, they rarely demonstrate how candidates approach real-world challenges or how they think on their feet when faced with the types of decisions they'll encounter in your organization.

Work samples and role plays offer a window into a candidate's actual capabilities by simulating the key responsibilities of a CPO. These exercises reveal how candidates develop product strategy, prioritize initiatives, lead cross-functional teams, analyze market opportunities, and make data-driven decisions. By observing candidates in action, you can assess not just what they know, but how they apply that knowledge in contexts relevant to your business.

The following four activities are designed to evaluate the essential competencies of an effective CPO. Each exercise targets specific skills crucial for success in this executive role, from strategic vision to cross-functional leadership. By incorporating these work samples into your interview process, you'll gain deeper insights into each candidate's potential fit and effectiveness as your organization's product leader.

Activity #1: Product Vision and Strategy Presentation

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to develop and articulate a compelling product vision and strategy. A successful CPO must be able to analyze market trends, identify opportunities, and create a strategic roadmap that aligns with business objectives. This presentation reveals how candidates think about product direction and how effectively they can communicate that vision to stakeholders.

Directions for the Company:

• Provide the candidate with information about your company's current product portfolio, market position, and business goals.
• Include relevant data on market trends, competitive landscape, and customer feedback.
• Ask the candidate to prepare a 15-20 minute presentation on their proposed product vision and strategy for the next 12-24 months.
• Schedule the presentation with key stakeholders from product, engineering, marketing, and executive leadership.
• Allow 10-15 minutes for questions after the presentation.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the provided company information and conduct additional research as needed.
• Develop a product vision and strategy that addresses market opportunities and aligns with business objectives.
• Prepare a presentation that includes:
• Assessment of current product portfolio strengths and weaknesses
• Market analysis and competitive positioning
• Proposed product vision and strategic direction
• High-level roadmap with key initiatives and milestones
• Success metrics and expected outcomes
• Be prepared to answer questions and discuss your strategic thinking.

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide specific feedback on one aspect the candidate did particularly well (e.g., market analysis, strategic thinking, communication clarity).
• Offer one area for improvement (e.g., more specific success metrics, clearer prioritization rationale).
• Ask the candidate to verbally refine their approach based on the feedback, focusing on the improvement area identified.

Activity #2: Product Prioritization Exercise

This exercise assesses a candidate's decision-making process, ability to balance competing priorities, and skill in allocating limited resources. A CPO must constantly make tough choices about which initiatives to pursue and which to defer. This activity reveals how candidates evaluate options, consider trade-offs, and align decisions with strategic objectives.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a realistic scenario with 8-10 potential product initiatives or features.
• For each initiative, provide information on:
• Estimated development effort/cost
• Potential business impact
• Customer demand
• Strategic alignment
• Technical dependencies
• Include some conflicting data points that require judgment calls.
• Give the candidate 45-60 minutes to complete the exercise.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the list of potential product initiatives.
• Prioritize these initiatives based on the provided information and your own judgment.
• Create a recommended roadmap for the next two quarters, indicating which initiatives should be pursued and in what order.
• Document your prioritization framework and the rationale behind your decisions.
• Be prepared to explain how you balanced competing factors and made trade-offs.
• Identify any additional information you would want to gather to refine your prioritization.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on the candidate's prioritization approach, highlighting one strength in their framework or rationale.
• Suggest one area where their prioritization could be improved or where they might have overlooked an important factor.
• Ask the candidate to revise their top three priorities based on this feedback and explain their adjustments.

Activity #3: Cross-Functional Leadership Role Play

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to lead and influence across departments, resolve conflicts, and drive alignment. A successful CPO must excel at collaborating with engineering, marketing, sales, and other teams to deliver cohesive products. This role play reveals how candidates navigate complex organizational dynamics and build consensus.

Directions for the Company:

• Set up a role play scenario involving a cross-functional product decision with conflicting stakeholder interests.
• Assign team members to play roles such as:
• Engineering leader concerned about technical debt and timeline
• Marketing executive focused on competitive positioning and launch timing
• Sales leader advocating for specific customer requests
• Finance representative questioning ROI and resource allocation
• Brief the role players on their positions, concerns, and objectives.
• Allow 30-45 minutes for the exercise.

Directions for the Candidate:

• You will lead a meeting to resolve a product decision that has multiple stakeholders with different priorities.
• Your goal is to facilitate a productive discussion and drive toward a decision that balances various concerns.
• Before the meeting, review the scenario information and prepare your approach.
• During the role play:
• Establish the meeting objectives and process
• Facilitate discussion among stakeholders
• Identify areas of agreement and disagreement
• Propose solutions that address key concerns
• Build consensus for a path forward
• Establish clear next steps and responsibilities

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on one aspect of the candidate's facilitation that was particularly effective (e.g., active listening, finding common ground, clear summarization).
• Suggest one area where their approach could be improved (e.g., managing dominant voices, addressing underlying concerns, clarifying decision criteria).
• Give the candidate an opportunity to reflect on how they would adjust their approach based on this feedback and briefly describe what they would do differently.

Activity #4: Product Metrics Analysis and Strategy Adjustment

This exercise assesses a candidate's analytical abilities, data-driven decision making, and adaptability. A CPO must continuously evaluate product performance and adjust strategy based on metrics and market feedback. This activity reveals how candidates interpret data, identify insights, and translate them into strategic actions.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a realistic dataset showing product performance metrics over 6-12 months.
• Include various metrics such as:
• User acquisition and retention
• Engagement and usage patterns
• Conversion rates at different funnel stages
• Revenue and growth metrics
• Customer satisfaction scores
• Incorporate some concerning trends or anomalies that require attention.
• Provide context about initial goals and expectations for the product.
• Allow 60-90 minutes for the exercise.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the provided product performance data.
• Analyze the metrics to identify key trends, successes, and areas of concern.
• Prepare a brief presentation (10-15 minutes) that includes:
• Summary of key insights from the data
• Assessment of product performance against goals
• Identification of 2-3 critical issues or opportunities
• Recommended strategy adjustments to address findings
• Specific initiatives to implement these adjustments
• Updated success metrics and expected outcomes
• Be prepared to explain your analytical approach and how you translated data into strategic recommendations.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide feedback on one strength in the candidate's analysis or recommendations (e.g., insightful pattern recognition, creative problem-solving, clear connection between data and strategy).
• Suggest one area where their approach could be enhanced (e.g., considering additional metrics, addressing root causes, more specific action items).
• Ask the candidate to refine one of their key recommendations based on this feedback, explaining how they would adjust their approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allocate for these work samples in our interview process?

Each of these activities requires proper time for preparation, execution, and feedback. Plan for 1-2 hours per activity, plus preparation time for both your team and the candidate. Consider spreading these across multiple interview sessions rather than attempting to complete all in one day, which could lead to candidate fatigue and less meaningful results.

Should we use all four activities for every CPO candidate?

Not necessarily. Select the activities most relevant to your organization's current needs and challenges. For instance, if your company is at a strategic inflection point, the Product Vision exercise might be most valuable. If you're facing resource constraints, the Prioritization Exercise could provide the most insight. Choose 2-3 activities that will best reveal a candidate's fit for your specific context.

How should we evaluate candidates' performance on these activities?

Create a structured evaluation rubric for each activity that aligns with your key competencies for the CPO role. Have multiple stakeholders observe and evaluate independently before discussing. Look beyond just the content of their responses to assess their thought process, communication style, leadership approach, and how they incorporate feedback. Consider how their performance compares to your expectations based on their experience level.

What if a candidate pushes back on completing these work samples?

Explain the value of these exercises in ensuring mutual fit and setting them up for success. Emphasize that these activities simulate real responsibilities they would have as CPO and provide insight that traditional interviews cannot. Be willing to accommodate reasonable concerns about time commitment or confidentiality. However, reluctance to engage in relevant work samples might indicate a mismatch in expectations about the role.

How can we ensure these exercises don't disadvantage candidates from diverse backgrounds?

Review your exercises to ensure they don't require specific industry knowledge that might favor certain backgrounds. Provide clear context and sufficient information for all candidates to succeed. Standardize your evaluation criteria and have diverse evaluators to minimize bias. Consider allowing flexibility in presentation formats to accommodate different communication styles while still assessing the core competencies.

Should we compensate candidates for the time spent on these exercises?

For extensive exercises requiring significant preparation time, consider offering compensation, especially for final-round candidates. This demonstrates respect for their time and expertise while ensuring candidates from all financial backgrounds can participate fully. At minimum, be transparent about the time commitment required and limit the scope of preparation to reasonable levels.

The Chief Product Officer role is too critical to rely solely on traditional interviews. By incorporating these targeted work samples into your hiring process, you'll gain deeper insights into each candidate's capabilities and fit for your organization. These exercises not only help you identify the strongest candidates but also give candidates a realistic preview of the role, leading to better alignment and increased chances of long-term success.

For more resources to optimize your hiring process, explore Yardstick's comprehensive tools for creating AI-powered job descriptions, generating effective interview questions, and developing complete interview guides. You can also find more information about the Chief Product Officer role at our job description page.

Ready to build a complete interview guide for your Chief Product Officer role? Sign up for a free Yardstick account today!