CPO - Chief Product Officer (f/m/d)

Our mission is to digitalize the people photography industry.

GotPhoto.com | fotograf.de is dedicated to making photographers’ lives easier and more efficient. We provide an end-to-end workflow and e-commerce solution enabling photographers to digitalize key parts of their workflow - from photo management to payment, combined with a user-friendly platform. Making them more successful and spending more time behind the lens!

Since 2012, our journey has been filled with an entrepreneurial spirit, witnessing countless success stories that prove our sustainable business model works and is profitable.

We’re building a tight-knit ecosystem where everyone can thrive – including you! Join our team of 170+ talented individuals and be part of our journey to empower photographers like never before!

As a Chief Product Officer at GotPhoto you lead the entire Product organization. You play a vital role in the company's growth and strategy by overseeing all Product operations, which includes Product Management, Product Design & UX, and developing its strategy and vision. As a C-Level and leader of this function, you are a role model for our team and an active, visible Executive of our company within our management team. 

In 2023, our goal is to transform and professionalize our approach to product development, transitioning from a sales-led company to a product-led one. Although historically, GotPhoto has been driven by sales, we recognize the importance of adapting to a more automated customer acquisition strategy to enter new markets and expand our presence in the industry. Our aim is not to completely reinvent our product after almost 11 years of successful business, but rather to strengthen our market position by customizing our product to better suit the diverse needs of our customers. This includes a redesign of our product to cater to various customer segments, allowing us to enter adjacent markets and appeal to different user groups. Additionally, our focus is on creating a scalable user journey to support our growth in a sustainable manner.

At the end of the day, we want to ensure we build the best SaaS+ solution in the people photography market.
As a cutting-edge tech company, we've devoted ourselves to transforming the photography industry through innovation, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. We're not just in this for ourselves; we're building an ecosystem where everyone can flourish - customers, partners, shareholders, and you!

This is how we can achieve our vision to “Make photographers more successful”.

Our Product team

The Product team consists of 14 members at this point (our Head of Product is responsible for 6 Product Design talents and 7 Product Management talents); we're continuing to hire and grow the team. 

Most of our teams are based in Europe (Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal) and USA. The CPO will be based in Germany, ideally Berlin. Foremost, since the core management team is currently based in Germany. 
We will also support with relocation, simply let us know during your interviews. 

Your role 

You are an essential part of our leadership team, which consists of our CEO, CFO, COO, CTO and CPeO.
In addition, we are currently in the process of hiring a CMO - and of course: A CPO.
As a CPO you will be reporting to our CEO and will be fully responsible for driving our product strategy and its initiatives. 
As a management team, our approach is founded on collaboration, integrity, and a shared commitment to fulfilling our company mission of “digitizing the people photography industry”. We recognize that achieving this goal requires strong alignment across all functions and a collaborative leadership style within the management team. A key aspect of collaboration for us is building trusting relationships and leading with high emotional intelligence. As the CPO, we expect you to demonstrate a high level of self-awareness, foster psychological safety and play a pivotal role in nurturing a healthy and high-performing company culture. 

Product Strategy: 

• You represent and shape the product strategy; you do so, by making sure relevant stakeholders and our CEO are aligned with your ideas and it ties into the company strategy 

• You possess a strategic product vision that aims to create a scalable product portfolio that will increase GotPhoto’s profitability and creates demand

• You “listen” to the trends of the market, and especially our users, and design our initiatives based on that. We want to make our photographers more successful and deliver a product people enjoy using!

• As a strategic thinker, you envision what may happen in the future, instead of focusing on what is directly ahead. You look across different industries and user groups to see the big picture, analyze large volumes of information to spot trends and offer new approaches to old problems.

• You create a product strategy and drive the creation of a detailed roadmap together with your team, to fulfill and meet various OKRs. You do so, to assure we measure our business growth and build sustainable structures. 

• You chose a data-driven approach backing your vision, strategy and day-to-day decisions with data generated through GotPhoto or market research and insights.

Inspire & Lead:

• As part of the C-level, you will also engage with our shareholders and advocate for our strategic approach

• You act as a role model for our employees and your direct team, by being an ambassador for a healthy and honest company culture. 

• As a CPO you have excellent leadership skills to supervise and oversee the entire Product organization. This ensures that initiatives run smoothly across internal teams, partners, and stakeholders. 

• You are an advocate of our service, passionate about your profession, and have great knowledge of all things product related. You can balance a practical mindset with creative business acumen and lead people through complex product operations.

• You are always well-connected within the industry and represent our company at conferences and events, to get in touch with partners, users, and leaders within our industry. 

Product focus:

• You collaborate closely with our CMO & COO to ensure each product is clearly marketed and the GTM is reviewed, refined, and supported.

• You breathe our acquisition funnel together with all stakeholders involve and support us transforming into a PLG company

• Our CTO is your partner in crime to define the “how” of the product. Both of you will work closely together to create groundbreaking products. 

• One of your crucial responsibilities as a CPO is to create and deliver the best possible user experience for customers and generate continuous value for the company. You do so by incorporating user and market research, understanding user desires, defining product requirements, driving the product lifecycle with your team, designing scalable processes for product development and innovation etc. 

• You oversee the budget and spending in your function and make sure they are in line with the company’s financial goals.

• Your 8+ years of career experience must include leadership of cross-functional product teams, especially the ability to lead through influence across functional and organizational lines.

• Previous experience with shareholders or investor relations is a plus. You need to be persuasive to effectively communicate and gain buy-in from shareholders together with our CEO, ensuring alignment with the company's vision and strategy, which is critical for driving sustainable growth!

• You convince by a strong customer-first mentality, without compromising on the commercials of our business model and buying into running a company in a sustainable, profitable way.

• As we are in a growth phase and still a dynamic “scale up”, you need to be able to embrace ambiguity, adapt to evolving circumstances and demonstrate strong leadership by providing a clear point of view and rationale for your decisions

• Your exceptional storytelling skills will be the driving force behind building strong followership and inspiring our team to reach new heights. You demonstrate your talent by crafting captivating narratives that ignite excitement and motivation among diverse stakeholders.

• You are able to interpret market and user trends, develop your own vision, and successfully execute that vision jointly with your team. You do so, with a “win-win”-mindset and getting relevant stakeholders on board, while navigating with a clear compass and delivering on the strategic objectives.

• You need to have strong business acumen and a proven track record in growing a business through innovative ideas and solving complex challenges (e.g. addressing new markets/strategy shifts / scaling a company in a sustainable way etc). 

• You have the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously in a fast-paced environment, as well as in leading deeply technical product plans and aligning business strategy and technology delivery. This needs an eagle's perspective, as well as attention to detail. You know how to balance both worlds to make sure your team is empowered and the product organization is able to execute on the strategy. 

• You must enjoy motivating and developing talent to achieve great things. You should have a passion for educating, training, and enabling the confidence of team members to think critically and the skills to develop leaders. 

• You need to be familiar with and have proven experience working cross-functionally with numerous business functions such as Engineering, Sales, Marketing etc. Also to understand different business disciplines. Remote management experience across different locations is preferred (as our team is based in different locations/time zones)

• You will interact with partners, users, and different teams. You should understand and communicate GotPhoto’s value proposition and technology and evangelize GotPhoto to the overall Photography/SaaS industry.

• You should be a source of inspiration for the team, hence exceptional knowledge of product techniques and approaches are a must. 

• You need to have experience in the SaaS industry or even the creative and photography industry; To understand our service, customers, and competition. If you have experience in the US market, that’s an additional plus.

   

• Remote work - You have the freedom to decide whether you want to work from home or from the (dog-friendly) office in Berlin

• Education budget, that allows you to grow professionally and explore new ideas

• Urban Sport Club membership discount, to keep active even in these isolated times

• Unlimited holidays (26 days is the minimum)

• Workation in a different country for up to 2 months per year

Research shows that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds may refrain from applying for positions if they feel they don't meet all qualifications. We strongly encourage you to apply if you’re interested: we're excited to discover how your distinctive experience can enhance our team!

We work as one team. Wherever you come from. However, you identify. We believe in equal opportunities.

We welcome applications from all members of society irrespective of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, or belief. We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills, and personality. We believe that employing a diverse workforce is the right thing to do and is central to our success.

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