When CROs and CPOs Share OKRs: Why Market Intelligence Matters More Than Internal Politics

Episode notes

Today I want to talk about the relationship between a CRO and a Chief Product Officer, especially when they share OKRs. The first thing I'll say is that I love shared OKRs. They create accountability, trust, communication, and teamship. They force revenue and product leaders to work through challenges together instead of operating in silos. The challenge comes when the CRO is measured on bookings and revenue while the CPO is measured on adoption and product usage. Both leaders are trying to achieve business growth, but they're often looking at different data and hearing different signals from the market. So how do you solve that tension? For me, it starts with communication. The CRO needs to understand how the CPO prefers to receive feedback and market intelligence. Product teams don't just need complaints - they need patterns, context, and evidence that help them make informed roadmap decisions. This is especially important in HR tech because buyer expectations change quickly. The reasons HR leaders bought software a few years ago may be completely different from the reasons they're buying today.

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