The product wisdom every CPO should ignore

• CPOs who become disconnected ‘professional managers’ kill product quality.
  • Must demo product daily, hold quality bar, stay in details.
  • Big-company disease: decision-makers who don’t use their own products.
• Shipping fast and high quality are not mutually exclusive.
  • Nat Friedman pushed 9-month GitHub Actions deadline without cutting bar.
• CPO+Eng+Design under one leader: faster trade-offs, fewer escalations.
  • Skeptical for deep-tech (quantum, 3D graphics) — needs pure eng leadership.
• Product vs. revenue is structurally at odds; shared customer data is the fix.
  • CPO-CRO relationship quality solves 70%; underlying physics doesn’t change.
• Rigid hierarchy kills info flow — lateral communication is non-negotiable.
  • ICs should reach VP-level impact without management titles.
• “Fetch the rock” anti-pattern: vague asks without pre-agreed decision criteria.
• Vanta ships 100+ feature updates/quarter; squads target 90% date hit rate.

Jeremy Epling (CPO, Vanta; ex-GitHub/Microsoft) — interviewed by Brett Berson (First Round Capital) · 2026-03-19 · Read on review.firstround.com