> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.productledalliance.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How product leaders actually get the C-suite rowing in the same direction - URL: https://www.productledalliance.com/how-product-leaders-get-the-c-suite-aligned/ - Published: 2026-08-20T08:24:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-20T08:24:24.000Z - Description: Learn how top CPOs actually get their C-suite aligned, from earning trust before metrics to building the operating model that keeps it from decaying. - Author: Rebecca Stewart - Tags: Chief Product Officer, Articles Getting an executive team aligned sounds straightforward in theory. In practice, it's one of the most persistent challenges product leaders face, and it touches everything from how roadmaps get built to whether teams feel empowered to make good decisions on their own. At Chief Product Officer Summits in [London](https://world.productledalliance.com/location/london) and [San Francisco](https://world.productledalliance.com/location/sanfrancisco), experienced product leaders tackled this problem from different angles. - **Matt Graney**, CPO at Celigo, made the case that alignment has to start with vision and trust before metrics can do their job. - **Jamie Mercer**, CPO at TrustedHousesitters, focused on the organizational machinery that keeps alignment alive day to day. - And a panel of product leaders, including **Nik Gupta, Kam Star, David Moore, Gaurav Sarin**, and **Nasi Rwigema**, wrestled with the messy realities of getting CEOs, boards, and cross-functional stakeholders to agree on what matters most. Together, their perspectives offer a remarkably complete picture of what C-suite alignment actually requires, and why so many organizations struggle to sustain it. ## Start with vision, earn trust, then let metrics do the heavy lifting Matt Graney's approach to alignment is rooted in a specific sequence that he's refined over seven and a half years at Celigo, a [SaaS integration](https://www.productledalliance.com/lessons-from-integrating-ai-in-saas/) platform. At Chief Product Officer Summit San Francisco 2024, he argued that alignment has to begin with a shared vision, and that trust between leaders is the precondition for everything else. Matt illustrated this with a story about joining Celigo when the Head of Product role had been vacant for about a year. The CTO was a co-founder, and, as Matt put it, *"you're not given trust; you do have to earn it."* His first move was to speak with over 30 customers in his first 60 days, partly to understand the domain and partly to demonstrate to the CTO that he cared about the same things. This matters because alignment at the executive level often breaks down before strategy is even discussed. If the [CPO](https://www.productledalliance.com/what-is-a-chief-product-officer-the-skills-needed-for-this-emerging-career-path/) and CTO aren't on the same page, or if the CEO doesn't trust the product leader's judgment, no framework or [OKR system](https://www.productledalliance.com/planning-with-purpose-10-insights-for-better-okrs/) will compensate. Once Matt had established that foundation of trust, he turned to metrics as the mechanism for making vision concrete across the organization. He's a strong advocate for selecting a North Star metric, a single leading indicator of customer value that the entire company can orient around. At Celigo, it's the number of integration flows running on their platform, because that's what ultimately drives revenue and expansion. The interesting wrinkle in Matt’s experience is that even after the product team had aligned around this metric, the rest of the executive team initially treated it as "a product thing." It only gained real traction when the team embedded the North Star metric into the company's OKRs, making it a key result for a top-level objective rather than something that lived exclusively within the product org. *"Until you can crystallize a vision in a set of* [*metrics or KPIs*](https://www.productledalliance.com/23-product-management-metrics-and-kpis/)*, it's not real for the whole team,"* Matt explained. *"It's very esoteric. What does it actually mean? How is it going to influence the way I work day to day?"* His advice for getting executive buy-in on strategy is similarly grounded. When asked how to create alignment when not all executives are on board, his answer was direct: *"You need to bring the receipts."* Data, projections, and a clear connection between the metric and business outcomes are what motivate boards and leadership teams to act. [Inside Groupon’s product-led comeback strategyGroupon’s comeback isn’t driven by a silver bullet. It’s built on disciplined product execution, systemic redesign, and customer-first thinking.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/icon/android-chrome-192x192--1--d0e33619-1e78-4e5f-922d-dc05180c2fc6.png)Product-Led Alliance | Product-Led GrowthMarie Havlíčková![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/thumbnail/Inside-Groupon-s-comeback-strategy---Marie-Havli--c--kova---1-aa7e8b70-85f8-4d87-9cd5-b5d8e6b0e9e1.png)](https://www.productledalliance.com/how-groupon-is-engineering-its-comeback/) ## Build the operating model, or alignment will decay Jamie Mercer approaches C-suite alignment from a different direction. Where Matt focuses on vision and metrics as the starting point, Jamie is primarily concerned with the organizational systems that sustain alignment over time. At Chief Product Officer Summit London 2024, she argued that without a deliberate operating model, even well-intentioned alignment will erode under the pressure of daily decisions. Jamie drew an unexpected parallel with the Prussian army's transformation in the early 1800s. After being defeated by Napoleon's more agile forces, the Prussians developed a new doctrine built around three principles: - Clarity of intent rather than explicit instruction - Shared context and data across all levels - Empowered execution where teams could make good decisions on the fly. Jamie sees these same principles as essential for modern product organizations. She shared a cautionary tale from a company she joined where [alignment](https://www.productledalliance.com/how-to-escape-the-alignment-trap-and-start-shipping-faster/) had broken down in specific, recognizable ways. Every team was organized around its own metric, which made sense on paper but created intense competition between teams. Designers wouldn't talk to designers on other teams. Marketing and product had essentially stopped collaborating. Different teams were even using different analytics tools, so they couldn't agree on what the data was actually saying. The OKRs at this company were set quarter to quarter with no overarching strategy connecting them, which meant the organization was perpetually replanning without ever building toward something larger. As Jamie described it, *"You couldn't look at the customer end to end."* When she tried to hire someone to address these gaps, she encountered a revealing problem. She went to the head of engineering, who said, *"That's my job."* She went to the head of data, who said the same thing. Marketing had the same response. *"It was just shocking how many people thought they all had the same job,"* Jamie recalled. *"And I guess the job we needed was somebody to get everybody to work together."* This led her to advocate strongly for a dedicated [product operations function](https://www.productledalliance.com/what-is-product-operations/), though she's careful to distinguish this from process for its own sake. The operating model, in her view, needs to be built around a few key principles: all work should be clearly tied to commercial outcomes, roles and accountability should be explicit across functions, goals should be focused on three or four priorities rather than 10, and data access should be democratized so everyone is working from the same information. One of the most practical indicators the model is working is that, *"You can ask everybody what's important and they all agree."* When roadmaps are clear, strategies are understood, and pivots happen for rational, well-communicated reasons rather than because a senior leader walked in with a new idea, that's when alignment is operational. Jamie also raised an important point about what product ops actually looks like in practice. The role she describes is closer to a chief of staff than a traditional project manager. It's someone who ensures the strategy meetings are happening, the OKR reviews are running, the roadmap formats are consistent, and the board updates aren't a monthly scramble. *"It's not just process for the sake of process,"* she emphasized. *"The process has to create value."* [Balancing the tactical and the strategic in product opsFrom firefighting to foresight – discover how product ops teams can balance daily execution with long-term strategy to drive business impact.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/icon/android-chrome-192x192--1--075bde79-98aa-44e4-93d3-6f6173892b81.png)Product-Led Alliance | Product-Led GrowthAmelia Wilson![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/thumbnail/Balancing-the-tactical-and-the-strategic-in-product-ops-f6b64c2b-e1af-429b-86cd-73064f1161f1.png)](https://www.productledalliance.com/balancing-the-tactical-and-the-strategic-in-product-ops/) ## The messy reality of aligning with CEOs, boards, and competing stakeholders The interactive roundtable at Chief Product Officer Summit London 2024 brought a different energy to the alignment conversation. Rather than presenting frameworks, the panelists were responding to live questions from the audience, many of which reflected the frustrations product leaders feel when alignment is elusive. One of the first questions set the tone: how do you emphasize the value of [product management](https://www.productledalliance.com/state-of-product-management-report/) in a small fintech where the CEO believes they always know best? Nik Gupta, CPTO at Printful, recommended starting by agreeing on a North Star metric with the board and executive team, then building a KPI tree that shows how every initiative connects to that metric. Once that structure is in place, *"every conversation becomes a conversation about, hey, does this move a metric in the right direction, and by how much?"* Gaurav Sarin, VP Growth at Liberis, added a layer of emotional intelligence to the discussion. He pointed out that CEOs of small companies are often genuinely scared about short-term survival, and that product leaders need to acknowledge this rather than dismiss it. *"They need a lot of reassurance from your roadmap that you have enough in the roadmap to alleviate any short-term capital crunch,"* he said. *"Sometimes you have to be the adult in the room to reassure the CEO again and again that you’re optimizing for growth, but you’re not taking a binary view."* David Moore, CPO at AXA, took the most direct approach. He described sitting down with CEOs and asking them point-blank what their end objective is, whether that's a three-year exit, a five-year exit, or a forever business. He noted that having this frank conversation, while personally risky, had positively reset his relationships with more than one CEO. The panel also tackled whether roadmaps should have different versions for different stakeholders. Kam Star, CPO at Chaos, argued that different functions need their own adaptation of the [roadmap](https://www.productledalliance.com/building-balanced-roadmaps/); each lens should speak to what that audience actually cares about: value to the CFO, value to engineering, value to the customer, rather than a single one-size-fits-all document. The key is adapting the narrative rather than creating separate documents. David described a practice from a previous company where he personally presented the roadmap to the board, then to sales, then to support, adjusting the messaging each time but keeping the core content identical. This meant that by the time the roadmap was released externally, every internal stakeholder had already asked their questions and understood how their function contributed. Nasi Rwigema, Head of Product at The Alliance, brought an important perspective on [change management](https://www.productledalliance.com/change-management-template-framework/). For alignment to work, he argued, you need buy-in from the most influential people at the top first. *"If you don't have the CEO on your side, it's dead in the water."* But beyond that, he emphasized the importance of understanding each stakeholder's constraints, because demonstrating that you grasp their operational reality is what builds the trust needed for them to support your direction. [Building balanced roadmaps: The hidden discipline of product leadershipA roadmap can be your company’s strategic compass – or a feature list that quietly loses meaning.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/icon/android-chrome-192x192--1--de0f6034-4297-405d-befd-6765d13c7541.png)Product-Led Alliance | Product-Led GrowthDavid Silva Lopes![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/40/064053a7-301f-45ab-974f-9f6baeaffcc5/content/images/thumbnail/social---Building-balanced-roadmaps-The-hidden-discipline-of-product-leadership--1e80c914-8ee6-4f90-894d-2a55a84ab461.png)](https://www.productledalliance.com/building-balanced-roadmaps/) ## Where these perspectives converge Despite approaching C-suite alignment from different angles, these three sessions converge on several core ideas that are worth highlighting. ### Alignment starts before the framework All three sessions emphasized that trust, relationships, and shared understanding come before any OKR system or planning process can be effective. Matt earned trust through [customer conversations](https://www.productledalliance.com/why-customer-feedback-is-the-most-underutilized-product-growth-lever/). Jamie documented gaps and built the case over months. The roundtable panelists talked about having frank, sometimes uncomfortable conversations with CEOs. The tools matter, but they only work when the relational foundation is in place. ### Metrics are the translation layer A recurring theme across all three sessions was that vision and strategy remain abstract until they're expressed as measurable outcomes. Matt’s North Star metric, Nik's KPI tree, and Jamie’s principle that all work should be tied to commercial outcomes are all variations on the same insight. [Metrics](https://www.productledalliance.com/learning/on-demand/plg-metrics-certified-masters/) give every function a shared language for evaluating priorities and making tradeoffs. ### Fewer goals, more alignment Jamie was explicit that organizations should focus on a few OKRs rather than 10\. The roundtable panelists echoed this when discussing the now-next-later framework and quarterly replanning. Matt made a similar point when he noted that his North Star metric only gained traction once it was integrated into a small number of company-level objectives. Spreading attention across too many goals is one of the fastest ways to lose alignment. ### Communication is a practice, not an event David’s approach of presenting the roadmap to every stakeholder group before releasing it, Jamie’s emphasis on consistent OKR reviews and transparent data access, and Matt’s observation that alignment is confirmed when you hear your language echoed back unprompted all point to the same conclusion. Alignment requires ongoing, deliberate communication rather than a quarterly all-hands or an annual planning offsite. ## Final thoughts The collective wisdom from these sessions suggests that C-suite alignment is less about finding the right framework and more about building the organizational habits that keep everyone oriented toward the same outcomes. It requires trust between leaders, a small number of shared metrics, an operating model that makes priorities visible, and the discipline to communicate consistently even when the day-to-day pressure makes it tempting to skip the alignment work and just ship something. The product leaders who get this right build better products and organizations where every function understands its role in the larger strategy and has the context to make good decisions without waiting for permission. --- **Editor’s note:** The companies mentioned within this article are correct for when the presentations occurred in 2024; however, some speakers have since moved organizations. As of this article’s publication, Kam is Senior Director, Machine Learning & AI Solutions at Quartz Enterprises; Gaurav is Venture Lead, Global Diaspora Strategy at Times Internet; and Nasi is Product Director at The Key Support Services. We were unable to confirm David’s role.