I pouring out my heart, I am saddend to say that our new CPO is not a good product leader. She has a lot of history, context and always asks us to "take a step back" and is pushing is back to our past. We are taking too many steps back under her autocratic leadership.
I know our CTO trusts her a lot and he is making a big mistake.
She behind closed doors criticize him and our Co-ceos. She has shared that our CEOs dont know much about the product and rely on her to make any sensible decision. She shared that our new Co-CEO does not understand our customers so he asks her to on what to do. In one of our calls she shared, Paylocity would be lost without her. She also shares stories on how our new co-ceo operates that are scary and creates a bad brand for him, that is one of the reason why no one product likes him ( our new co-ceo).
This creates anxiety for me because this is how she operates and does not help us grow. She wants to be savior for all of product management that is actively working towards maintaining that no one can operate without her. She is the loudest voice, she shames design and deters them from thinking. She is opinionated on every little thing, even things like what we should read. I know our CEO and CTO was very active in product and now I see them backoff and just acquiesce to her needs. All the directors in product management feel like pawns with no coaching from our CPO.
