Common Disagreements Between CPOs And CTOs (And How To Resolve Them)

Forbes

06-05-2025

getty
When chief product officers and chief technology officers work in harmony, innovation thrives. But differences in strategic priorities between these two leadership roles and their departments can sometimes cause friction.
Strong collaboration, shared roadmaps and clearly defined goals are key to overcoming these hurdles. Below, industry leaders from Forbes Technology Council discuss common points of misunderstanding between CPOs and CTOs and offer strategies for building stronger, more aligned partnerships.
1. Shipping Speed Versus Long-Term Technical Health
CPOs are often driven to ship new products quickly to meet users' needs, capture market share and achieve business goals. On the other hand, CTOs are responsible for the long-term technical health of the product—reliability, scalability and costs. They can overcome this point of contention through regular communication, a shared vision and a transparent prioritization framework. - Ramalakshmi Murugan , Google
2. Who Drives Feature Introduction
A common CPO-CTO conflict is who drives feature introduction. CPOs prioritize market needs, while CTOs push technological innovation. The solution is partnership: CPOs contribute market intelligence and user empathy, while CTOs bring technical vision. Effective products need both perspectives to address current customer needs while also introducing capabilities customers didn't know they wanted yet. - Faizan Mustafa , Aviatrix
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
3. Differing Strategic Priorities
From what I've seen, a point of contention is an incompatibility in their strategic priorities. This incompatibility often comes down to the CTO wanting to invest in technology at the expense of product innovation and vice versa. When the CPO and CTO are peers and are reporting independently to the CEO, this conflict can be resolved by aligning priorities to the overall strategy of the company. - Shan Kulkarni , Nullify
4. 'Innovation Timing'
CPOs and CTOs often clash over 'innovation timing'—when a technology should move from exploration to implementation. CTOs may identify promising tech too early for market readiness, while CPOs might dismiss innovations until competitors prove them viable. Overcome this issue by creating a shared 'technology maturity pipeline' with clear transition criteria and joint investment decisions. - Mohammed Cherifi , Hyperion Consulting
5. Future-Focused Innovation Versus Current Needs
The biggest point of contention is the push and pull between driving innovation to meet future needs and staying grounded in current challenges. CTOs focus on the long-term vision and where it needs to evolve, while CPOs are tasked with maintaining a balanced, structured product for today's needs. Finding common ground requires strong collaboration and a shared focus on the customer. - Erez Tadmor , Tufin
6. Technical Debt Versus New Features
A common misunderstanding between CPOs and CTOs lies in prioritizing technical debt versus new features. CPOs aim to deliver market-visible features, while CTOs focus on addressing long-term scalability and innovation. This tension can be resolved by establishing metrics that integrate both priorities by balancing product success with technical health. They can also align on strategic goals like AI. - Jainendra Kumar , Blue Meteor
7. Product Vision Versus Technical Feasibility
A common issue between CPOs and CTOs is misalignment in terms of product vision and technical feasibility. CPOs push for speed and features; CTOs prioritize stability and scalability. Regular alignment, shared roadmaps and mutual understanding help bridge the gap, ensuring innovation without sacrificing technical integrity. - Hemanth Volikatla , SAP America INC
8. Time To Market
A common point of contention between CPOs and CTOs is time to market. CPOs are often focused on the market, customers and revenue, while the CTO is inclined to focus on the purity of architecture and the tech stack. In today's world of Agile development, the CPO and CTO can work together to agree on the ideal architecture and an incremental implementation plan that meets time-to-market needs. - Poornima DeBolle , Menlo Security
9. Different Definitions Of 'Progress'
CPOs focus on shipping features; CTOs flag growing tech debt. The disconnect lies in how each defines 'progress.' Joint roadmapping that includes visible investment in refactoring and platform scalability helps reconcile priorities without slowing momentum. - Andrey Kalyuzhnyy , 8allocate
10. Customer Needs Versus System Architecture
CPOs and CTOs can be like two chefs arguing over a recipe—one focuses on plating (customer-facing features), while the other prioritizes the kitchen equipment (tech). The CPO emphasizes market needs, while the CTO focuses on scalability. They can overcome this by co-creating a shared 'menu' that satisfies both the business and its customers through collaborative planning and aligning on priorities. - Shrikant Nagori , Socratic
11. Level Of Effort Needed For Sustainment Tasks
One point that I don't see talked about much is the importance of communicating the level of effort required for sustainment tasks such as bug fixes. Sustainment tasks often represent a nontrivial percentage (20% to 40%) of engineering effort; failing to properly communicate and appreciate that LoE can be a source of friction. - Dustin Johnson , Seeq
12. Building Complex Features Versus Maintaining Infrastructure Stability
A key tension arises as CPOs push for more complex features while CTOs focus on infrastructure stability and security. The best approach is collaborative decision-making in architecture design, incorporating both functional and infrastructure needs within a unified budget. A shared financial framework ensures priorities remain realistic and aligned with business goals. - Andrew Riabchuk , Akurateco
13. How To Handle Customer Feature Requests
One common point of contention between CPOs and CTOs is determining how to incorporate customer feature requests into the roadmap. Creating a formal, documented process to assess customer and market feature requests—business commitment from customer, technical feasibility, acceptance criteria, roadmap impact and so on—is an effective practice that can prevent whiplash and ensure priority development efforts proceed. - Mark Francis , Electronic Caregiver
14. Allotting Time For Feature Upkeep And Reliability
CTOs are rewarded for maintaining 99.99% uptime and reliability, but CPOs aren't rewarded for maintaining existing features. The best way to resolve conflicting priorities is to devote a certain percentage of development time each quarter to code quality, technical debt or maintaining services. This ensures the CPO and CTO have a mutual understanding and reduces the chance of conflict between the two. - Manjot Pal , Resonate AI
15. Desirability Versus Scalability
CPOs optimize for desirability, CTOs for scalability—and both assume the other will flex. Misalignment happens when strategy isn't jointly owned. The fix is to co-author product roadmaps with shared KPIs that balance innovation velocity with architectural integrity. It's not a handoff—it's a handshake. - Dr. Almira Kolaneci , Circana
16. Blurred Role Responsibilities
A positive dynamic between the CPO and the CTO is essential for success. When the CPO focuses on the 'what' and 'why' of the product and the CTO on the 'how,' friction is minimized. Problems arise when the two roles blur. Healthy debates are valuable, but ultimately, each leader should own their domain to maintain clarity and momentum. - Su Belagodu
17. Top Line Growth Versus IT Expense Control
CTOs and CPOs are often held accountable for different aspects of the financials. CPOs are responsible for the top line and, thus, revenue growth. At the same time, CTOs are held accountable for the expenses around IT. Therefore, CPOs might want to spend more money, while CTOs wish to keep it steady. Setting new spending in relation to new revenue can help bridge the communication issue. - Kevin Korte , Univention
18. Evolving Requirements Versus Finalized Specs
A common point of friction between CPOs and CTOs is product teams wanting to build quickly, with evolving requirements, while engineering teams prefer finalized specs. To overcome this, product teams can timebox customer research to lock in the current roadmap while integrating new insights for future phases. Engineering can design a modular architecture to ensure the adaptability needed to meet evolving requirements. - Udit Mehrotra , Amazon
19. Balancing Fast Rollouts With Minimizing System Impact
CPOs push for scrappy rollouts to test ideas quickly and learn from users. CTOs focus on system impact—code quality, testing, reliability and scalability. Even fast experiments can add long-term complexity if they're not handled carefully. This conflict can be managed by setting clear guardrails like timeboxing, feature flags or isolating code paths to reduce risk while moving fast. - Kunal Abichandani , Rilla
20. Strategic Investments Versus Cost Optimization
IT is often perceived as a cost center, yet strategic investments can drive growth and boost profitability. Tensions may arise as CTOs aim to advance strategic priorities through technology, while CPOs aim to to optimize costs. Success requires shared KPIs, co-leading major initiatives and clear role definitions to accelerate decisions and delivery and harness both leaders' strengths effectively. - Nadia Bollinger , HP