Merging Roles: The rise of the CPTO

Pierre Bretin, Executive Search Consultant, Formula Recruitment
Insights from David Crawford and Mal Minhas

Across boardrooms, founders’ meetings and executive hiring conversations, a quiet shift is taking place. Organisations are no longer debating how Product and Technology should work together, but whether it still makes sense for them to be led separately at all. The emergence of the Chief Product & Technology Officer (CTPO / CPTO) reflects this shift. Not as a trend title, but as a response to growing complexity, speed, and accountability at the top of organisations.

To explore what is really driving this change, and where it creates value or risk, I spoke with David Crawford, NED & Fractional CTO, and Mal Minhas, Product & Technology Board Advisor at Diorama Consulting Ltd. What follows is a synthesis of their insights and what they mean for boards and leadership teams today.

Why CPTO roles are emerging now

From my perspective, the strongest signal behind the rise of CTPO roles is not organisational fashion, but customer reality. Product and technology have collapsed into a single experience, and leadership models are following. David Crawford says ,“businesses are finally acknowledging that product and technology can’t really be separated anymore. Customers don’t experience ‘product’ and ‘tech’ as two different things, they just experience whether something works, solves their problem, and keeps improving.”

What we are increasingly hearing from boards is frustration with internal friction, not lack of talent. David connects this to the pace required for business processes, “With AI, data, and platform architecture moving so fast, organisations don’t have the time for slow handoffs or internal debates about who owns what. Putting it all under one leader removes friction and creates one version of the truth.”

From a board advisory standpoint, Mal Minhas sees the same convergence driven by strategic pressure, “The evolution toward fusion C-level roles such as the CPTO reflects the increasing interdependence between product, technology and data, particularly as AI, platform thinking and operational resilience become board-level priorities”.  In search conversations, this often surfaces as a desire for outcome ownership rather than functional excellence alone.

When fusion leadership works

When CPTO roles are designed intentionally, the benefits are compelling. David points out that “Decisions happen faster, accountability is clearer, and teams get a more coherent roadmap.” From an individual leadership perspective, he describes the appeal as “a hugely rewarding role if you enjoy moving between strategy, customer value, architecture, commercial thinking and delivery.”

Mal frames the value through operational balance, “The pros align for organisations and individuals looking for clearer accountability, faster decision-making and the ability to act as a senior operator who can balance innovation ambition with architectural and regulatory realities.”

In successful examples, CPTOs reduce noise at the top of the organisation. The roadmap stops being negotiated and starts being executed.

The risks boards often underestimate

The undeniable truth is that fusion roles can have benefits, but can also amplify risk if poorly designed. David states “the risk is that the job becomes too big, too quickly. Without strong deputies and solid operating structures, it can be exhausting.”

Mal agrees, “If the role is not supported by capable deputies and operating mechanisms, it can lead to burnout, which is the ultimate con.” He also raises a more subtle but important point, “There can be a loss of constructive tension and diversity in unified roles.”

Merging roles does not remove complexity, it concentrates it. Boards that see CPTO as a cost-saving or simplification exercise often learn this the hard way.

What enables CPTO success?

Despite coming from different backgrounds, David and Mal independently describe the same leadership foundations. David frames it as three capabilities: “Communicating clearly at every level, building genuine partnerships across the business, and staying curious about changes in tech, customer behaviour and commercial reality.” He adds “The best CTPOs can zoom out to strategy and zoom back into the details without losing momentum.”

Mal calls it the “three Cs”; “Communication, collaboration and curiosity”, explaining, “Commercial and business fluency, product and tech operations and systems thinking are also critical to CPTO success.”

The strongest CPTOs I see are not the deepest specialists, they are the best integrators.

Where this sits in the wider C-suite evolution

The rise of the CPTO cannot be separated from broader shifts in senior leadership design. David suggests “AI adoption, data privacy, regulations, and more data-influenced operating models mean organisations are rethinking what senior technology leadership actually needs to look like”. However, “Startups have done this out of necessity for years. Now mid-market and enterprise organisations are following suit, but with very different patterns depending on their maturity and context.”

Mal agrees, emphasising situational design “Senior technology leadership is becoming less standardised and more situationally aware. Context is critical.”

There is no universal CPTO profile. The right model depends on scale, risk, product complexity and ambition.

Diversity: enabler or new glass ceiling?

Perhaps the most important implication of CPTO roles is their impact on boardroom diversity. Women make up 29% of C-Suite roles and there are over 150 women CPOs in European tech companies, David highlights, “There’s clearly an opportunity here”. But only with intentional design, “If boards genuinely value both the ‘CPO-plus’ and ‘CTO-plus’ routes into the job, CPTO roles could open up new pathways to the executive table.” Otherwise, “we risk recreating the same barriers with a new title.”

Mal also warns “The opportunity is real, but only if organisations recognise multiple legitimate pathways to executive leadership.”

Ultimately, titles don’t change representation. Hiring decisions do. It is the responsibility of hiring managers and company leaders to ensure the removal of bias and hire on talent, not on stereotypical personality traits and working style.

Is CTPO the future?

While the CPTO is not the future by default, it does say a lot about the evolution of business structure.

Organisations are questioning artificial boundaries between product value, technology execution and business outcomes. As David Crawford and Mal Minhas make clear, fusion roles can unlock speed, clarity and accountability (or magnify fragility) depending entirely on how they are designed and supported. For boards, founders and leadership teams, the question is no longer “Should we merge CTO and CPO roles?” It is whether the organisation is ready for the leadership maturity that merger demands.

Written by Pierre Bretin, Practice Lead in Executive Search