Budget Shifts from Hiring to Automation

Claire Vo believes in bringing startup speed to larger organizations while maintaining high quality standards. She rejects the notion that she's hired to teach companies how to operate like big enterprises—instead, she sees her role as reminding them they can operate like startups.

To create a fast-paced environment, Claire implements several key practices. She deliberately sets "one click faster" expectations with her leadership team, challenging them to compress timelines: "If you think something needs to be done this year, it needs to be done this half. If you think it needs to be done this half, it needs to be done this quarter." This creates a cascading effect of accelerated timelines throughout the organization.

Claire also refuses to let meeting cadences dictate work pace. She pushes back against the common pattern of "we'll make the decision in the next meeting," viewing this as an artificial timeline imposed by calendar software rather than business needs. Instead, she focuses on real timelines based on when decisions can actually be made with available information.

For maintaining high quality, Claire emphasizes two dimensions: talent bar and product bar. She believes in defining specific, measurable career ladders that go beyond vague descriptions, allowing clear assessment of whether someone is meeting expectations. She also normalizes direct feedback, embracing Brené Brown's principle that "clear is kind." When people aren't meeting expectations, she tells them directly rather than softening the message, which she sees as ultimately unkind because it doesn't set people up for success.

Claire advocates for the emerging CPTO (Chief Product and Technology Officer) role that combines product, engineering, and design under one leader. She believes this structure eliminates unnecessary debates between functions and optimizes for the whole rather than individual departments: "There should be no debates over what's best for product or what's best for engineering. What's best for design should be what is best for the organization." This approach provides significant leverage to CEOs by having a single person accountable for R&D investments.

On career advancement, Claire emphasizes knowing what you want and making it easy for others to help you get there. She recommends focusing on how your promotion solves problems for the company rather than just advancing your career. She also believes in the power of personal agency: "The universe is bendable to your will," meaning organizational structures can change to accommodate talented, motivated individuals.

Regarding AI's impact on product management, Claire is "short-term pessimistic and long-term optimistic." She believes AI will significantly change PM work, potentially shifting team ratios and replacing certain aspects of the role, particularly "lowercase c communication"—the functional trading of information. However, she thinks "capital C Communication"—being influential, convincing, and bold—will remain uniquely human.