CPO Rising Series: Tipalti CPO on Leading Product in Fintech and Validating Product Decisions

What is unique about leading product in fintech? Join us for the latest episode of the CPO Rising Series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, where Tipalti CPO Roby Baruch discusses his experience leading product management in the fintech industry. Roby shares the unique challenges of product management in fintech, including the need for deep domain expertise. He also discusses the importance of mentorship throughout his career and a defining product moment that expanded Tipalti’s offerings. Additionally, he describes Tipalti’s data-driven approach to prioritizing product decisions and validating ideas with customers to ensure the highest priority needs are addressed.

Join us for new conversations with leading product executives every week. Roll through the highlights of this week’s event below, then head on over to our Events page to see which product leaders will be joining us next week.

Show Notes:

1. Product management in fintech requires deep domain expertise due to regulatory nuances.
2. It can be challenging for fintech companies to find or develop product managers with fintech domain expertise.
3. Tipalti has a strong culture that has contributed to Baruch staying at the company for over 10 years.
4. Baruch sees a big vision and opportunity for continued growth at Tipalti.
5. Baruch’s responsibilities as CPO include overseeing product management, strategy, and working closely with engineering and go-to-market.
6. Mentorship has significantly impacted Baruch’s career journey at different stages.
7. Baruch’s wife, CEO, and consultants from other companies have provided mentorship.
8. An early meeting expanded Tipalti’s focus from payments to broader invoice processing.
9. Deeply listening to customers without bias helped uncover a major pain point and opportunity.
10. Acquiring a procurement solution came from understanding a gap customers requested.
11. Tipalti aims to remove emotion from prioritizing decisions and focus on data.
12. Prioritization includes assessing potential ROI of ideas.
13. Continuous customer feedback is important for validating assumptions.
14. Over time, we refine decisions as new learnings emerge.
15. We replicate success by deeply understanding customer needs beyond stated requests.
16. We prioritize product ideas using a data-driven approach.
17. To pursue an idea, we must quantify its potential value to some degree.
18. Connecting ideas to true customer pain points and root causes is important.
19. AI will likely automate some product management tasks to improve efficiency.
20. Roles may merge as AI enables more direct engineering involvement in product decisions.