Things I did as Mural’s Chief Product Officer
February 2023 marked my final month at Mural. By the time I decided to move on, the company was making over $110 million every year and we had about 600 people working with us.
After over a decade, I became the last founder to step back from the day-to-day operations. Before leaving, I put together a detailed document for the CEO and the new Head of Product. This document listed all the activities I did to make sure we were always giving our customers good value.
Despite these tasks being recorded on various platforms like my calendar, to-do lists, and other documents, it had been a while since I consolidated them into one thorough document.
Below, I’ll present the majority of this document, leaving out certain sections due to their confidential nature. Please consider that Mural was a fully remote company when I departed, which should be taken into account when reading the document.
Things I do as the Chief Product Officer (CPO) to make Mural successful
Here’s a list of the main tasks I did regularly to help Mural succeed. How often and how much I did these tasks changed throughout the year. I’ll also explain why each task is important.
I divide my time into two main categories: CPO activities and Executive activities.
The CPO activities fall into several key areas:
- 🧭 Strategy
- ⚽ ️Team
- 🏗 ️Execution and Processes
Unlike CPO activities, Executive activities are not grouped into specific categories. The executive team is always my top priority, meaning tasks and responsibilities related to the executive team consistently take precedence over other activities.
CPO Activities: 🧭 Strategy
As the Product Leader, my primary responsibility is to establish and communicate the product strategy. To achieve this, I constantly assess various input sources, including context, trends, customer feedback, competitor analysis, metrics, and other information sources. These inputs help me understand the current situation and accordingly update or review the product strategy. Naturally, we should not change the strategy too frequently, but adjustments will depend on numerous factors, such as market conditions and competition.
Constantly review sources of insight to inform the strategic direction of the product and the company
This activity is something I constantly do. If you stop doing this, it will be hard for you to make great decisions. Sources:
- What are our current users and customers saying? (Feature requests / Alternative, Product gaps, NPS feedback)
- What are our fans saying? (See User Experience dashboard)
- Current Competitive landscape and how Mural compares (here’s how to login to the tool we use for competitive analysis). Imagine what our competitors will do in the next months and years. Think about Adjacent and complementary products.
- What are the current and future trends? AI, VR/XR, Hybrid, etc. What other trends that can shape the world as we know it and are relevant to us? Try analogous products. Explore.
- Sales data (win/loss analysis, customers’ characteristics)
- Product Reviews (G2 reviews, Mural vs. articles online). What’s current, and what’s changing?
- UX Research and Analytics reports (see Dovetail)
- Churn reasons (See churn reports)
- Product Metrics in the Product Dashboard: I use this [Link removed] dashboard to understand Usage, Satisfaction, and Revenue. It’s tied to [Link to Product KPIs removed], and I use this guide [Link to how to think about metrics removed] to think about metrics. The product dashboard has links to multiple other dashboards focused on use cases, user experience, general usage, and churn.
- Assessment of our Internal capabilities to execute.
- What are some of our current commitments with our customers and the market?
- Customer Interviews. This is a key activity. I work with Research to coordinate them.
- Internal meetings and interviews with people inside Mural who are in constant contact with customers (Sales, Customer Success, Product Managers, Designers, etc.). This is a key activity.
- Customer Success meetings: Attend critical meetings between Customer Success and Product teams, where urgent findings that require immediate attention are discussed.
- New user experience: Every two weeks, I set up a new account in Mural to test the latest onboarding processes for both new workspace creators and those joining a mural or room. This practice offers me firsthand understanding of the new user experience. A common sentiment among Mural staff, and indeed a universal truth in product development, is the need to enhance the onboarding experience. This aspect often goes overlooked because Mural employees typically go through the new user process only once.
Work on the Product Visiontype
The visiontype’s purpose is to clarify where we are heading in the next three years. This might change based on product strategy and other factors.
Review and update the Product Strategy
The product strategy gets a major revision before the start of the fiscal year; then, throughout the year, it might get tweaks. For FY24, we started the product strategy revision work by doing a 2-day workshop with the PDE leadership group. [Link to the session removed]. After the workshops, I worked on the Product Strategy doc with the input of multiple stakeholders (ELT and CEO). In FY23, the strategy was captured here.
I’ve explored multiple frameworks for the product strategy, but I ended up choosing one from the book: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy. It involves three parts: Diagnosis of the current situation, Guiding Policy, and Top Priorities. [Link to Product Strategy FY23 removed]
Define the top priorities based on the Product Vision and Strategy.
Last year I sorted them here [Link Removed].
Work with Pillar’s heads on Pillar Strategy, Roadmap (Now, Next, Later), and OKRs
Once the Product strategy is defined. I work with the Heads of Product of each Pillar on their pillar strategies, team topologies (should we create new teams, merge, move people?), roadmap and OKRs for the quarter. This process changed multiple times in the last few years, but here’s the latest documented one.
Present the Vision, Strategy and Roadmap
Externally: Sales and Customer Success team members will invite me to participate in Quarterly Business reviews and other strategic customer calls. In most cases, I talk about the future of the product, the strategy, and a highlight of the roadmap. These calls shouldn’t just be a “Show me the roadmap” call. These are opportunities to engage with Senior leadership and show them that they aren’t just customers but partners.
I typically get invited to calls with our largest customers. However, we should be doing this way more often with potential customers, not only with current customers.
Internally: Every quarter, I present the vision and Roadmap in Product Marketing Meetings. The whole company is invited. There’s a Q&A at the end of the meeting.
Budget planning
We work on budget planning at the beginning of the year. This process is mostly coordinated by finance. It should happen after we have revised a company and product strategy. Our R&D investments depend on the strategy. For example, last year, we said we would go big in making sure Mural was tightly integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem. Therefore, we chose to fund a “Microsoft Integrations team” team to be fully focused on making the Mural + Microsoft experience great. This process is a coordinated effort with Design and Engineering.
I rely a lot on Product Operations in the past to help me with the budgeting piece. Every month there’s an FPA check-in to review how we are doing. This is the spreadsheet that we use [Link removed].
CPO Activities: ⚽️ Team
As the leader of Product and Design organizations, I am responsible for hiring, retaining, and growing talent that can help us build and deliver the best product for our customers. There are several activities that I do to make sure.
Review and update Career ladders
We have career ladders for Product Management and Design org. The Design career ladder has had more attention and is probably more up-to-date in current times. The PM Career ladders need revision; they were last updated in 2021. They are available here [Link removed].
Promotions and Promotions calibrations
We do promotions and promotions’ calibrations twice a year. During this period, each manager follows a process where there is a request for promotion. The Product Management and Design Leadership teams get together in different meetings. They review all the promotions and discuss them. The Head of Design and Head of Product Management are the decision makers. People Ops provides guidance via the HR Business Partner.
Spot Bonuses
Once a year, we don spot bonuses. In the past, I’ve been allocating the budget between Design and Product Management based on headcount. People Ops provides guidance.
Hiring
Final interview: I tend to interview every Product manager that joins Mural as a final culture review. I use Mural values as a filter. I haven’t done this with Design, except for Design Directors and upwards. There’s more to hiring but I will share that in another document.
Performance Reviews / Yearly Reflections
These are all done in Lattice. It takes me around 45m to 1hr to write one. I do it in 2 or 3 takes. The follow-up conversations take about an hour. If the one-on-one meetings were conducted effectively, there should be no surprises during these discussions. See below for more details.
1:1s
During 1:1 meetings with my direct reports, I give them feedback based on my observations or comments I received. I also give them instructions or directions I captured during the week, and wanted to share during 1:1 time.
I tend to ask them a) How are they doing? b)Is there anything you should keep me informed on? c) Is there anything you want my guidance/feedback/direction?
- My direct report manages the agenda of the meeting.
- The meeting ends when there are no more topics to discuss or when time is up.
- I try to never cancel 1:1s unless the other person needs to. I tend to move 1:1s around on a given calendar week.
- The length and frequency of 1:1s will depend on the following factors: a) time on the position, b) tenure, c) seniority d) importance of the projects involved. For example, I will have weekly 1 hour meetings with newly joined senior leaders for the first months and then switch to an “every two weeks” cadence. There are other cases where I have weekly 30 min meetings.
- I tend to have 1:1s (and every meeting) during the afternoon, so my mornings are meeting-less.
- I tend to ask, “Are these meetings working for you?” and figure out how to improve them with my direct report.
Skip-levels & Office hours
I regularly conduct skip-level meetings with both managers and individual contributors among Product Managers and Designers to stay informed about what’s happening throughout the organization. To enhance accessibility, I’ve introduced “Office Hours,” allowing anyone to schedule a meeting with me. These sessions are held on Mondays and Thursdays, accommodating both Eastern Time (ET) and Pacific Time (PT) zones.
CPO Activities: 🏗️ Execution and Processes
I engage in a range of activities aimed at tracking project advancement, optimizing our workflows (primarily in collaboration with product operations), and guiding the most vital projects and initiatives. Often, my role involves acting as an editor, refining the work and offering strategic direction.
Exec Product reviews
Product execs participate in these meetings every Friday and are used to solve these challenges:
- Problem Discovery. “We need direction on the next steps based on research/product discovery findings.”
- Solution feedback. “We have many potential solutions that we want input on”
- Feedback on a specific solution. “We already picked a solution and want feedback from Leadership.”
- Product Strategy. “We want input/direction on a specific decision that we consider strategic as it affects the product’s general direction.”
- Feedback on a launch plan. “We plan to market this feature, and we want to get input from execs.”
- In this link, you will find all topics and recordings of past meetings.
In these meetings, I provide guidance to the different teams that are working on different projects. The CEO and other product heads are also invited.
If there’s a project that I consider key, I make sure we have a specific review meeting done on a frequent period. For example, “Freemium” fell into this category.
OKR and Projects reviews
Every month, we do an OKR and Projects review meeting with the leaders of each Product Pillar.
For these meetings, the Pillar’s heads prepare Loom videos and murals in advance that the head of Engineering, Design, and myself have to watch before the session.
During the meeting, we ask questions that we prepared in advance and provide guidance.
Product Leadership meetings
This meeting probably will be replaced with another one, given all these changes. However, the head of Design, Engineering, and myself meet every two weeks. During the first 5 minutes, we answer: “What’s the most important thing for this group to discuss today?” Afterward, we go through topics and make decisions.
Staff Meetings
I use the following template. 1 hour every week. The basic structure: 10 mins or more for updates or asks that I have. ~50 minutes for a group discussion around the question: “What’s the most important topic for this group to discuss today?”. We take 3 mins at the start of the meeting for participants to provide their input, then we cluster and discuss.
Product Manager / Design Meetings
Each function has a meeting to which every designer or Product Manager is invited.
The Product Management meetings happen every two weeks. The goal is to keep the Product Team aligned and informed of work across Pillars and Mural. Here you can find all about it, including every recording. I provide direction and Product Ops handles the agenda and coordination of the meeting.
Follow up on general projects
I love being up to speed on every project we are working on. I use the Product Release Tracker to do this. I have a 1-hour slot every Monday to go over it.
The Product Release Tracker is a living document listing all features being actively worked on during that quarter in the Product Releases tab. This includes features with releases scheduled within the quarter and features that may spend the quarter in discovery/research or build / test. PMs provide weekly updates.
I work with Product Ops on processes to be optimized/changed/deprecated
In my 1:1s with the Product Ops leaders, we try to identify processes and playbooks that could be improved. We also identify gaps in our processes and normally assign an OKR in the next planning cycle unless it is urgent. Some of these engagements lead to initiatives such as the Product Release Tracker, the Product Feedback process, Release Stages, Executive Product Reviews, etc.
Pricing and packaging meetings
Every Monday I participate in a P&P meeting where I give my input from a product perspective. This meeting is handled by the head of Pricing and Packaging.
External facing activities
With low frequency, I participate in interviews for different product publications, such as Product School, and Mind the Product.
Engage with users in the community forum, in #ask-product, and on Twitter
Every week, I enter the community forum, and sometimes I engage with users to let them know what’s coming. I do the same on Twitter. I check Twitter daily. There’s an #updates-twitter slack channel that has every Mural mentioned.
Analysts’ debriefs
Sporadically, I attend meetings with Gartner and Forrester analysts. These sessions are mostly handled by our Head of PR and Head of Product Marketing.
Audits (ISO, Soc2, etc.)
At the beginning of the year, I engage in discussions about our ISO and SOC2 certifications. Typically, the focus is on our process for integrating customer feedback into our planning. Previously, there has been a keen interest in our approach to Net Promoter Score (NPS) and product planning. I guide them through our documentation on Confluence and showcase some of our product key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards.
Read Slack channels, and reply when appropriate
Slack channels that I use (name are not exactly the actual ones), but I keep them similar so you can understand them:
- #customer-* channels: Customer specific channels
- #updates-net-promoter-score: NPS qualitative responses
- #sales, #enterprise-sales, and #customer-success channels: Talk about our customers and deals.
- #updates-sprint-demos: R&D Teams post demos in this channel
- #updates-product: Every time there’s an update on the Product, we post it here. Either new features, findings, insights, and other type of announcements.
- #updates-twitter: Channel that shows every Mural mention in a Twitter/X conversation.
- #ask-product: Questions posted by internal teams about the product.
- #product-heads: VPs and Directors of Design, Engineering, and Product Management for each pillar.
- #product-feedback: Feedback from customers.
- #leadership: The executive team.
- #team-pde: Every Product, Design, and Engineer in the company.
- #product-mgmt: Product Managers.
👨💻 Executive Activities
As I mentioned before, the Executive team is my first team. This means I will always prioritize these activities on top of anything.
Executive Team Staff meetings
Every Monday, we have an executive team meeting. The format of the meeting has changed multiple times over the years. The one I prefer the most is the following:
Pre-meeting
- Leadership team members share a reflection answering a) What are some highlights to share with the group? b) What are some lowlights to share with the group? c) What worries you right now? d) Are there any topics you would like to workshop around with the Executive team?
- All Execs should read each reflection coming to the meeting and prepare questions.
- The CEO or chief of staff picks topics for discussion or workshop based on the suggestions plus other topics the CEO has.
During Meeting
- Review action items from the previous meeting.
- Round table discussion of the different questions that came along. Action items captured. The CEO or chief of staff pick topics they feel can be discussed during the meeting
Post meeting
- Action items shared
- Workshop topic defined for Workshop meeting. Action items are assigned in case there needs to be any prep.
Intro to the Product Organization Onboarding sessions
I do an Introduction to the Product Organization onboarding session for new team members across the organization every month. It’s an overview of What is Product at Mural? PDE team structure, Product Vision, Strategy, high-level roadmap, and resources to learn more.
Executive Leadership Team Workshops
On Wednesdays, we have a time assigned to the workshop as a group. Topics will vary; ideally, there’s pre-work to be done before the meeting.
Monthly Business Reviews
During the last six months, we had monthly business reviews with some board members. For these, I:
- Prepare Highlights, Lowlights, and priorities for the next month
- I ask for input from each pillar leader to complement what I have.
- Update the roadmap
- I Prepare to answer questions about the KPIs we share, such as Monthly Active Members, Quarterly Engaged Members, NPS, Churn, etc.
- Once we have a first draft of the MBR, I read the report in detail to fully understand how the company is doing.
1:1 with the CEO
To be honest, I barely have formal 1:1s with the CEO, but we get on the phone daily at around 5–6pm.
Board meetings
We have board meetings every three months. Some on-site, some virtual. Prep is similar to MBRs. I get questions in advance from board members. I answer them during the meeting.
All Hands
The cadence of the All Hands will vary a lot. We had monthly and weekly AHs in the past. I prefer monthly meetings that are extremely well prepared (almost like a TV show). I speak frequently in the All Hands. Every time I speak, I prepare myself in advance. This is a high-impact meeting, and nothing can be left to chance.
Offsites
The frequency will vary, but there normally will be 3–4 offsites during the Fiscal year for planning and team bonding purposes.
Peer meetings
I have monthly 1:1 meetings with peers from the Executive team. These meetings are mostly to build relationships and share challenges. I prefer to handle the latter in group meetings with the rest of the executive team. I don’t have 1:1s with the Head of Engineering; we just meet on the fly when we need it. We haven’t had issues with this.
That’s it. Those were most of the things I did on a regular basis while I was at Mural. I should clarify that this is what I did, this is not a reflection of what the current Mural leaders do.
I hope this guide helps you.
