What’s a CPTO Anyway? 6 Things to know about Arnie Katz
By Arnie Katz, Chief Product & Technology Officer
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The role of a Chief Technology Officer can mean different things for different companies. A CTO can be the person leading engineering and product. He/she can be the person who oversees just the engineering side and nothing else. And, in some of those cases, the CTO can be in charge of leading the engineering vision of the company, but not its execution.
I like to think that I’m not like other CTOs. I didn’t rise through the ranks by taking on progressing engineering roles. And I’ve never claimed to be the world’s best coder or architect.
At my core, I am a product person. I create an environment for my team to be more productive, run faster, and make better decisions that are data-driven and customer-focused. I thrive when I’m charged with creating a company culture that’s dedicated to the tireless and effective search for the best product market fit.
I owe my career to product. So, when I took this job, it only made sense to make it official and add “product” into my title. As I embark on my new role as Chief Product & Technology Officer at StubHub, I want to share with you a few things about my background and my vision for StubHub’s P&T team.
1. I met my wife on a shooting range
My wife and I were each serving in the military in Israel when we met — of all places — at a shooting range. Nine months later, I took her back to the same shooting range under the auspices of visiting a friend. I proposed to her right there on the shooting range. In hindsight, asking her to marry me in the dark with soldiers all around us firing flares wasn’t the best idea. Lucky for me, she said yes. And we avoided friendly fire
2. My background is in e-commerce
I was co-founder and president of Relay Foods, an online grocery company that helped customers shop online for healthy, responsibly-sourced groceries. We had an awesome team in place. We had a partnership with Whole Foods years before Instacart even existed. Admittedly, we made some mistakes early on as most young companies do. We didn’t evolve quickly enough to find our real product market fit. We weren’t challenging our assumptions. This became an important lesson for me: We as a team need to always challenge our assumptions and be tireless in the pursuit of the best product market fit for the company.
3. Walmart showed me what a product-led company looks like
I joined Walmart as the Senior Director of Customer Experience & Innovation for its online grocery business just as they were expanding into the market. From there, I transitioned to a new role as the Vice President of International eCommerce Technology where I oversaw product, technology, and design for our international eCommerce business.
I owe my career to product. So, when I took this job, it only made sense to make it official and add product into my title.
My experience at Walmart taught me that a successful product-led company is one that is always on the hunt for the right product market fit. It’s about continuing to search for what the customer wants. Once you determine what this is, you can then turn your focus to understanding how to serve customers in a sustainable and profitable way.
4. My motto has always been “fail fast, fail well”
As the leader of an international team at Walmart, I learned how to build a vision that included everyone’s input, from external stakeholders and customers; to domestic and international staff. By establishing this vision, it empowered everyone to run and make quick decisions. If we build a hypothesis, test it, and learn that we got it wrong, that’s fine by me. What matters more is that we executed well, learned from it, and tried again.
As I always tell my team: Fail fast, fail well.
5. New technology will help us with the product fit
We all believe that AI technology is big and cool. But I don’t believe that companies should start using it just because everyone else is. Instead, we should identify our customer’s needs. Then we explore whether AI is the best solution or just the shiniest one. Today at StubHub, we’re exploring how AI can help our customers sell their tickets more effectively on our platform. Not surprisingly, customers who were successful at selling a ticket with us were more likely to buy more tickets on our platform. Predictably, those who had a hard time selling were far less likely to buy tickets.
So, how can our Product & Technology team fix this problem? First, we looked at why the customer struggled to sell a ticket. Usually, the reason was simple: the ticket was priced incorrectly. We used AI technology to create an auto-pricing tool that helps customers price their tickets correctly and sell them faster. We have already rolled out this feature on our platforms and we’ve started to see some real and immediate value. The early success of our auto-pricing tool has proved to me that we shouldn’t be using technology for technology’s sake. We need to use it to solve a real customer problem.
6. I’m looking for owners, not order-takers
I’ve learned from previous experiences that people thrive on my team when they’re willing to get out of their comfort zones, stretch their skills, and take ownership of their work.
Right now, my team is working on several ambitious projects. They’re building products that are more sustainable and longer-lasting than ever before. They are thinking more about long-term solutions. I think this success is owed in large part to our new mindset of taking ownership of our work.
I’m looking for builders who can work effectively within the framework of our business strategy and who are deeply passionate about solving customer problems.
We are now attracting superb talent because they know they will be challenged in their roles. They will move fast, make decisions, have good judgment, and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.
This is the culture we are building and maintaining at StubHub. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know the direction I want to head in and I know the steps we need to take to get there. And I know we’ve got an incredible group of people that can drive this innovation forward.
Join us and be a part of the journey.
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Learn more about the author of this post, Arnie Katz. Want to help us find the perfect product market fit for StubHub? Come join us.
