[ CV VS REALITY ]
What the CV doesn't say
Flip the switch to see the reality behind the polish
SQUAREFEET • PROPTECH • CPO
I brought product rigour to three years of growth without
Joined as CPO and established product rigor across a live platform, introducing delivery rhythm, sprint structure and a single source of truth.
SQUAREFEET • PROPTECH • CPO
I knew on day one and spent weeks proving it
Led a full product audit as incoming CPO, building the company's first single source of truth and information architecture across a complex specialty leasing platform.
SQUAREFEET • PROPTECH • CPO
I built the team a way to face hard things. Then I hid the hardest one.
Embedded collaborative delivery practices and cross functional ways of working.
I had the diagnosis on day one. I just didn't say it.
Squarefeet · Proptech · CPO
The setup
I joined Squarefeet as CPO at a stage where it needed all hands on deck. Not a strategist at arm's length. Someone who could write the tickets, sit with the engineers, understand the market, talk to customers, and put a roadmap in front of people that they believed in. And more than that, that I believed in myself. I did.
What I found
I went in nose first. No AI, no shortcuts, no borrowed magic. I audited the product screen by screen, by hand, to understand exactly what people were up against. What I found was three years of patches stacked on patches. Parallel flows for everything. Press one button and you were thrown somewhere you did not expect. There was friction in every corner. The honest word for it is that it was a mess.
What I did right
I brought structure to it. Real delivery rhythm, sprint cycles, a single source of truth, the product process that had never existed. And I did that while still driving innovation, holding both at the same time. I am proud of that part. The diagnosis was right and the machinery was working.
Where I went wrong
I knew how broken the foundation was. And I did not say it plainly. I walked on eggshells I had invented for myself, out of respect for the three years behind it and the paying customers in front of it. So I sugarcoated the state of things and tried to fix it quietly, under the covers, instead of naming it out loud. I was weak in my opinion. I was scared of bruising egos.
What it cost
Here is the part that stays with me. I had just built the team a way to face hard problems together. Scrum, Kanban, real rigor, the whole point of which is shared ownership. Then on the biggest problem of all, I went quiet and carried it alone. I did not rob the company of a fix. I fixed it. I robbed the team of the chance to own it with me. And I robbed myself of finding out they could have handled the truth.
What I know now
If your customers cannot use your product, you do not have a product. It does not matter how much history sits behind it. Respect the work, always. But protect the product, harder. And courage is not doing the hard work alone and quietly. It is saying the hard thing out loud so the team can do the work with you. I was too gentle once. I will not be that gentle again.