Masato KobayashiChief Product Officer

Masato Kobayashi

Chief Product Officer Japan · Global perspective

Finding the customer problem worth building for.

Open to Board appointments · Advisory roles · Speaking invitations

Discuss an appointment

Appointments & responsibility

  1. 2020 — Present01

    Chief Product Officer

    Aldermoor Group

    Scope & contribution

    Leading product strategy, portfolio priorities and the operating model for discovery and delivery. Aligning customer problems, business objectives and technical capacity around a considered product direction.

  2. 2016 — 202002

    Vice President, Product

    Fairhaven Holdings

    Scope & contribution

    Led product teams across discovery, launch and adoption. Developed a practical approach to prioritisation and evidence-led collaboration with engineering, design and commercial colleagues.

  3. 2013 — 201803

    Director of Product, Growth

    Lumen Payments

    Scope & contribution

    Built the self-serve onboarding that tripled small-business adoption.

  4. 2008 — 201304

    Senior Product Manager

    Kestrel Systems

    Scope & contribution

    Launched the company's first SaaS product and learned to measure outcomes rather than output.

Active customers
12 M
Across four product lines
Net Promoter Score gain
+46
After a discovery-led redesign
Products to $100 M ARR
3
From zero, in five years
Roadmap retired
70%
To focus on what customers valued

At the board table

Lumen Payments

Non-Executive Director

Product & Customer (Chair)

The Inclusive Design Collective

Advisory Board Member

Accessibility Standards

Product leadership is a discipline of choosing. I connect customer evidence with commercial judgement and technical possibility, so teams understand why an investment matters and what would cause us to change direction.

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Recognition

  • Product Leader of the YearThe Product Leaders Forum · 2024
  • Best Digital ExperienceThe Enterprise Technology Awards · 2022

In conversation

  • “Retiring 70% of the roadmap was the best decision we made”The Product Leaders Forum · 2025
  • “Discovery as a leadership habit”The Technology Leaders Review · 2024
  • “Episode 125 — The problem worth solving”The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2024

Formation

  • B.Des, Interaction DesignNational Institute of Design · 2004
  • MBA, Strategy & FinanceWestbrook School of Management · 2004
Gave the whole company a shared definition of what customers actually need.
Amara NwosuChief Executive, Lumen Payments
The full record ↗

An invitation

The most consequential work begins with a conversation.

For board, advisory and leadership conversations where product strategy matters.

  • Board appointments
  • Advisory roles
  • Speaking invitations

office@masatokobayashi.example