Darren LimChief Product Officer

Chief Product Officer Singapore / Southeast Asia · Global perspective

The person behind
the decisions.

Portrait of Darren Lim
Darren Lim

I lead product organisations at the intersection of customer problems, business ambition and technical possibility. My focus is on helping teams make considered choices about what deserves to be built, what should be learned first and what should be stopped.

I see a roadmap as an expression of judgement, not a list of promises. Discovery and delivery belong in the same operating system: evidence from customers should change priorities, and the consequences of those priorities should be visible to the business.

I build relationships between product, engineering, design and commercial teams so that the organisation can make trade-offs together rather than negotiate them late in delivery.

Open to Board appointments · Advisory roles · Speaking invitations

Languages / English · Malay · Mandarin

A leadership conviction

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.

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

Career chapters

  1. 2020 — Present 01

    Chief Product Officer

    Aldermoor Group

    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 — 2020 02

    Vice President, Product

    Fairhaven Holdings

    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 — 2018 03

    Director of Product, Growth

    Lumen Payments

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

  4. 2008 — 2013 04

    Senior Product Manager

    Kestrel Systems

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

Board & advisory record

Current appointments

  • Lumen Payments

    Non-Executive Director

    Product & Customer (Chair)

    2023 — Present

  • The Inclusive Design Collective

    Advisory Board Member

    Accessibility Standards

    2021 — Present

Education & credentials

B.Des, Interaction Design
National Institute of Design · 2004
MBA, Strategy & Finance
Westbrook School of Management · 2004

Recognition

  • Product Leader of the Year

    The Product Leaders Forum · 2024

  • Best Digital Experience

    The Enterprise Technology Awards · 2022

Books & papers

  • The Problem Worth Solving: Leading Product with Customer Truth

    Ashgrove Press · 2024

In conversation

  • The Product Leaders Forum / 2025

    Retiring 70% of the roadmap was the best decision we made

  • The Technology Leaders Review / 2024

    Discovery as a leadership habit

  • The Leadership Ledger podcast / 2024

    Episode 125 — The problem worth solving

Perspectives from colleagues

Gave the whole company a shared definition of what customers actually need.

Amara NwosuChief Executive, Lumen Payments

Says no with more clarity and kindness than anyone I know.

Felix BrandtChief Technology Officer, Kestrel Systems