Chief Product Officer / United States · Global perspective
Audrey Hawthorne
I lead product organisations at the intersection of customer problems, business ambition and technical possibility.
Open to Board appointments · Advisory roles · Speaking invitations
Start a conversation ↗ Product strategy September 2026 2 min read
A roadmap should explain the trade-off A feature list tells a team what has been requested, but not why one investment matters more than another.
I want the roadmap to expose the customer problem, expected value and principal uncertainty behind each priority.
Continue the essay ↗ The enduring idea
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.
A philosophy in practice ↗ The journal
Further reading. 02 Discovery June 2026 2 min read
Customer interviews and experiments should answer a question that matters to an investment.
03 Portfolio March 2026 2 min read
Shipping a product moves the work into the customer's environment, where onboarding, expectations and existing habits shape its value.
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 Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective. In the boardroom Lumen Payments Non-Executive Director · 2023 — Present The Inclusive Design Collective Advisory Board Member · 2021 — Present Recognition Product Leader of the Year The Product Leaders Forum · 2024 Best Digital Experience The 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 Gave the whole company a shared definition of what customers actually need. Amara Nwosu Chief Executive, Lumen Payments The full record ↗ Continue the conversation
Ideas are tested in conversation. For board, advisory and speaking invitations, and for readers who want to take an argument further.
Board appointments Advisory roles Speaking invitations office@audreyhawthorne.example