01
Leadership review
Surya Koh
Chief Product Officer · Singapore / Southeast Asia · Global perspective
Finding the customer problem worth building for.
Open to
- Board appointments
- Advisory roles
- Speaking invitations
Highlights
The year, and the years before it, at a glance.
12 M
Active customers
Across four product lines
+46
Net Promoter Score gain
After a discovery-led redesign
3
Products to $100 M ARR
From zero, in five years
70%
Roadmap retired
To focus on what customers valued
A letter from the chief product officer
Dear reader,
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.
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.
Surya Koh
Chief Product Officer
Strategic priorities
Where I focus my leadership.
02
Customer discovery
03
Portfolio prioritisation
04
Product operating models
Performance
What the priorities delivered.
Priority outcome 01
Product portfolio focus
The product portfolio had become a collection of commitments without a shared view of customer value. I worked with commercial and engineering leaders to identify the problems each initiative addressed, the evidence behind them and the capacity required. We reduced competing priorities and gave each remaining investment an explicit learning objective.
Priority outcome 02
Customer discovery
A proposed feature had strong internal support but an unclear user problem. We ran a focused discovery programme with customers, observed the work surrounding the request and tested a smaller proposition. The findings changed both the product scope and the way the team described the value to customers.
Priority outcome 03
Product adoption
A launch met its delivery milestone but required a clearer path to adoption. I brought product, customer success and sales into a common review of onboarding friction, usage signals and customer expectations. Product decisions were then informed by the whole customer journey rather than release completion alone.
Year in review
A career, chapter by chapter.
- 2020 — Present
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.
- 2016 — 2020
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.
- 2013 — 2018
Director of Product, Growth
Lumen Payments
Built the self-serve onboarding that tripled small-business adoption.
- 2008 — 2013
Senior Product Manager
Kestrel Systems
Launched the company's first SaaS product and learned to measure outcomes rather than output.
Governance
Board and committee service.
Current appointments
Lumen Payments
Non-Executive Director
Product & Customer (Chair)
2023 — Present
The Inclusive Design Collective
Advisory Board Member
Accessibility Standards
2021 — Present
Committee experience
- Product & Customer
- Accessibility Standards
Stakeholder voices
What those I have served alongside say.
Gave the whole company a shared definition of what customers actually need.
Says no with more clarity and kindness than anyone I know.
Outlook
Perspectives on what comes next.
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.
Read the essayDiscovery needs a decision at the end
Customer interviews and experiments should answer a question that matters to an investment.
Read the essayLaunch is the beginning of an adoption story
Shipping a product moves the work into the customer's environment, where onboarding, expectations and existing habits shape its value.
Read the essayRecognition
Awards & honours
- Product Leader of the YearThe Product Leaders Forum2024
- Best Digital ExperienceThe Enterprise Technology Awards2022
Media
In the news
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”
An invitation
Looking ahead with Surya.
Board appointments, advisory mandates and conversations about the decisions ahead.
Open to
- Board appointments
- Advisory roles
- Speaking invitations
office@suryakoh.example