Interview with Amy Carmichael, CPO at CrowdCube

Our first featured alumni is Amy Carmichael, who joined The CPO Accelerator as the VP of Product at Crowdcube, and has since made the exciting leap to CPO. Amy was kind enough to chat with us about that transition, and share how The CPO Accelerator impacted her move to the C-suite.

How did the CPO role opportunity arise at Crowdcube? 

I was leading Crowdcube’s product team, which was very small, and I knew that the CPO possibility was on the horizon as plans for the company were to grow a lot in the next couple of years. The CEO and I talked about how it was definitely a role I wanted to step into–he believed in my capabilities and the value that I brought to the company. For me, I knew I could get there one day, but it was about understanding what am I missing now, and how can I work on filling any gaps? 

What kinds of gaps would you say you had going into The CPO Accelerator? 

I came into product like many people, in a roundabout way. I worked in museums, did a Masters in museum studies, and then worked at various startups and later enterprise businesses. So it was really those things you might learn if you did an MBA, the language around the financial side, that I felt I was missing. That, and the confidence to know I wasn’t missing anything else. 

How did you decide on The CPO Accelerator as your training of choice?

There are so many product management courses out there, but the CPO role is so specific. So there was a lot of value in being able to meet people that were my peers, but also people who had been doing the job for years who could lend their expertise. And the experience across different countries, different industries, different sized companies- to see how in different sized companies, the job changes. I'd worked with CPOs who were either in tiny startups or in huge enterprises, so to be able to find out where I fit in that spectrum was super helpful.

How do you feel the course helped you transition into this new role?

It can be a really difficult question to ask in a company where you’re about to move into such a big role, “am I doing my job well? Am I meeting expectations?” So to learn from people with all of these relatable real life experiences, it helped me not only build confidence in lesser known areas, but to look at the areas I was working in very comfortably already and feel like, “okay I think I’m on the right track here.” 

Going through the program meant that I was able to step into this role as we grow as a team. We have grown by at least 30% already, and we'll do it again, 30% to 60% again next year. So it’s put me in a position where I know where my focus needs to be, and has given me the confidence to step away from the day to day as well–to know where I should be focusing to add the most value.