Interview with Mark Sweeting, Head of Product at Copyright Licensing Agency

Mark Sweeting, member of the Sept ‘20 cohort, just began his new role as Head of Product at Copyright Licensing Agency. He talked to us a few weeks ago about his road to product, and how the CPO Accelerator helped him overcome his imposter syndrome and find an organization that better matched his value system and product-led mentality.

Can you tell us a little about how you got into product?

I've held many job titles over the years- Systems Administration Manager, Systems Manager, Development Manager, IT Business Analyst, Business Analyst, and then Product Owner to Head of Product. When I first started my career in manufacturing, I was just applying common sense to things to make life better. And throughout my career it was the common thread—making life better for people, adding value, creating better solutions.

At my first tech company, NovaFori, I joined as a Product Owner where I looked after four Scrum teams on one project. I got dropped in at the deep end, and learned a lot about what I was good at and what I was not so good at. After a few years, applying these learnings helped me to move to a senior product role and then to Head of Product.

What led you to seek out and apply for the CPO Accelerator?

I was really good at the Individual Contributor level establishing strong peer to peer relationships, but I was always struggling with, “How do I get my executives to listen to me?” I felt like there was something about my communication style that wasn’t working there, and that’s when I discovered the CPO Accelerator. 

I’d been a huge fan of Melissa’s for a long time- everything she says about being product led resonates with me. The chance that I could get face-to-face training with her, that’s a career highlight for me. Add in the Accelerator community and mentors and I thought this might give me a new set of tools to overcome the challenges I was facing in my career at that point.

When did you start looking for your next role?

Well, if we hadn’t gone into Covid lockdown and we had stayed co-located, I might have been better able to put into practice the learnings from the CPO Accelerator. But even with all of this great new knowledge, I was still struggling to influence at the executive level because we weren’t seeing eye to eye on how to embrace a product led strategy.

My epiphany moment was when I listened to an episode of Melissa’s Product Thinking Podcast about the challenges of being a change agent and I realized I had to either commit more fully and further risk burnout, or go look for a company with a CPO that had a setup more aligned with my beliefs. 

Without the CPO Accelerator, I don’t think I would have had the confidence to go, “I can be a product leader elsewhere,” even though that’s what my peers were telling me.

Then I saw an opportunity come up in an industry I’ve always been interested in, publishing. I’ve always been a storyteller as well as a process improvement person—I told my wife when she married me I’d publish a few books one day (she said “she’s still waiting!”). And this company was a not-for-profit, with a great product set-up led by a visionary CPO. When I met with them, all of the learnings and passion I have for product, all of the things I learned from CPO Accelerator, seemed to be appreciated. When they made an offer, the decision (if emotional) was easy to make.

I know you just finished your first week, but have you identified any challenges that you feel more equipped to deal with after going through the CPO Accelerator?

One hundred percent. This is my first time working for a not-for-profit and it presents different sorts of challenges. I’ve referred back to the content of the Accelerator program on a few occasions to help me form strategies to overcome these challenges. I’ve joined at an interesting time, as the company is changing and becoming more technology and product focused. The modules on product ops, strategy and org design have been invaluable.

As I've reflected on the first week I’ve been thinking about the challenges of getting good product discovery going in a very project-focused company. They've got a really good qualitative/quantitative product research arm and understand the value of data, so there is much to work with. 

I’ve learned so much from the mentor panels that I can already see myself applying. Giff’s financial primer was especially useful. He’s got so much great experience, especially from a point of view of the financial muscles. Everybody knows the revenue's important, but learning how to interpret that through an executive lens and a product lens was really valuable.

What were your first meetings with your new CPO like this week? 

The first thing to put out there is it's wonderful to know that you've got a C-suite level ally to say product-led is the way to go. I was getting so disillusioned being a lone voice. I’m starting to feel re-energized after what has been a difficult couple of years. There’s a lot to learn and challenges to overcome but she has been so welcoming, connected, and receptive to my ideas that I’m really looking forward to working with her in the months to come.