[Mini CEO Rising]③ "Marathon Meetings Are Inevitable"... How to Become a 'Versatile' Startup PO

Kim Ji-won, Masspresso CPO... Formerly at Samsung Electronics and NCSoft
Leading 'Unicorn' Moloco's Korea Branch... A Generalist with Diverse Job Experience
"PO Must Have User-Centered Thinking... Also Needs Communication Skills"

Ji-won Kim, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Masspresso. The AI learning application 'Qanda,' operated by Masspresso, has expanded to six countries including Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The monthly active users (MAU) exceeded 10 million in mid-this month.
[Photo by Junhyung Lee]

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] "There are many days when I have meetings from morning until evening. It’s the destiny of a Product Owner (PO) who has to collaborate with numerous stakeholders for the service. I have one-on-one meetings with internal POs at least once a week. Since I have to communicate with almost all stakeholders related to the product, I’m probably the person with the most meetings in the company."

Kim Ji-won, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Masspresso, the operator of the AI learning application ‘Qanda,’ introduced her busy schedule like this. Kim, who has a diverse background, joined Masspresso on the 22nd of last month.

From Large Corporations to Startups

CPO Kim graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology in 2005 and joined Samsung Electronics as a hardware (HW) engineer. In 2008, she went abroad to complete a master’s degree in Technology Management at Michigan State University in the U.S. Afterwards, she worked at LG Electronics, NCSoft, and eventually settled at Moloco, a Korean startup located in Silicon Valley, USA. When Kim joined Moloco, the company had just about 10 employees, but it has now established itself as a unicorn (a private company valued at over 1 trillion KRW). Kim led project managers (PMs) at Moloco’s Korea office and spearheaded the launch of the company’s main service, ‘Moloco Cloud.’

Through this experience, Kim was able to develop the capabilities of a PO. She became a so-called generalist who has worked in various roles such as a large corporation engineer, a strategist at a gaming company, and a startup PM. A PO must oversee various tasks related to product development, design, and marketing. Kim said, "My background in mobile service strategy at NCSoft’s new business division was the reason I entered the startup industry."

One of the main roles of a CPO is PO recruitment. At Masspresso, which has about 250 employees, Kim is also responsible for managing the internal PO pool, including decisions on increasing PO headcount, converting existing employees to POs, and interviewing PO applicants. She said, "A Chief Product Officer must not only focus on the product (product/service) but also set up an organization capable of building great products."

Must Have User Perspective... ‘Soft Skills’ Are Also Important

User-centered thinking is the core competency of a PO that she emphasizes. Since POs plan products by analyzing customer needs and pain points, having a user-centered perspective is essential. Kim said, "To think from the user’s perspective, a PO must experience various products as a consumer themselves," adding, "POs must discover actual customer pain points based on user data rather than intuition and logically present them." She added, “Data analysis skills are key to solving these problems,” emphasizing, “You have to repeatedly go through the process of forming hypotheses and analyzing information obtained through experiments.”

‘Soft skills’ such as communication abilities are another competency required of POs. Soft skills refer to overall interpersonal interaction abilities such as communication, cooperation, and leadership. Due to the nature of PO work, which involves collaborating with various stakeholders, ‘marathon meetings’ often occur during product planning and launch processes. In this process, a PO’s soft skills can directly affect work performance and efficiency.

Masspresso Product Owner (PO) and team members are having a meeting.
[Photo by Masspresso]

Also, although POs have the final decision-making authority in their business areas, making unilateral decisions repeatedly can undermine trust with team members. Therefore, Kim explains that POs must frequently coordinate opinions with team members who are experts in their respective fields.

Kim believes that at least 3 to 5 years of work experience is necessary to become a PO. She said, “Looking at work experience is important because experience in various fields such as business, technology, users, and design is also required,” adding, “Silicon Valley tech companies also consider the entire work history when hiring product managers.”