Why a Product Leader Is More Critical Than a Tech Co-Founder
Late last year I had the opportunity to provide guidance to a femtech founder who wanted to build a platform. She had a compelling idea for patients, but the value of the solution would never be realized if physicians didn’t also engage. Unfortunately, the founder didn’t truly understand the healthcare provider perspective, so she had no idea how to draw them to the platform. At the time, her attention was on finding a qualified engineering team to help bring her ideas to life. My recommendation to her was to get the product vision right before rushing to build something.
This is one of many such stories I’ve seen in my career – success measured in code written, rather than user needs and business outcomes clearly defined. In this post, I’ll address why that’s such a risk.
In my discussions with in early-stage FemTech startups – founders express urgency to identify a technical co-founder. Whether their backgrounds are in business or science, they are convinced that having technical guidance will transform their big idea into a scalable, successful product.
But what if that assumption is wrong? Over my many years of working on new product ideas, I’ve become convinced that the most overlooked, high-leverage collaborator isn’t an engineer – it’s a product leader.
The Rush for Engineering Talent
I’ve seen the same pattern again and again – a founder eager to start building.
Never wanting to seem underprepared, the founder scrambles to recruit a technical co-founder, retaining product management responsibility (or sometimes outsourcing it). More and more, I’m hearing foundational aspects of the product innovation process delegated or delayed – “I can hire a designer in India” or “Maybe I’ll use AI to prototype the interface.”
When pressed, the founder’s focus is often still “I need someone who can build this.”
Why Product Leadership Should Come First
Here is what I believe to be true after 20+ years of building new products and trying to salvage poorly conceptualized ones – engaging technical leadership before you have a clear product vision is putting the cart before the horse.
Placing a product leader at the center of the founding team isn’t just theoretical; it’s a critical success factor. Yes, engineering talent is critical – but only after you’re sure about fundamental assumptions:
- Who is the customer?
- What is the problem you’re truly solving?
- Is this solution clinically and commercially viable, and does it excite actual users?
- Do we have a design or prototype that’s validated, even if it’s low-fidelity?
Of course, it’s critical to make sure that product ideas are technically feasible. But if you hire an engineering leader and team too soon, suddenly there’s pressure to keep them busy writing code, shipping features even if the product direction is still a little hazy. This can mean building before you’re sure you’re building the right thing.
Build the Right Thing, Then Build the Thing Right
Instead, bringing in a product manager – someone with the confidence and experience to act as a “product sherpa” will:
- Lead the work of customer discovery and structured feedback, so you don’t just follow your instincts or clinical literature.
- Help validate initial concepts against real market, clinical, and user needs.
- Translate emotional user pain points and functional requirements into a roadmap that excites investors and future hires.
- Align your vision, business model, and regulatory realities so that you don’t end up with an amazing MVP that can’t be sold, reimbursed, or adopted in practice.
Starting with a product leader means your technical team will know what to build, and the team will have shared clarity about what success looks like.
Without these up front efforts, adding engineers often means burning cash on rework or walking back features, unnecessarily reducing your financial runway.
Your CPO as Strategic Thought Partner
Eventually, the right product leader will shape product direction in a way that is aligned with your original vision and what the market needs. That individual may eventually become your Chief Product Officer, not just plotting the product roadmap, but helping founders move beyond gut instinct to evaluate commercial potential, engage users, and manage regulatory risk. Those efforts generate insights and business value that investors demand.
The Founder’s Dilemma: Engineer or Product Lead?
It comes down to mindset: Is your most critical early question, “How do we build this?” Or is it, “What should we build, and for whom?”
Investing in product leadership first helps you:
- Pressure-test your foundational assumptions.
- Avoid the sunk-cost of building the wrong product.
- Set future engineers up for success with clear requirements and a validated vision.
Let’s Start a Conversation
If you’re a founder wrestling with new product direction and building the right team around you, I’d love to hear your experience. What has worked for you? What hasn’t? Are you prioritizing product leadership, or has engineering been the primary gap you’re trying to fill first?
As always, I’m committed to helping founders in digital health and FemTech navigate get compelling and impactful products to market. Let’s challenge the conventional wisdom—because building the right thing has to be prioritized before you can build the thing right.
Leave a Reply