A confidential CPO search for an international B2B company: 9 candidates, and the client kept its CPO

An international B2B company was considering replacing its current CPO but had not yet decided, so the search was fully confidential. NEWHR built a long list of 100+ CPOs and their deputies and presented 9 candidates. The client chose a finalist, but after comparing him with the market, reassessed the current CPO's work and decided not to make the change. With breaks, the search took about a year.

Request and constraints

The client was considering replacing the current CPO but had not made a final decision. So the search was fully confidential.

A candidate who grew out of engineering: part of the selection, including the technical part, was run by the CTO.
Only international B2B companies with experience working with enterprise clients.
Experience managing several products at once within one company.
Director level, not lead level.
Fluent English, structured thinking.

Why it was hard

A search without a hiring decision

The client had not yet decided whether to replace the CPO, so the search was run fully confidentially.

Pauses in the process

The CEO did not always have time to review candidates, and the search was paused several times. We kept strong candidates in the process for several months, the longest for half a year.

The budget narrowed the market

We presented English-speaking CPOs, but the client turned them down because of the budget.

How we searched

We searched in international B2B SaaS and other B2B services

We built a list of source companies: B2B SaaS and other B2B services with enterprise clients.

We mapped CPOs and their director-level deputies

In these companies we mapped CPOs and their deputies: the role needed director level, not lead level. The long list had 100+ people.

We assessed hard and soft skills and presented 9 candidates

After assessing hard and soft skills, NEWHR presented 9 candidates to the client. Part of the selection, including the technical part, was run by the client's CTO.

Funnel

100+people in the long list
9candidates presented to the client
1finalist chosen by the client

Result

The client chose a finalist, a Product Director at an international AdTech company. But after comparing him with the market, the client reassessed the current CPO's work and decided not to make the change.

The confidential search gave the CEO what was needed to decide: an understanding of whom the company could hire for this role and how that person would differ from the current one. Timeline: about a year, with breaks.