Consider this list of responsibilities, and tell me which role they belong to:

• Understanding the market, the demand, and the trends to deliver differentiation
• Balancing requirements, capabilities, delivery timelines, and strategy
• Communication with stakeholders across departments
• A blend of soft and hard skills to manage requirements and outcomes

This list defines a great “product leader.” But today, the same applies to modern IT leaders.

Observers of the CIO role have been challenging the job title. “The CIO title will be obsolete in less than four years.” or “Has the CIO job title run its course?” In the latter article, one leader notes that companies “want their technology leader to have a business or product mindset in how they approach their investments, which a lot of the time, are the largest investments a company will make” (emphasis added).

Over the last years, we’ve seen more and more IT leaders in Silicon Valley change their title from CIO to “Head of Business Technology”. That’s a reflection of them thinking of themselves as “product leaders” who are facilitating solutions at the intersection of operations staff and technology vendors.

My recent conversations with CIOs have echoed this. Whether with recent podcast guests or Workato customers, all have pointed in this direction. As a former product leader at Oracle and Splunk, I thought I’d share a few lessons learned in the hopes that CIOs can benefit.

Taking a wide-angle view of the business, customers and industry

The one thing technology and product leaders have always had in common is the discipline of not falling in love with features and losing sight of the big picture. Fixating on what makes us the most excited can lead to forgetting the customer entirely.

However, in my conversations with CIOs, It sounds more likely that there is less of a fixation on the details and more of a need to remember just how much of the organization is at your fingertips. In a recent conversation with Kim Huffman, CIO of Workiva, she alluded to this opportunity: “It’s about partnering with the business and understanding where we can derive more value for the business, either through growth and revenue or through efficiencies. The CIO or the technical leader is uniquely positioned to be able to do that because they have the most cross-functional view of the organization.” That’s very true and characterizes the similarities between the CIO and a product manager.

When talking to my podcast guest Rama Theekshidar, Chief Digital Officer at USESI, what struck me was he has a digital vision inclusive of the entire distribution industry. He thinks like a product manager, who has “a point of view” and understands his market.

Technology leaders can benefit from the same mindset. Just keeping the lights on or managing big implementations is less viable. Technology serves the business - but that requires an in- depth understanding of the company’s functions as well as a “wide angle” view beyond the company walls - just like a good product manager.

Thinking like a General Manager

AI is the next great transformation wave. It is already table stakes for companies selling software. It’s a great opportunity to flex a key product leader muscle: thinking and acting like a General Manager (GM).

Sridevi Pasumarthi, Head of Business Technology at Gusto, says it’s important to guide the organization where the revenue is. “The way I see an evolution of a CIO, it used to be considered a backend, systems role. But today, you partner with all of your stakeholders. You're at the table if you're going with the new go to market product, when you're creating a new channel for your customers, or when you're going with an acquisition. So your mindset is almost like a GM, where you're thinking about what you do for your company, what you do through your IT and business systems, and how you impact either the top line or the bottom line.”

Darryl Maraj, CTO of TBC Corporation, adds further insight: “You don’t have to solve all the problems on the first phase of that go around, you basically deliver and you continue to deliver over time. And instead of treating everything as a project, treat it as a product. So changing into that product mindset.” Darryl makes an important point: IT isn’t just about one-off, time-bound projects. IT is about creating technology capabilities for the business; and like products, that’s accomplished over time; just like release updates of products. The CIO is effectively the General Manager of these technology capabilities for the business.

It’s about being well-rounded

If there is one thing you can boil the product leadership function down to, it is well-roundedness. Product leaders need to balance business and technical acumen. Earl Newsome, CIO at Cummins, breaks it down into four categories:

• Business intelligence: how your business makes money.
• Industry intelligence: how you compete and win in the industry you choose to operate in.
• Emotional intelligence: how people think and feel.
• Technical intelligence: becoming a master at your craft.

When you look at it that way, it sounds like one of the most exciting careers in the enterprise today. While the cloud revolution set things down this path, the AI revolution will make it permanent. Wise CIOs will add product leaders to their lists of mentors.