Our Head of Product and Head of Marketing seats are currently combined, but the role requires both deep technical analysis and fast-paced market testing. How do we use conative screening tools to design two separate seats on the Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Combining product development and marketing into a single seat creates a natural conflict of interest and execution friction. Product development requires deep research, quality control, and systematic testing. Marketing requires speed, rapid experimentation, and quick market feedback. This is a classic conative mismatch.

To solve this, you need to split these into two distinct seats on your Accountability Chart. Use the Kolbe Index to design the ideal profiles for each seat before you look at candidates.

The Head of Product seat requires a high Fact Finder and high Follow Thru profile. This person needs to research market requirements, build structured roadmaps, and ensure the product is built to exact standards. They need to investigate details and establish systematic processes.

The Head of Marketing seat requires a high Quick Start profile. This person must be comfortable with risk, rapid experimentation, and pivoting when campaigns do not work. They do not need to research every detail before launching a test; they need to get the message to market quickly and analyze the results.

Once you have designed these two distinct conative profiles, evaluate your current team and external candidates. By splitting the seat and matching the conative profiles, you eliminate the internal friction of a single person trying to be both highly structured and highly spontaneous. This keeps your product pipeline robust and your marketing engine fast.