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Episode 88 - Maintaining a Collaborative & Inclusive Product Culture at Scale (with Anna Curzon, CPO @ Xero)

Digital Transformation
Diversity & Inclusion
Product Leadership
Women in Product
 

Episode 88: Maintaining a Collaborative & Inclusive Product Culture at Scale

Anna Curzon, CPO @ Xero

22 Oct 2021

22 Oct 2021 Anna Curzon head shot

Listen here!


Content Warning - May Contain Adult Language or Themes
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About the Episode

An interview with Anna Curzon. Anna is the Chief Product Officer at Xero, with long experience in business strategy & digital transformation. She's also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council, appointed by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Anna is passionate about creating a good working culture, and driving for diverse teams and working practices to support that goal.

We speak about a lot, including:

  • The origin story of Xero, how it came from the founder having a problem he couldn't solve, and how he started a company to solve it
  • How they had to fire themselves as Xero users as they scaled out of their own target market, and how they stay in touch with customers
  • How she moved from her career in banking into disruptive tech and how she was always "the freak in the phone book"
  • The parallels between her original passion for anthropology & understanding humans has translated into her day-to-day work
  • How she developed a passion for product management & how she approached her move into a CPO job without any direct product management experience
  • Whether she had any pushback when taking over a team of product managers, and the approaches she's taken to be seen as just one of the team
  • The importance of diversity on the teams and why people should be able to bring their true selves to work
  • How they've managed to keep the Xero culture going and nurture it through massive scaling and acquisitions

And much more!

Contact Anna

You can contact Anna on Twitter or LinkedIn.