First 90 Days as CPO of a Big Company: Colleen McCreary's Blueprint

Friend of the pod Colleen McCreary discusses some big news: her return to a CPO role at a remote-first public company (Confluent). She shares insights on navigating the first 90 days, organizational change, implementing a company-wide initiative to eliminate unnecessary processes, and gearing up for lots of 1:1s.

Colleen, Kelli, and Nolan discuss transparent leadership, building community in remote environments, and bringing humanity to workplace policies—all while balancing the challenges of joining an established company as an executive with a public reputation

*Email us your questions or topics for Kelli & Nolan: [email protected]

For coaching and advising inquire at https://kellidragovich.com/

HR Heretics is a podcast from Turpentine.

—

📰 Be notified early when Turpentine's drops new publication: https://www.turpentine.co/exclusiveaccess

—

Support HR Heretics Sponsor:

Metaview is the AI assistant for interviewing. Metaview completely removes the need for recruiters and hiring managers to take notes during interviews—because their AI is designed to take world-class interview notes for you. Team builders at companies like Brex, Hellofresh, and Quora say Metaview has changed the game—see the magic for yourself: https://www.metaview.ai/heretics

KEEP UP WITH COLLEEN, NOLAN + KELLI ON LINKEDIN

Colleen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenmccrearychiefpplofficer

Nolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/

Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/

—

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(2:28) Remote Work Authenticity Challenges During the Pandemic

(5:19) How the CPO Role Has Changed in Today's Market

(10:14) Joining a Public Company as CPO with a Public Persona

(14:29) Sponsor: Metaview

(19:51) Creating a "Remove the B******t" Company OKR

(25:41) Building Community in Remote-First Organizations

(28:25) Bringing Humanity to Crisis Response in HR

(30:17) Tackling Compensation Transparency as a New CPO

(31:02) Continuous Improvement Over Perfection in Leadership

(37:25) Balancing Multiple CPO Responsibilities While Driving Change

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hrheretics.substack.com