Lessons from Geoff Charles, CPO at Ramp

On Product Strategy and Vision

"Strategy is about how do we get to our goals. and it's not a road map. and it's not a vision it's something right in between that." [1] This quote emphasizes that strategy is the practical bridge between a company's high-level vision and its execution plan.
"If you don't build the thing that kills you, someone else will." [2] A powerful statement on the importance of self-disruption and proactive innovation to stay ahead of the competition.
"Our entire planning process is optimized toward product velocity. We believe that doing is better than planning. The moment you are aligned in a direction, you don't need a high level of accuracy." [3][4] This highlights Ramp's bias for action over exhaustive planning, trusting that rapid feedback loops will correct the course.
"Oftentimes people get very bogged down with OKRs when where they should really start is strategy. You need to believe that the product strategy will deliver value to the customer and that in turn drives value to the business." [3][4] A reminder to ground goal-setting in a solid, customer-centric strategy.
"The job to be done here is how you allocate capital within the company in the most effective way." [2] This quote reveals Ramp's deep understanding of the core problem they are solving for their customers, which goes beyond just providing corporate cards.
"We're selling finance on autopilot so that leaders can focus on running their core business, better than ever before. We're transforming financial operations from a burden to a competitive advantage." [5] This encapsulates Ramp's value proposition and ambitious vision.
"Ignoring the Competition: There's a temptation to constantly peek over the fence and see what competitors are up to. Yet, my philosophy at Ramp has been to predominantly look inward." [3] By focusing on their own mission and strengths, they have carved out a unique space in the market.
"Start with the 10x experience... and once you define the 10x experience then you walk backwards." [6] This "working backwards" approach ensures that even the minimum viable product is a step towards a truly transformative solution.
"It's more important what you say no to than what you say yes to." [6] A classic but crucial piece of advice on the importance of strategic focus.
"The first thing you need to do is align on on what are the goals what do you want to see in the world then the hypothesis." [1] This outlines the foundational steps of building a coherent and impactful strategy.

On Team, Culture, and Hiring

"The story of Ramp is the story of getting hiring right. First, we had to understand from first principles, the attributes needed for high velocity: high slope, not intercept; high agency; high humility." [3][4] This reveals the fundamental importance Ramp places on the qualities of the people they hire.
"Don't hire managers, hire stellar individual contributors." [3][4] A hiring philosophy that prioritizes hands-on talent to maintain a high-velocity culture.
"Treat them like founders themselves. What do you do if they don't set ambitious enough projects for themselves. I think it's very clear if you have a core team that's ambitious and you have one person in the team that's not as ambitious as that team you need to part ways with that person." [7] This quote underscores the expectation of ownership and ambition from every team member.
"The fastest teams. aren't those that work harder are those that love what they do and believe in what they do." [6] A key insight into fostering a motivated and high-performing team.
"I don't want two PMs in a room that means that I've failed in terms of my organizational structure." [2] This illustrates a commitment to clear ownership and minimizing bureaucracy.
"It's important for us to continue scaling and promoting internally, which is a big part of our culture at Ramp — to find early talent, to mentor them, to grow them, and to give them unlimited growth potential within the company." [2] This highlights Ramp's focus on internal talent development as a key to sustainable growth.
"We value, hire, and promote individuals who think from first principles, not those who pattern-match from previous experiences." [8] This emphasizes the importance of deep, analytical thinking over relying on past playbooks.
"A lot of times, especially in non-tech companies, product is the recipient of requirements from the business... When tech companies really came out, they put that all on its heads, where business is actually led by the tech organization, they sell the products we build, we don't build the products that they sell." [8] This describes the product-led culture that Ramp intentionally cultivated from its inception.
"We have a very flexible model where folks can jump to different teams based on the business needs, and work with engineers who might report to different people." [3] This highlights the importance of organizational flexibility to maintain velocity.
"Allow only the best to interview." [3][4] A practical tip for maintaining a high bar in the hiring process.

On Execution and Velocity

"At Ramp, our culture is velocity. It shapes every process and team ritual. It's how we develop our people. It's our solution to nearly every problem." [8][9] This is the cornerstone of Ramp's operational philosophy.
"Any second you spend planning is a second you don't spend doing." [8][10] A mantra that drives Ramp's bias towards execution.
"We will change our product without necessarily fully enabling you and you'll have to constantly be on your toes whenever you load up a demo instance." [10] An honest take on the trade-offs of prioritizing velocity, shared with new joiners.
"If you build the wrong thing your velocity is going to go down." [6] A crucial reminder that speed without direction is counterproductive.
"Launching products is easy... but to truly launch a great product. it's much much harder." [6] Acknowledging the difference between simply shipping and achieving true product excellence.
"The power of velocity: Throughout my tenure at Ramp, I've become a staunch advocate for the principle of velocity in product development. I've witnessed how rapidly iterating, even when faced with failures, can set the stage for groundbreaking successes." [3] A testament to the long-term benefits of a high-velocity approach.
"You want to first build a culture of actually caring about feedback. That's more important than capturing feedback in the first place." [3] This emphasizes that the systems for feedback are useless without a receptive culture.
"We have deep parternship between GTM leaders (sales, post sales), product, and strategic finance. We all look at the same scorecard, we know the inputs and outputs, we know the goals, and we all work together to get after it." [11] This highlights the importance of cross-functional alignment for effective execution.
"Decentralization and Empowerment: Traditional top-down decision-making processes can be stifling, a lesson I've learned from past experiences. At Ramp, we made a conscious decision to decentralize and empower our individual teams." [3][11] This fosters an environment of creativity, trust, and rapid execution.
"Simplicity and Prioritization: It's easy to fall into the trap of overcomplicating processes and product features. But I've always championed simplicity and laser-focused prioritization at Ramp." [3] This ensures that speed doesn't compromise the quality of the user experience.

On Customer Focus and Product Development

"Customer Feedback is Gold: I can't emphasize enough how valuable our customers' insights have been. At Ramp, we've meticulously cultivated a strong feedback loop, ensuring that every product enhancement or feature release resonates with our user base." [3][11] This underscores the central role of the customer in Ramp's product development process.
"The founder or the first product manager should be selling the first 100 customers. absolutely products should sit with sales. and should be in every single sales demo." [7] A practical piece of advice for early-stage companies to ensure the product team is deeply connected to customer needs.
"You actually should be like a bit more professional services oriented as a product team earlier on if you actually find one or two design partners and you just build for them they will love you way more than the best-in-class SAS product that's already in the market." [7][12] A strategy for winning early customers through deep, personalized engagement.
"I think you kind of have to walk in their shoes for for a full day like what do they listen to go listen to that what conferences do they go to go to that conference." [7] Emphasizing the need for deep empathy and understanding of the customer's world.
"The customer doesn't care about your company... they care about their pain points." [4] A blunt reminder to focus on solving real customer problems rather than on the company's own narrative.
"Build what they need not what they want and that requires guts it requires deeply understanding your customer it requires sitting down with them. and doing their job." [6] This distinguishes between superficial feature requests and the underlying needs that drive true value.
"The average employee doesn't have a degree in finance… our models are more accurate than the average employee." [2] This quote highlights how AI can be used to democratize financial expertise and create a better user experience.
"We track NPS for every product and customer interaction and hold teams accountable for maintaining NPS very high (and they compete against each other in some ways)." [3] A tangible example of how Ramp operationalizes its commitment to customer satisfaction.
"Use the sales process as a way to identify pain points." [7] A practical way to embed product discovery into the go-to-market motion.

On Leadership and Personal Growth

"My biggest goal that have now in my role is to continue giving context so that teams focus on the right goals. come up with the right hypotheses and focus on the right data points." [10] A description of how his role as a leader has evolved to focus on empowering his team through context.
"I spend most of my time just repeating myself most of my time just sharing the context that I I think they might be missing." [10] Reinforcing the idea that a leader's job is often to be the "repeater in chief" of the company's strategy and vision.
"The best way to increase your capacity to think is to actually do the thinking and so that's where I see I see writing if you're able to write things clearly you're able to think through things clearly." [13] A powerful argument for the role of writing in clarifying one's own thoughts.
"I asked what's the hardest thing you've ever done... it's a really good sign around what is difficult to them how much work they put into overcoming that." [14] An insightful interview question that reveals a candidate's resilience and problem-solving abilities.
"I've always been like very short-term focus in my career so I just I follow a lot of the energy." [7] An interesting perspective on career development that prioritizes passion and engagement.
"Velocity is is a way to potentially avoid burnout i'm not asking people to work you know endless hours a week i'm asking people to get out of their own way and to focus on on what truly matters which is building great products for our customers." [10] A counterintuitive take on how a high-velocity environment can actually be more sustainable.
"Embracing change, continuously learning, and being nimble in our approach have been key tenets of our journey." [3][11] The core principles that have allowed Ramp to adapt and thrive as it scales.
"You cannot train alone and expect a faster time." [6][9] A metaphor for the importance of teamwork and collaboration in achieving ambitious goals.
"When you have decided to do something do it no excuses." [6] A straightforward and powerful call for accountability.
"Figure out like what gets you excited... and for me it was it was all about building great products. and seeing metrics move and and and winning." [7] A personal reflection on the importance of finding and following one's passion.

Learn more:

Lessons from Geoff Charles, CPO at Ramp

On Product Strategy and Vision

On Team, Culture, and Hiring

On Execution and Velocity

On Customer Focus and Product Development

On Leadership and Personal Growth

Written by Antoine Buteau

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