Trusted by founders, CEOs, and investors at
Fractional/Interim CPO & Tech Transformation Expert with a track record of establishing high-performing product organizations and modernizing legacy tech for growth-oriented companies.
Trusted by founders, CEOs, and investors at
Two Pillars of Expertise
Two distinct skill sets, one mission: turning product and engineering into your company's greatest competitive advantage. Backed by 15+ years across FinTech, eCommerce, Marketplaces, Education, and SaaS — the pattern recognition most specialists don't have.
I build and lead high-performing product organizations that scale — from first hire to mature department. Sharp strategy, strong teams, and AI-native ways of working.
I fix underperforming product and engineering orgs. When the tech is legacy, the teams are misaligned, and the roadmap is a mess — I modernize the systems, realign the teams, and deliver ROI.
How I Work With You
Flexible formats designed for startups, scaleups, PE-backed companies, — and established Mittelstand businesses — that need senior product leadership without the long hiring cycle.
Step in as your Chief Product Officer — part-time or full-time, for 3 to 12+ months. I build and lead high-performance product teams with modern, AI-native processes and tie every roadmap decision directly to your value creation plan and business metrics.
Comprehensive due diligence of your product and engineering organization, followed by a transformation roadmap and hands-on execution support. When it's time to execute, implementation teams can be deployed fast through my specialist network.
Define your AI product strategy and implementation roadmap. Identify high-impact AI opportunities, build the business case, and guide your team through execution — from ideation to shipped features.
Strategic sparring, leadership coaching, and org design for founders and product leaders. I can also shadow your CPO as a trusted background partner — the thinking partner they won't find internally.
Selected Engagements
A selection of recent product and transformation engagements.
Led assessment of legacy systems, processes, and data flows across all subsidiaries. Defined target architecture, team setup, and multi-year transformation roadmap. Currently leading implementation.
Defined AI strategy and product strategy. Led team ramp-up, prioritized initatives with immediate revenue impact, established domain-based product teams and group-wide quarterly planning.
Full P&E due diligence and tech transformation. Conducted make vs. buy evaluations, migrated all 12 legacy systems onto 1 new modern tech landscape (websites, CRM, invoicing, LMS, DWH).
Executed complex department transformation in under 1 year. Drove conversion, customer satisfaction, and organic growth. Introduced data-driven product discovery & product-led growth.
Built large in-house product and engineering team from scratch. Launched 20+ ventures across eCommerce, FinTech, HealthTech, and Food. Built & managed in-house venture portfolio.
Owned product vision and backlog. Drove credit volume growth through bank partnerships, interface improvements, and ML-based scoring algorithms.
About
15+ years in the trenches of product and engineering — not advising from the sidelines, but building products, hiring teams, and transforming organizations from the inside. I'm known for getting things done, always in fast-paced, high-pressure environments. I typically work with companies between 30 and 250 people — Seed through Series C, PE-backed, and established Mittelstand businesses ready for their next growth phase.
My work spans modernizing legacy tech stacks, launching new product lines, restructuring product and engineering teams, drafting and executing AI product strategies, and guiding companies through complex strategic, regulatory, and technological transitions.
My career deliberately spans many industries — FinTech, eCommerce, Marketplaces, Education, and SaaS — giving me a breadth of pattern recognition most specialists simply don't have.
Outside work: pushing my limits on road cycling climbs, actively trading, and debating the future of work in an AI world.
Thought Leadership
A toolkit for building great products. Covering discovery, planning, and delivery.
A comprehensive toolkit for building high-performance product organizations. Practical frameworks leaders can apply immediately.
How to create High-Performing Product Organizations: Acquiring Talent, Guiding Strategically, Maximizing Productivity, Elevating Satisfaction.
What People Say
Having worked closely with Stefan as the Head of Engineering, I can confidently attest to his exceptional leadership and positive impact.
Stefan truly understands how to enable teams to do their best work. His ability to inspire and empower those around him is exceptional.
Stefan's exceptional product expertise and strong leadership skills made a significant impact on the ventures we were building, and his guidance was invaluable to our success.
You built with us during a phase when nothing existed yet and everything had to happen at once. Looking at a 9-person team today, it's easy to forget — but the foundation was laid in exactly that phase. Thank you, Stefan.
Let's Talk
Whether you need a fractional CPO, a tech transformation lead, or guidance on AI — let's start with a conversation.
hello@stefan-richter.com
Free 30-minute call · No commitment · Typically respond within 24h