How SiteMinder's CPO balances revenue with customer needs

Leah Rankin has spent over two decades in the tech industry, working across startups and enterprises from Brisbane to London to Sydney. As Chief Product Officer at SiteMinder, the world's leading hotel distribution and revenue platform, she oversees product strategy for over 47,000 properties globally. We spoke with Leah about the challenges of scaling product teams, the balance between innovation and customer needs, and how AI is transforming the hospitality industry.

You've had quite a journey to become CPO at SiteMinder. Can you tell us about your background and how it shaped your approach to product leadership?

My path to SiteMinder actually began long before I joined the company. I've spent 25 years in tech, working across various industries, from small startups to large enterprises across Brisbane, London and Sydney. What was particularly valuable was my experience in the travel space, where I built booking engines for flights and hotel packages. By the time I joined SiteMinder, I already understood the industry's complexities well.

Starting as VP of Global Onboarding was perfect preparation for the CPO role. That position gave me deep customer insights and taught me to build scalable tech solutions and teams, a perspective that's been invaluable, as being close to the customer is absolutely key to successful product strategy.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a CPO, and what advice would you give to aspiring product leaders?

My biggest challenge is ensuring we're building the right thing at the right time, which means finding the perfect balance between exciting new innovative features and improving our current product experience. For most product leaders, the challenge is resisting the urge to chase every shiny new feature, even if innovation stories attract investors and talent.

You need to stay close to your customers' needs through comprehensive data and research, then apply frameworks to make critical decisions. The hardest but most important skill in product is learning to say "no," or "not now", while staying true to your vision and ensuring you're delivering real customer value.

How do you ensure product experience is prioritised in what is traditionally a sales-heavy industry?

Sales is incredibly important for any high-growth company, so it's natural that we balance product and sales priorities carefully. The key is building strong partnerships between product and sales through clear frameworks and a shared vision. When everyone understands our long-term product strategy, we can have constructive conversations about which opportunities align with our roadmap and which might pull us off course.

I often refer to the 80/20 rule: if a feature request could add value to 80% of our customer base, it's likely already part of our product vision. However, if it's truly only valuable to 20%, we can often work together to find alternative solutions. This framework creates a collaborative environment where product and sales work as partners rather than competing for focus.

You've scaled SiteMinder's product team. What's your approach to team structure, and what have been your key lessons?

The key to building high-performing teams starts with having the right structure, clear roles and responsibilities, and very clear expectations and outcomes for your people. Our structure has evolved alongside our product strategy, from siloed teams when we were selling individual products, to supporting our platform approach, and now adapting for our smart platform vision.

Change is the only constant, so teams that adapt well to change are the most successful ones, but you need to manage that change through transparency and communication. The most important lesson is that structure must follow strategy. As our product continues to evolve from individual products to an integrated platform, the team structure needs to evolve to support that holistic thinking.

How are you approaching AI at SiteMinder?

We're approaching AI through two lenses. First, we're exploring how generative and agentic AI can unlock value for our customers and hotel guests as part of our smart platform strategy. Second, we're implementing AI internally to improve our own operations, using it for customer support, translation, and automating manual processes.

The real value in AI is that it allows people to stop doing repetitive tasks and focus on what humans do best, building relationships and creating innovative solutions. My advice is to think about AI as a tool that enhances human capability, especially in hospitality, where human connection remains crucial.

What's your philosophy on experimenting with AI and emerging technologies?

There's no need to fear the unknown. Businesses should embrace the opportunities of AI, but with a structured approach. I believe in trial, test, validate and learn. AI will help organisations leapfrog ahead in certain functions, but that doesn't mean they have to be "all in" without a Plan B.

The key is taking a trial-and-error approach, being open to pivoting as you learn from each experiment, and having the drive to double down on successes that prove to add value to the customer. We need to always take it back to the customer, ask yourself whether what you're doing is adding genuine value at every stage.

You've spoken about being "product-led" versus "sales-led." What does that mean in practice?

Product-led doesn't mean product makes all the decisions; it means building intuitive experiences that allow customers to self-serve and discover features organically without needing human intervention. This is especially important for scaling to the volumes we're targeting without exponentially increasing support and sales teams.

Customer centricity has become a hot topic, and while personal relationships and consultative selling will always be valuable, many customers increasingly prefer the efficiency of self-service options. By making our products more intuitive and self-explanatory, we can serve these customers better while allowing our sales teams to focus on complex, high-value engagements where their expertise adds the most value.

Having an intuitive product that delivers a seamless customer experience enables more efficient growth and higher customer stickiness. When products are clear and easy to navigate, both sales and onboarding teams can focus on deeper value creation—helping customers achieve strategic goals rather than explaining basic functionality. For technology companies, this often means focusing on continuous product improvement based on customer data and feedback, rather than continually adding new features and trying to sell those separately.

What advice would you give to companies looking to become more product-led?

The goal is to create more intuitive products that handle routine tasks automatically so your people can focus on the high-value interactions that truly matter.

Innovation doesn't work if it's limited to a specific team or location. Instead, implementing a culture and capacity to innovate throughout the organisation on a day-to-day basis is more effective… For employees, the ability to drive change is often why they choose to join or stay in the tech industry, and businesses need to be prepared to enable this in ways that focus on adding value to the customer.