Stefan Richter

Fractional & Interim Chief Product Officer | Building Products That Win. Transforming Orgs That Don’t.

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

About

Fractional & Interim Chief Product Officer | Tech Transformation Expert 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. My impact shows up where it counts — revenue growth, cost reduction, faster delivery, and customer satisfaction. I typically work with companies between 30 and 500 people — Seed through Series C, PE-backed, and established Mittelstand businesses ready for their next growth phase. My work spans building and leading high-performing product departments, 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. I offer - Building up high-performing product departments from scratch with modern, AI-native processes - Stabilizing and leading product teams through transitions — gap cover that leaves things better than I found them - Aligning roadmaps directly to value creation plans and business metrics - Individual fractional/interim CPO missions - Product/tech org audits and tech transformation leadership - Product leadership coaching & mentoring, shadowing internal CPO/HoP Author of The Product Manager’s Playbook (Amazon). Road cyclist and active trader/investor. Skills: Transformation, AI Strategy, Product Operating Model, Strategy, Discovery & Research, Tech Due Diligence, Ideation, Product Strategy, Market & Product Positioning, Value Proposition, Talent Hiring, Team Productivity, Team Performance, Team Structures, Product Roadmap, MVP Definition, Product Management, Usability Testing, UX/UI, Engineering Team Setup, PM Coaching, Leadership, Interim, Fractional CPTO, OKRs, KPIs, Stakeholder Alignment, Salesforce, GenAI features, Scaling, Venture Building, LowCode, Coaching, CRM Expertise Hubspot and Salesforce #startups #fintech #scaleups #productmanagement #leadership #cpo stefan-richter.com

Experience

  • Fractional & Interim Chief Product Officer / Tech Transformation Expert at 10xProducts
    Oct 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 9 mos

    Helping VC- and PE-backed companies build better products, modernize their tech, and grow — as Fractional/Interim CPO. Tech Transformation | Product/Tech Team Leadership | Building Product Teams/Orgs | Re-structure and Turnarounds | 0 to 1 Product Launches | Product & Growth Strategy | AI Strategy www.stefan-richter.com

  • Interim Chief Product Officer / Tech Transformation Specialist at Leading institution in the (European) education market
    Nov 2025 - Present · 8 mos

    • Leading a group-wide assessment (DD) of systems, processes, and data flows to establish a scalable, unified technology architecture for all subsidiaries | ~500 employees (Group) • Defining the target architecture, team setup, and multi-year transformation roadmap, including integration strategy, system consolidation, and investment priorities. • Leading the implementation phase and roll-out.

  • Fractional & Interim Chief Product Officer, Ambassador at colayer
    Jun 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 1 mo

    Your partner for Tech & AI transformation.

  • Chief Product Officer & Group Executive at finanzen.net zero GmbH
    Apr 2025 - Dec 2025 · 9 mos

    Contributed to the growth of one of Germany’s leading neobrokers — empowering people to build wealth and delivering a premium experience for advanced traders. // Private equity backed (Inflexion) • Led product team ramp-up and established domain-based product teams. Established prioritized roadmap, group-wide quarterly planning process, and key regulatory processes. • Built and executed the AI strategy, including completion of an acqui-hire to secure key capabilities. • Identified and executed product initiatives with highest short-term impact on revenue and growth.

  • Interim Chief Product Officer at Education partners GmbH
    Jun 2024 - May 2025 · 1 yr

    P&E DD and tech transformation for edTech scaleup group of 12 different brands/organizations: conducted make vs. buy SW evaluations, migrated all 12 legacy systems onto 1 new modern tech landscape (websites, CRM, invoicing, LMS, DWH). // Private equity backed (Odewald KMU)