Aakarsh Kishore is an established leader with over 20 years of experience as a career consultant. He is known for his expertise in identifying underlying business challenges and delivering innovative, data-driven solutions to some of world’s leading enterprises, helping them move forward in their digital transformation journey.
As Chief Product Officer at MathCo, Aakarsh leads MathCo’s Product and Engineering service lines and overall product, engineering and platform strategy, while collaborating across service lines to explore new opportunities for offering tailored solutions built on NucliOS, MathCo’s proprietary platform. He enables MathCo teams to productize solutions that truly empower enterprises to own their intelligence, with a strong focus on driving adoption as a key part of his strategy.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with Digital First Magazine, Aakarsh shared his professional trajectory, insights on the evolution of the product landscape in the next five years, personal hobbies and interests, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Aakarsh. Can you walk us through your background and what you’re most passionate about in your work?
I have about 20 years of experience in consulting, during which I’ve worked with many organizations. What I’ve found most exciting is working with specialized companies such as MathCo that push the boundaries of innovation and create new channels to create value for their clients. The journey from ideation to value creation excites me the most.
I’m deeply passionate about building, creating, and challenging the status quo. Throughout my consulting career, I’ve focused on finding ways to create value for clients – not just delivering what’s been asked but going beyond the ask. It’s incredibly fulfilling to understand client problems, craft a vision to meet their needs, and then go further to elevate their experiences through our work.
I enjoy helping clients innovate and create value for their customers while providing a bird’s-eye view of how we can push boundaries and amplify impact. This is a key part of what drives me professionally.
What do you love the most about your current role?
What I value most in my role is the freedom to experiment – to try new things, fail fast, learn from those failures, and build something even better.
I also get to collaborate with some of the best and brightest minds, both within MathCo and beyond. The diversity of perspectives I encounter is truly inspiring. Together, we co-create innovative offerings that deliver meaningful value.
The ability to experiment, innovate, and collaborate across disciplines is what I love most about my current role.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a CPO, and how have you overcome them?
Innovation and experimentation often mean working on ideas that aren’t just new to MathCo or our clients – they’re entirely new to the world. Not everyone is always in sync with such ideas, which can be challenging.
To navigate this, I focus on the end outcome and work backward. By starting with a clear vision of the goal, I can bring others along on the journey. This approach requires a lot of learning, communication, and adaptability.
Often, I’m working with concepts that don’t fit traditional molds – they’re entirely new shapes. While this can be challenging, it’s also incredibly rewarding. To overcome resistance, I aim to simplify complex ideas and clearly articulate how they create value.
When you’re presenting something unfamiliar, trust and confidence are key. You have to live and breathe the conviction of your proposition to bring others on board.
How do you see the product landscape evolving in the next 5-10 years, and what opportunities or challenges do you think this will present for product leaders?
The product landscape has been evolving rapidly since the mid-2000s. Initially, the focus was on simplifying experiences for users. Then came the app revolution, where smartphones made information, decisions, and analysis accessible at our fingertips.
In the next five years, AI will be a game-changer. It will address many current challenges and elevate expectations. Today, insights and analysis at your fingertips are table stakes. Tomorrow, products will need to offer decision recommendations – actionable guidance based on data and insights.
Organizations creating productized assets will need to stay ahead of the curve, experimenting with AI and leveraging its potential. However, the biggest challenge will be building trust. Technology can’t just be a black box producing magic answers. For AI to gain mainstream adoption, it must provide transparent, explainable, and trustworthy outputs.
As we innovate, we need to marry technological advancements with trust-building efforts to ensure users feel confident in the recommendations. This dual focus—on innovation and trust—will define the next decade of product leadership.
What personal or professional philosophies have contributed to your success, and how have you applied these principles in your career?
As a leader, it’s crucial to stay in tune with your core values. Decisions that deviate from those values may yield short-term success but often leave a lasting discomfort. Self-awareness, understanding what drives you, what makes you tick, and what doesn’t, is critical.
While I’m not perfect and have occasionally strayed from my values, I’ve learned that such actions rarely lead to meaningful success. I try to make decisions that align with my principles, as these are the ones I can deliver with genuine conviction and impact.
This philosophy extends to my personal life as well. As a father of two and a supporting husband to an equally accomplished spouse, I strive to live by my values in every aspect of my life. It helps me nurture the best partnerships, relationships, and collaborations while also ensuring that my time is spent meaningfully.
By aligning decisions with my core values, I have been able to lead with authenticity and create a lasting impact across all dimensions of my life.
Who has been a significant influence or mentor in your career, and how have they helped shape your professional journey?
Having been fortunate enough to have multiple mentors throughout my career, I don’t believe in having a single role model – different people bring unique perspectives and strengths. Every incredibly bright mind I’ve worked with has influenced my journey in unique ways.
One of the most valuable lessons I learned from the CEO of my prior organization was about prioritization. You can’t solve all problems all the time – trying to do so only sets you up for failure. Instead, focus on what’s strategically important and give your 100% to those select priorities. Spreading yourself too thin dilutes your efforts and impact. A key insight that follows is the importance of follow-through. As a leader, when you commit to something, you must see it through to success. This requires focus and dedication but also demands that you choose your battles wisely.
At my current organization, I have learned a lot from our Co-founders about the value of having a vision: how to craft it, stay true to it, and avoid diluting its essence. It is a lightning rod that brings people and ideas together. Without a clear vision and a strong commitment to it, your day-to-day feels like a job rather than a journey. That consistent focus on vision has been a critical lesson for me.
What are some of your passions outside of work? What do you like to do in your time off?
As a busy dad to two young kids, aged four and six, my greatest joy comes from spending time with them. Watching them grow and seeing the world through their eyes is a truly magical experience.
I never realized that an unexpected perk of parenthood is the chance to relive the world through a uniquely naïve and curious perspective. Whether it’s their fascination with spotting a Cybertruck for the first time or their deep curiosity about Rajasthan’s architecture, their observations spark profound conversations. For instance, my six-year-old once questioned why forts have high walls, which led to a discussion on history,war, and defense – moments like these are priceless. I love to travel solo with my kids (usually, one at a time!) to create memorable experiences that will outlast their childhood.
I’m also passionate about maintaining my physical and mental health. I believe this is essential, not just as a parent or a leader, but as a person. Investing time in staying fit and mentally agile is a priority for me, and it is directly related to my ability to balance work and life effectively.
Which technology are you investing in now to prepare for the future?
It’s hard to answer this without mentioning AI! AI is undeniably shaping the future. But for me, it’s not just about investing in AI as a technology; it’s about understanding how to build trust between AI and its users.
While I have a team of brilliant, tech-savvy individuals to develop a solid technology roadmap, my role lies in ensuring that this roadmap translates into real value. I’m particularly focused on the intersection of technology and people. How can we create solutions that not only work but are trusted and embraced by users? That’s where I’m investing my energy.
What are your long-term career aspirations, and how do you see yourself evolving as a leader over the next five years?
Looking ahead, I want to double down on the principles that have guided me so far. First, I aim to deepen my understanding of the value technology creates and my role in amplifying that value.
Second, I want to sharpen my ability to prioritize and focus on what’s most strategically important for my organization. While I know this is essential, I sometimes get caught up in day-to-day operations. Improving in this area will be a key focus for me.
Lastly, my future lies in the people side of technology. Technology, without the human connection, is just a shiny object. I want to invest time in exploring how to build trust between people and the technologies they interact with, ensuring that innovation serves real human needs.
What advice would you give to aspiring product leaders who are looking to develop their skills and advance their careers in product management?
The simplest definition of a product that I’ve come across is “that which has a user”. If you want to excel as a product leader, you must have a deep understanding of your users.
It’s not enough to have technical skills or know how to build a product – those are simply the rite of passage for successful product leaders and managers. The real journey starts with empathy towards your users. You need to step into your users’ shoes, understand their motivations, and anticipate how they’ll interact with your product.
Successful product managers can predict user behavior because they deeply understand their needs and the context in which the product operates. Start with the user and work backward to design solutions that truly enhance their lives.
Of course, you need technical skills to discover opportunities to build new and exciting products, but that’s just the foundation. The real differentiator is your ability to think like your users and put them at the center of everything you do.