Decibel Chief Product Officer
Built an empowered product organisation and a dual-track discovery and delivery model. The company was acquired by Medallia.
Product Leadership Advisory & Coaching
Building product got cheap.
Judgment didn't.
For 20+ years I've built and led product as CPO, VP Product and co-founder. I help B2B SaaS scale-ups turn product from a delivery function into a strategic, outcome-driven force - usually within six to twelve months.
$100M
ARR reached by products under my leadership
+600%
growth of a product line in two years
6-12 mo
typical engagement, built around a clean exit
The shift
Everyone can build now. That is exactly the problem.
Delivery is now close to solved. Specs become designs become production code, with very little human review in between. The hard part was always shipping the right thing. AI exposed a bottleneck that was there all along.
Individual productivity is up. Team judgment is not. Closing that gap is the work of product management - and it keeps getting more valuable.
Who I work with
Where I do my best work.
It usually starts with a quiet conversation. The leadership team, or sometimes an investor: "Can we talk? Our product management isn't really working. They need someone to help them get their work under control. We are frustrated, and out of ideas..."
Then I go in, and I find the same frustration on the other side. The product leader and the team feel that nobody understands their work, or how it gets done. Half-baked ideas get thrown over the wall, and they are quietly treated as slow, inefficient, and siloed. In truth they are at their limit, working incredibly hard, and still getting little done: they never get the room to do the right things.
Two frustrated sides, each certain the other doesn't get it. That is the room I walk into.
What drives me most is seeing the positive effects firsthand. The numbers move. And the people change: the team and the leadership see what product is really for, and what it can do. People take ownership and move things they did not think were possible before. Watching that happen is why I really enjoy this work.
Track record
Twenty-plus years building and leading product.
From the first product hire to a public company - here is where it counts most.
20+
years in product leadership
$100M
ARR reached by products under my leadership
+600%
growth of a product line in two years
Medallia VP Product, then Digital Suite lead
Took responsibility for the Digital Suite and grew it to nearly $100M ARR in a year.
Globalization Partners Head of Emerging Products
Led the Contractor product to the fastest growth in the company - more than 600% in two years.
Chemondis Product consultant
A four-week diagnostic became a full product rebuild. On the way out, I was offered the Co-CEO role.
I started out in large corporations: AOL Germany, eBay Europe. Then built my own in the US: bellicon Home, bellicon Studio. Now I focus where it has the most leverage - B2B SaaS scale-ups ready to make product a strategic force.
Voices
What it's like to work with me.
The people who hired me, in their own words.
I gave him the freedom and budget to build a world-class product organisation, and he exceeded every expectation.
Felix joined Decibel at a pivotal point in the company's growth. We had no formal product organisation, were scaling rapidly, and faced increasingly sophisticated competition. It was clear we needed to innovate faster and bring much greater structure to how we built our product.
Felix quickly understood what was required. I gave him the freedom and budget to build a world-class product organisation, and he exceeded every expectation. He assembled an exceptional team of talented people who earned the respect of the entire business and were a genuine pleasure to work with. His ability to attract and develop outstanding people is one of his greatest strengths.
Beyond his professional ability, Felix is one of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of working with. Calm, thoughtful, intelligent, enthusiastic and deeply experienced, he brings a quiet confidence that makes those around him better. He has a grounded, balanced approach to leadership that is invaluable in a fast-growing company, particularly during periods of change and pressure.
I genuinely miss working with Felix. Any leadership team would be fortunate to have him.
Felix ran Emerging Products for us at G-P and made the Contractor product one of the fastest-growing lines in the company. He builds strong teams, stays close to customers, and delivers. I appreciate a lot what he did for G-P.
What separates Felix from other great product leaders is a rare mix of analytics and compassion.
What separates Felix from other great product leaders is a rare mix of analytics and compassion. With regards to analytics, Felix lives by continuous customer insights when he hones in on your UX, regardless of what the founder or the CEO thinks. This cycle of incremental UX honing can make all the difference for a scale-up, before you have even thought about your marketing spend.
His compassionate side allows him to rally teams around this credo of continuous customer insights vs. “I know what my users need”. The sum of these parts can move all your product metrics up into the right.
Lastly, Felix is an absolute thrill to work with. Miss the opportunity at your peril.
I've had the pleasure of seeing Felix lead product teams across two portfolio companies. He made a strong positive impact in both instances, and I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again.
What sets Felix apart is that his perspective comes from leading product organizations through significant growth and transformation.
I worked closely with Felix across two companies, first at Medallia and later at G-P.
Felix combines strategic product thinking with commercial acumen and builds empowered product organizations. He develops strong leaders, creates a culture of ownership and customer focus, and partners effectively across engineering, GTM teams, customers, and executive leadership.
What sets Felix apart is that his perspective comes from leading product organizations through significant growth and transformation. He brings the experience, leadership, and pragmatism to help companies build world-class product organizations.
How I work
One model. Your team, fully in charge of product.
Success is the day your team runs product confidently on its own.
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01
Diagnosis
I sit inside the product organisation, talk to your people, and come back with an honest assessment: where product stands, what is in the way, and the first moves. Useful whether or not we continue.
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02
Redesign
We rebuild how product works: a seat at the executive table, goals aligned to the business, empowered teams with a real mandate, and discovery owned by the team.
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03
Implementation and handover
We put it into practice and make it stick. Then I hand the team to a named successor and step back. Redundancy is the goal.
About
Felix von Kunhardt
Twenty-plus years in product as CPO, VP and co-founder, mostly B2B SaaS in the phase where a company is scaling faster than its product organisation can keep up.
Empowered-teams school (Cagan, Torres, SVPG), grounded in what works inside real companies under real pressure: teams that own outcomes, discovery that changes decisions, product with a seat at the leadership table.
Based in Berlin; I work across DACH, the UK, and wider Europe and the US - a few engagements at a time, most six to twelve months, by design.
Let's talk
Tell me where your product team stands.
The best first step is a short conversation. A few lines about your company and what's prompting the call is plenty - I'll come back to you.