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Spotlight:
Maria Angelidou-Smith

Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) at Personio

Maria Angelidou-Smith discovered her passion for creation at an early age. “My dad is a civil engineer, and he would sometimes take me to the sites of the projects he oversaw. I remember always feeling amazed when I saw the end result of buildings buzzing with people, when just a little while ago it was an empty site. That process of creation – the ability of humans to build the future – really fascinated me.” 

Angelidou-Smith harnessed her early passion for building into a storied career innovating category-leading products for Facebook, where she spent nearly ten years holding various roles from leading monetization products for Facebook properties to leading community marketplaces such as Groups, Events, Dating and more. Today, Angelidou-Smith is helping Personio redefine the HR software industry by leading product development for its People Operating System.

Angelidou-Smith spoke with Riviera Partners to share her insights into effective product development and scaling, improving opportunities for women in the tech industry, and what to look for when building company culture. 

01

The 3 keys to
product success

02

Mitigate a weakness
to elevate a strength

03

Strive for joy

04

Your people
are your culture

01

The 3 keys to
product success

Product development has two distinct phases: the product development process of going from zero to one – invention, validation, prototyping, testing, iterating – and the scaling process of going from one to many as you bring the product to a mass market. Based on her experience, Angelidou-Smith believes there are three key elements to mastering both phases.

  1. Start with the customer. “Innovation begins with an obsession with the customer. It’s not enough to dream up an amazing product or feature; it has to be grounded in what’s valuable for the users and solve their specific job-to-be-done in a new and unexpectedly simple and delightful way.”
  2. Execute, execute, execute. “A high velocity of development is incredibly important to exceeding customer expectations. Speed of execution can be and often is key to staying competitive.”
  3. Prioritize scaling your people. “A lot of attention is paid to scaling tech and infrastructure. But scaling very much starts with people. Are you scaling the people responsible for setting up your tech, building your products, and growing your business? If not, you will limit the potential of the business and things will start to fall off a cliff pretty fast.”

“Innovation begins with an obsession with the customer.”

02

Mitigate a weakness
to elevate a strength

It’s no secret that tech remains a male-dominated industry. Throughout her career, Angelidou-Smith has worked to elevate the impact of women in tech. “I made an effort to invest in development of under-represented talent and my teams have always been equally male and female which is not very common to see in tech” she said. “And at Meta, I took on a leadership role in overseeing senior promotions so that I could play my part in holding an equitable process.”

Based on her experience working with other female leaders in tech, Angelidou-Smith has observed one trait that women need to be conscious of to excel. “I find that high-performers in leadership positions tend to focus on what they’re not good at, developing a sort of internal narrative that holds them back. This is especially true for women. I can think of many times a woman would come to me, even after she did an amazing job, and the first thing she talks about is all the aspects of the project where she thinks she failed.”

“To get past that, my advice is to prioritize your professional development to get above average on the things you’re weak at so they don’t become distractions. That way you can focus on your true strengths to turn them into indispensable qualities.”

“I can think of many times a woman would come to me, even after she did an amazing job, and the first thing she talks about is all the aspects of the project where she thinks she failed.”

03

Strive for joy

Even the best product in the world can’t overcome a toxic company culture. Hiring and retaining the right people – not just the right skills – is essential to long-term success. 

“We spend so much time with the people we work with, so I think it’s really important to strive for a joyful experience. Every leader should direct their full energy towards hiring and retaining the right people for their team,” Angelidou-Smith said.

“This means not only hiring people who are stronger than you, but who share the same values with you and the organization that you’re trying to build. Don’t just look for the skills that you or your organization is missing; look at who they are as people, what drives them, why they are doing what they’re doing, how they respond in crises.”

“Every leader should direct their full energy towards hiring and retaining the right people for their team.”

04

Your people
are your culture

Building an authentic, effective culture isn’t just about building a conductive work environment. It’s about creating a holistic ecosystem where there is a shared vision for success. By focusing on hiring people who share your product and engineering culture, the culture can become self-fulfilling. 

“Culture becomes self-selection; people who don’t buy in filter out. The clearer you are about what you stand for, how you work, what is valued, and what gets rewarded, the more you will attract the people who are motivated and excited by your culture,” she said. 

“Culture becomes self-selection; people who don’t buy in filter out.”

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