The Mission Matters: An Interview with Abbie Moore, CPO of Adopt-A-Pet

We’re tapping into our CPO Expert Network from our new CPO Accelerator Program and learning from the best product leaders out there. Abbie Moore, CPO of non-profit organization Adopt-A-Pet, tells us what her company values most, how she measures impact, and why testing ideas and building products is just as important in the non-profit world.

How do you think product leadership differs at a for-profit vs a non-profit? Where are the areas of commonality?

Great question. Let me start with the commonalities, because in many ways, there’s no difference at all between leading product at a for-profit and at a non-profit, especially in a non-profit like ours, which is a highly-trafficked web app. In both cases, the fundamentals are the same: you must be intimately familiar with your customers and their problems. You must have a clear product vision and a strategy to achieve it. Out of that strategy, you must create clear objectives and goals with your team leads. You’re responsible for structuring the product organization and building and inspiring the team. And, as odd as it sounds, non-profits still have business and revenue goals that must be achieved. So, as in any organization, we’re constantly looking for the intersection of customer value and business value.

But, for us, there’s the question of mission value as well, and that’s where everything begins and ends with us. We are incredibly and authentically mission-driven.I know that the best for-profit companies have worthy missions as well, of course. For us, though, every decision starts with, “How does this further (or hinder) our mission?” That, more than anything, is our bottom line.

And measuring impact is incredibly important to us as well. It’s more difficult than you’d imagine to truly measure impact, and even to define it properly. For instance, for us, it’s not enough to ask ourselves, “How many pet adoptions did we facilitate?” That’s an important question, of course, and it tells us if our product is usable and if our SEO strategy is bringing the right people to the product, and so on. But the more impactful question is “How many pet adoptions did we cause that otherwise would not have happened?” If you approach impact from that angle, it dictates everything you do, really.

There are other differences. Non-profits don’t have shareholders. We also can’t offer equity to employees, so we have a harder time competing if the potential of a huge exit payday is the deciding factor. Luckily for us, a surprising number of people are driven by the need to contribute something lasting and meaningful to society, and we’ve never had a problem recruiting. And we try to be competitive with salary and benefits, as much as we can.

Describe how you approach telling a strong product story. Which KPIs do you focus on? Beyond fundraising, how do you measure impact?

We pay attention to a lot of KPIs. For Adopt-a-Pet, we track things like unique visitors who run a search, conversion (which, for us, is a complex combination of pet inquiries submitted and successful pet adoptions), signups for our New Pet Alert feature and what percentage are premium subscriptions, churn, and how we’re doing on certain contractual obligations to our corporate sponsors. We also have a second, related, major product, Rehome, which is our peer-to-peer pet adoption service. We keep a close watch on how many pets are onboarded, average number of inquiries per pet, and completed adoption contracts. But our true focus is on our OKRs, which are the major measures of how to move our mission and our business forward.

But, also…we don’t fundraise in the normal sense. We have corporate sponsors who fund us from their brand budgets, and they expect ROI. And we’ve built some value into the product itself as well, so we have some optional features that customers can pay for. And all of that goes back into supporting our mission and sustaining our organization. We don’t measure impact in dollars earned, though. That has nothing to do with how effective we are at helping animals find homes and helping people find their new best friends.

Some non-profits don’t have the budget or the understanding of how a product function contributes to overall org success. How do you showcase the value of the outcomes you and your team are driving toward?

Our non-profit really lends itself well to a robust product function because we really are our product. But it’s true that in more traditional non-profits, the value of product management hasn’t quite caught on yet. One thing that I love to talk about with traditional non-profit leaders is how product development principles can elevate their efforts. I’m a big proponent of Lean Startup methodology, which emphasizes things like getting intimately familiar with your customers (or constituents and donors, in the non-profit world), and their problems. Most importantly, it places a high value on testing ideas and building products (or programs) iteratively, being guided every step of the way by what you learned by launching the prior step. When you think about it, it’s really a perfect guide for building the most effective and impactful programs and for creating fundraising campaigns that really work. Generally, non-profits tend to create programs in a more waterfall fashion, working hard behind the scenes to build a complete program and then launching it into the world and hoping it’s useful. I’d really like to change that.

Many of us think about giving back to the community. Some of us even have considered applying our leadership skills at a non-profit. What advice do you have for leaders who want to make the change from a for-profit to a nonprofit? What are the unique skills needed?

My advice is DO IT! You have a unique opportunity, coming from the for-profit world, to bring business and startup rigor to a non-profit and use your knowledge and expertise to change the world in a way that inspires you (and others). You can even take a temporary sabbatical from for-profit entrepreneurship and give a non-profit a year of your talents.

All of the things that make you a great entrepreneur or product leader will serve you well in the non-profit space. A dedication to data. Measuring impact. Understanding the long-term vision and short-term goals and not being distracted from them. An ability to inspire others, both on your team and in the community. A true curiosity about the problem you’re solving and all of the underlying issues that contribute to it. And, of course, your leadership and organizational skills.

If you are a new or aspiring product executive interested in becoming a part of the CPO Accelerator Program and learning from CPOs like Abbie, you can apply here.

About Abbie Moore:

After a decade in the entertainment industry, Abbie Moore left to pursue her dream of changing the world for animals. After a stint learning the ropes at an animal welfare organization, she became employee #2 at Adopt-a-Pet.com, a then-fledgling non-profit website that allows people to view pets in animal shelters and rescue organizations all over North America. Sixteen years later, Adopt-a-Pet.com, with Abbie as Chief Product Officer, is one of the top industry leaders in the pet acquisition space, with millions of unique visitors and over 270,000 adoptable pets on the platform. In 2017, Abbie spearheaded the creation of Rehome, a groundbreaking product that facilitates peer-to-peer pet adoptions.