The News, In Brief
Intrado Life & Safety has just appointed Lou Blatt as Chief Product Officer.
The company is doubling down on end‑to‑end Next Generation 9‑1‑1 (NG9‑1‑1) and AI‑powered public safety tech.
Blatt brings two decades of product leadership across Vonage, OpenText, Genesys, and more.
Translation: Intrado wants to move faster, modernize the stack, and ship outcomes that matter when seconds count.
Why This Matters For Product Managers
Even if you don’t work in public safety, this move is a masterclass in how product strategy meets mission‑critical reality.
Platform transitions are leadership tests. NG9‑1‑1 is not a feature; it’s a platform shift with standards, integrations, and strict SLAs. PMs who can lead platform transitions are rare—and valuable.
Reliability is the roadmap. In safety‑critical domains, uptime, routing accuracy, and latency beat shiny features. The best PMs make reliability visible in the roadmap and rituals.
AI needs governance, not hype. Expect stronger bets on AI for call routing, triage, and decision support—paired with privacy, security, and explainability.
Stakeholders multiply. You’re building for dispatchers, first responders, citizens, regulators, and procurement teams. That raises the bar on discovery and change management.
What To Watch Next
End‑to‑end NG9‑1‑1 adoption. Look for moves that connect call handling, location, text/video, and data sharing into one flow.
Open standards and interoperability. Investments around NENA‑style interfaces and vendor ecosystems.
Operational telemetry. Product teams turning reliability signals into product KPIs that executives can trust.
How You Can Use This (Starting This Week)
Reframe your roadmap around outcomes. If you’re shaping PRDs, try the playbook in our article on The ChatGPT PRD Workflow That Gets PMs Promoted Faster; it helps you anchor specs on risk, reliability, and measurable impact.
Prototype faster to win alignment. When you need to show the flow end‑to‑end, our guide From Doc → Demo in Hours: How PMs Win the Room shows AI‑assisted prototyping that turns ideas into a clickable demo fast—great for complex stakeholder groups.
Level up leadership rituals. Reliability work sticks when your team habits support it; use the structure in Stop Wasting 1‑on‑1s on Status Updates to coach through trade‑offs and keep the team focused.
Sharpen your interview story. If you target CPO‑led orgs modernizing legacy platforms, you’ll face deep product thinking questions; our PM Interview Guide: The Frameworks Behind $50K Salary Increases will help you frame outcomes, not outputs.
Tune your 2025 toolbox. For a broader skills reset that matches where the role is heading, read What Great Product Managers Need in 2025.
Our Takeaway
This is the right kind of product bet: a seasoned operator for a high‑stakes platform shift.
The lesson for PMs—especially aspiring heads of product—is simple: master platform modernization, interoperability, and operational excellence.
When the mission is safety, you earn trust with boring reliability, crisp communication, and clear outcomes.
Final Thoughts
A CPO change at a mission‑critical company is more than a title update.
It flags where product is heading: reliability, standards, and responsible AI. Build those muscles now and you’ll be ready for your next big role.
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— Product Career Hub