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You don't have to wait until retirement to reinvent your career.

Namrata Sarmah followed the traditional path all the way to the C-suite before realizing there was more than one way to be successful.

Today, Nam built CPO Track, while advising private equity-backed companies, building executive communities, and helping leaders create what she calls a "plural career."

If you've ever wondered what comes after the corporate ladder, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on what's possible.

You launched what you called a plural career. What is that exactly and how is it different from fractional?

Nam: Fractional is one component of it, but a plural career is really about building a professional life with multiple meaningful pursuits.

For me, that means running CPO Track, advising private equity-backed companies, doing consulting work, speaking, investing time in community building, and still having space for family life.

Most of us were raised with a very traditional career script. You go to school, get a job, climb the ladder, and retire. That's the path I grew up with too.

But somewhere along the way, I realized that isn't the only option. There are many ways to build a successful career, and a plural career gives you the freedom to combine different interests, skills, and opportunities instead of putting everything into a single full-time role.

You mentioned a very traditional script for many executives, who dream about leaving corporate life and building a portfolio career. What misconceptions do people have about making that move?

Nam: There's time for everything, so don't be in a hurry. I see a lot of people who are still mid-career and first-time VPs or directors who can't wait to go solo. They're looking for board roles, advisory roles, and fractional opportunities, but find it really hard to land those roles.

I think patience is very important. You can do the whole thing first: reach the top of the ladder, be an executive, and do it once, twice, or thrice. Your credibility is built on your track record, so you need to give yourself time to build your profile in that role.

When you do that, business development becomes much easier because most of your opportunities become inbound – and that's exactly what happened to me. Everybody is a text message away. 

But if I had tried to do this as a director or VP, I don't think it would have been nearly as easy. I would have had to do a lot more outbound outreach and pitching, and that's always harder.

The same thing applies to community building. When I started my communities, I was already a multiple-time CPO. Whether we like it or not, job titles are still very powerful. They create credibility. They open doors.

A lot of people dismiss that as old-fashioned thinking, but the reality is that most of the world still believes in titles. When I launched my communities, sponsors were a text message away because people already knew who I was and what I had accomplished.

You've built a successful fractional career working with PE-backed companies. How did you actually make that transition happen?

Nam: I've always believed that networking isn’t something you do when you need a job. It’s something you do when you already have a job, so that when you need the next opportunity, your network shows up for you.

When I left my permanent role last year, I started letting people know. That's the first step.

I reached out to search firms I'd worked with for years and told them I wasn't interested in permanent executive roles anymore. I explained that I wanted to move into advisory and fractional work and asked them to introduce me to the teams inside their firms that handled interim and contract placements.

Then I reached out to private equity firms and investors I'd worked with previously. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

Timing also matters. Right now, many companies don't necessarily need a full-time executive leader. But they still need experienced leadership.

A company may not need a full-time CPO, but they still need someone to provide product leadership, hold teams accountable, and guide strategy. That's where fractional work fits incredibly well.

When I spoke to search firms and PE firms, that was essentially my pitch.

I said, "You need senior people. Senior people are hard to find. And often you don't need them five days a week. You need them two or three days a week." That resonated.

By December, I already had two fractional roles lined up. For the first six months, I worked five days a week across two companies. It was a fantastic experience and very rewarding.

But it also taught me an important lesson: if you work too much, your cup is constantly empty.

Going forward, I want to be much more intentional about protecting my time – because the whole point is to create a life that works for you, not a full-time job in a different format.

CPO Track started as a side project for you. At what point did you realize it had become something much bigger?

Nam: I've always been a people person. I know a lot of amazing people, and I started bringing product leaders together simply because I enjoyed it. No grand business plan behind it.

But as the community grew, we started receiving inbound interest from large technology companies who wanted to sponsor events and partner with us.

That's when I realized this wasn't just a hobby anymore. This could be a real business.

Before CPO Track, there were communities for product professionals, but many of them lacked focus and curation. The quality of conversations wasn't always high, and senior leaders often felt they weren't getting enough value.

At the same time, I was running Women in Product UK, and many senior women told me they loved the community but needed a space where they could connect with peers facing similar challenges. A 25-year-old product manager and a CPO simply have different conversations and different needs.

So we created a more curated environment.

Then something interesting happened. Some of my male CPO friends heard about it and wanted the same kind of space. We then expanded the concept, and eventually CPO Track became a community for senior product leaders more broadly.

Today, CPO track has more than 800 members across 12 cities worldwide. What makes it work is that we're focused on opportunities and helping people find jobs, advisors, mentors, sponsors, business partners, and friendships.

We're highly curated, so the conversations stay high quality and engaging.

The lesson here is that the best businesses start by solving a problem you personally care about.

What We Can Learn from Namrata Sarmah:

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