News Summary

  • Stitch Fix appointed Sree Sreedhararaj as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) on Monday. According to a press release, he will oversee the company's technology, product, data science, security, and IT teams, reporting directly to CEO Matt Baer.
  • Sreedhararaj brings over 20 years of retail technology experience, having previously worked at Walmart Labs and Sephora. According to his LinkedIn profile, he most recently served as CTO of Ipsy, a personalized beauty subscription service, where he built a microservices-based architecture and developed the company's AI strategy. He will succeed Tony Bacos, Stitch Fix's first CPTO. Bacos informed the company of his retirement plans in March, effective August 1.
  • Stitch Fix said in an email to CIO Dive: "Stitch Fix combined technology and product early on because our business has always relied on the close collaboration of both. Unifying these teams under one leader strengthens synergy, ensuring that product and technology strategies are both focused on the same goal: delivering the most customer-centric personalized shopping experience."

Deep Dive

Sreedhararaj's appointment reinforces a trend among technology leaders: hybrid roles are becoming common as companies seek to break down silos and directly link technology to revenue.

In some cases, companies are expanding the CIO title to include digital, data, and transformation functions, such as Delta Air Lines appointing Amala Duggirala as Chief Digital and Technology Officer in January. But in other cases, CIOs are incorporating product into their remit, a shift that is gaining momentum, according to Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates. IT veteran Jim Fowler took on a dual technology and product role when he joined Lumen Technologies in January. More recently, UiPath CTO Raghu Malpani expanded his responsibilities to include product in March, becoming Chief Product and Technology Officer.

"It's more common for technology talent to take over product than for product talent to take over technology, because technical knowledge is still more scarce," Heller said. Combining the two disciplines means companies can move faster and achieve "a tighter alignment between technology and customer needs in the product," Heller said, similar to the shift companies experienced when transitioning from waterfall to agile software development methodologies. "We are continuously reducing translation layers," she said.

While the push to integrate technology and product departments began about a decade ago, the rise of generative AI and agentic AI is putting the integration under pressure as companies strive to stay competitive, Heller noted.

Stitch Fix's appointment of a Chief Product and Technology Officer comes less than a week after the company reported its third-quarter earnings. The results showed active customers grew quarter-over-quarter for the first time since 2021, while customer retention and net sales per active customer also improved. However, active users were still down 3.5% year-over-year to 2.3 million. The company launched a transformation strategy in 2024, focusing on long-term growth and AI initiatives.

Under Baer's leadership (who joined the company from Macy's in 2023), Stitch Fix continues to advance its turnaround strategy, and Sreedhararaj will play a key role.

Baer said in the press release: "Sree has built technology platforms that enable personalization at scale. This perspective will be crucial as we shape a new era of retail."

Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the number of years of Sreedhararaj's retail technology experience.