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

In this interview from Melissa Perri's CPO Accelerator series, Abbie Moore, CPO of the non-profit Adopt-A-Pet, explains that product leadership at a non-profit shares most fundamentals with for-profit work: customer depth, product vision, strategy, and balancing customer value with business value. The key difference is that every decision is anchored to mission impact, which pushes measurement beyond raw activity toward counterfactual impact, such as adoptions that would not otherwise have happened. She describes the KPIs and OKRs her team tracks, how sponsor ROI and optional paid features sustain the organization, and why she advocates Lean Startup iteration for traditional non-profits that still launch programs in a waterfall fashion. Her closing advice is that for-profit leaders can bring valuable rigor and data discipline to mission-driven work.

01Key takeaways

• Anchor product decisions to mission impact first, treating it as the true bottom line.
• Measure incremental impact, such as outcomes that would not have happened otherwise, rather than raw volume alone.
• Use OKRs to connect short-term metrics like conversion and churn to long-term mission goals.
• Balance customer value and business value even when revenue comes from sponsors or optional paid features.
• Apply iterative, test-and-learn development to programs and fundraising instead of building fully before launching.
• Experienced for-profit leaders can bring data rigor and organizational skills to mission-driven organizations.

02Key sections

Commonalities across for-profit and non-profit product work

Moore argues the core product fundamentals are the same in both settings, including customer intimacy, a clear vision, and aligned objectives. Non-profits still have business goals, so the job is finding where customer value meets business value.

Mission as the bottom line

Every decision starts with whether it advances or hinders the mission. Impact is framed as additional adoptions that would not otherwise have occurred, not simply total activity.

KPIs, OKRs and funding model

The team tracks search reach, conversion, premium signups, churn, sponsor obligations, and peer-to-peer Rehome metrics, with OKRs as the main measure of progress. Revenue comes from corporate sponsor brand budgets and optional paid features rather than traditional fundraising.

Bringing Lean Startup methods to non-profits

Moore advocates customer familiarity and iterative testing for traditional non-profits, which often build complete programs before launch. She sees iterative learning as a better route to effective programs and fundraising campaigns.

Advice for for-profit leaders moving to non-profits

She encourages experienced product leaders to make the move, even temporarily, and lists transferable strengths such as data discipline, long-term vision, inspiring others, and curiosity about underlying problems.

03From the post

“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.”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.