CPO Insights: Driving Product Innovation in a Competitive Space with Tomas Koprusak

In this TechBullion interview, Tomas Koprusak, Chief Product Officer at UptimeRobot, takes us behind the scenes of the uptime monitoring powerhouse. Tomas shares his journey at the intersection of technology and user experience, revealing the meticulous processes and innovative strategies that drive product development at UptimeRobot.

With a steadfast focus on delivering simple yet powerful monitoring solutions, Tomas explains how the team balances innovation with reliability in a service where stability is paramount. From user feedback-driven enhancements like the Monitor Wizard to proactive adaptation to emerging technologies and industry trends, this conversation offers a comprehensive look at how UptimeRobot stays ahead in a competitive market.

As Tomas delves into UptimeRobot’s prioritization framework, the integration of customer insights, and strategies for differentiation, he offers valuable lessons for product leaders navigating complex, competitive spaces. Whether discussing recent feature updates, such as improved status page capabilities and integration updates, or outlining future roadmaps, Tomas emphasizes UptimeRobot’s commitment to empowering users with actionable insights while maintaining a seamless user experience.

This interview not only highlights Tomas’s leadership philosophy but also provides a glimpse into UptimeRobot’s enduring mission: to deliver accessible and effective tools that keep businesses connected, informed, and resilient in the digital age.

Please tell us more about yourself.

I’m Tomas Koprusak, Chief Product Officer at UptimeRobot. I’ve spent my career at the intersection of technology and user experience, striving to build products that deliver real value while staying intuitive and accessible. At UptimeRobot, I oversee the product vision, strategy, and roadmap, collaborating with talented teams to ensure we meet and exceed our users’ expectations. Outside work, I enjoy exploring innovative ways to use technology in daily life, like creating smart home dashboards or embarking on challenging cycling adventures.

Tell us more about the technology behind UptimeRobot, how does UptimeRobot proactively identify emerging user needs and pain points to inform your product development roadmap?

UptimeRobot operates as a SaaS platform, using monitoring protocols to check websites, servers, and endpoints in real time. Our infrastructure is designed for high scalability and reliability, leveraging multiple cloud providers for redundancy and performance.

To stay in tune with our users’ needs, we actively gather feedback through multiple channels—user support interactions, surveys, feature requests, and behavior analytics. For example, analyzing why some users register but never set up a monitor informed our recent improvements to the onboarding flow. Additionally, we involve our Customer Success team early in roadmap planning to ensure we’re addressing the challenges users are vocal about.

With numerous potential features to develop, what criteria and processes do you employ to prioritize which functionalities are introduced to UptimeRobot’s platform?

We use a structured prioritization framework that evaluates features based on user value, business impact, and technical feasibility. A significant focus is placed on solving the most frequent pain points while balancing the needs of different user segments—from free users to enterprise customers.

Each initiative is assessed through the lens of metrics like user activation, engagement, and satisfaction. Feedback loops and experiments help validate assumptions before committing to full development. For example, our recently introduced Monitor Wizard originated as an internal prototype to address feedback about the complexity of setting up multiple monitors.

How does UptimeRobot monitor and integrate emerging technologies to ensure your platform remains at the forefront of the uptime monitoring industry?

We keep a close eye on trends in monitoring technologies, new protocols, and DevOps workflows, while continually optimizing our own systems for reliability and speed. Emerging standards and requirements are integrated thoughtfully—our heartbeat monitoring feature, for example, was introduced in response to the growing demand for automated job tracking.

We also ensure that any technology adopted aligns with our core mission of providing simple, accessible, and effective monitoring solutions.

In a service where reliability is paramount, how do you balance the introduction of innovative features with the need to maintain a stable and dependable platform for your users?

Reliability is non-negotiable for a service like ours. To ensure this, we deploy updates incrementally, using feature flags and extensive testing environments to catch potential issues before they reach users.

For example, our ongoing rollout of a new monitoring core involves a phased approach and clear communication with users to help them adapt to the changes. Regular failover testing, automated monitoring of our own systems, and maintaining clear incident protocols further strengthen our reliability.

Can you share specific examples of how user feedback has directly influenced recent product innovations or feature enhancements at UptimeRobot?

Absolutely. One of the standout examples is the Monitor Wizard. Users expressed frustration over manually setting up multiple monitors for critical pages, subdomains, and ports. In response, we created an intuitive tool that generates multiple monitors based on a single URL, saving time and effort.

Similarly, our updated MS Teams integration was shaped by feedback. Microsoft announced changes that would make older versions unsupported, so we ensured the update not only addressed these requirements but also aligned better with user workflows.

The growing need for transparency and customization also influenced our status page offering as we actively listened to our customers’ feedback to introduce status page features such as custom domain and branding as well as announcements and password protection.

In a crowded market, what strategies does UptimeRobot employ to differentiate its product offerings and provide unique value to your customer base?

Our primary focus is accessibility and simplicity without sacrificing functionality. Many monitoring solutions cater to enterprise clients with complex setups, while UptimeRobot delivers robust monitoring tools that anyone can use, regardless of technical expertise.

We also focus on iterative improvements to the user experience, ensuring that even as we add new features, the platform remains intuitive and easy to navigate.

We recently introduced free tools on our website, including a subnet calculator, to provide useful services to our website visitors – without requiring any account creation.

How does UptimeRobot stay responsive to shifting customer expectations, particularly in terms of user experience and feature set?

We closely track customer behavior and satisfaction through tools like NPS surveys and real-time analytics. We also test design iterations frequently to ensure changes resonate with users. For instance, our recent dashboard redesign was based on extensive user research and iterative feedback to enhance usability across all customer segments.

Surveys directly influenced the release of features such as port monitoring that help ensure databases and other services running on different ports on any server are always available.

Direct collaboration with our Customer Success and Support teams also helps us preempt shifts in expectations by analyzing recurring inquiries and pain points.

Could you discuss a recent case study or use case where UptimeRobot’s product strategy led to a significant improvement in a client’s operational performance or user experience?

A recent success story involves the redesign of our dashboard, which was informed by user insights and aimed at improving how teams organize and monitor their endpoints. By introducing a more streamlined interface and preparing advanced tagging options, we’re enabling customers to manage their workflows more efficiently.

Feedback from beta testers has been overwhelmingly positive, with users citing increased clarity and faster access to key data as major benefits.

Looking ahead, what are the key areas of focus for UptimeRobot’s product development to continue driving innovation and maintaining a competitive edge in the uptime monitoring space?

We’re focusing on expanding proactive monitoring capabilities, refining user onboarding, and improving scalability for larger teams. Features like advanced grouping and custom notifications are on our near-term roadmap.

We’re also committed to continuous improvements in reliability and system performance, ensuring that UptimeRobot remains a trusted partner for users of all sizes. Our long-term vision includes empowering users with even more actionable insights, helping them prevent downtime and optimize performance.