Ever feel like your product organization is stuck in the mud? Youâre not alone. Many teams start strong, laser-focused on delivering value and achieving product-market fit. But as success scales, things get messy. Dependencies pile up, alignment fades, and suddenly, youâre running a feature factory instead of an empowered product organization. Why Do Product Organizations Stall?Hereâs the typical lifecycle:
![]() The result? Fewer empowered teams, more inefficiencies, and a lot of frustration. Think about it like an upside-down pyramidâwhere most of the work is tangled and component-oriented, teams that can deliver features on their own are in the top 10%, and a team that owns a product/outcome and can run fast feedback loops, trying different features to move the needle on a metric that matters is a unicorn. ![]() Flipping the PyramidTo escape this trap, we need to rethink how work is structured, and push as much work down to the healthier base of the pyramid:
![]() (Does this flipping the pyramid sound familiar? Itâs inspired by the Test Automation Pyramid, which is a key framework in the Agile Testing world.) ![]() NOTE: I got the idea for this article and especially the visual above based on a conversation with John Cutler and his article on Work Shape Mix. Go read it now. Itâs a gem. The Roadmap to ChangeThis isnât an overnight fix. Transforming into a healthy product organization requires:
![]() (This trail map is based on the Portfolio Agility Trail Map â a guide for applying an Agile Product Operating Model at scale) Why It MattersA flipped pyramid means less micromanagement, more innovation, and a clearer path to delivering real value, not just features or timelines. Itâs about creating an environment where empowered teams thrive and your organization can scale without losing its soul. Curious about how to flip your Product Pyramid? Letâs figure out your Product Operating Model Strategyâtogether. âRead When and Why Do We Need a Product Operating Model? On Your Browserâ â Yours, |
Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.
Context is King Youâve probably encountered this term in the context of AI. You wonât get far with AI, even with amazing prompting techniques, if AI doesnât have the right context. Many people focus on the Data aspect of context â whatâs in our CRM, in our collaboration tools, in our ERP, in any of our vertical systems. Another interesting aspect is the intent â what are we trying to achieve? What is our strategy? What problems are we focused on? Who are the players? Some of that information...
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When Vered and I got married, my father-in-law gave me a very nice watch as a wedding gift. I didnât wear a watch that often at the time. I wore the watch, but it didnât transform me. It provided the service of telling the time, but even back in 2004, we had phones that had clocks. And I was and am pretty punctual so didnât need that transformation. (And when youâre in Engineering/IT leadership, nobody cares about the watch you wear⌠at least in Israel⌠) Donât tell Eli, but that watch spent...