Product Strategy Governance Intake and Prioritization
Problem
A global provider of driver safety and transportation intelligence fleet services had experienced significant growth and its diverse customer base had driven a proliferation of product offering variants. The need to focus their finite resources and prioritize their investments would be key to their ability to scale their technology platform for future growth. The executive team needed support in developing a decision-making and prioritization methodology for the many projects that were under consideration or in-flight, which all involved deep cross-functional requirements with their internal supply chain. Rapid growth had created a lack of clarity around team member roles and project goals, driving a need for project consolidation and increased process consistency.
Approach
Excelerate was engaged to facilitate the formation of a C-suite Product Strategy Committee, to develop processes for defining and prioritizing projects and for developing investment business cases. Utilizing a highly facilitative model, Excelerate engaged individual cross-functional stakeholders to understand existing pain points and then conducted executive group workshops to establish an enterprise-level product development lifecycle and the key objectives of a governing Product Council to ensure strategic alignment across the entire product project portfolio. Excelerate then operationalized the Council’s ongoing activities by developing the governance tools, methodologies, and templates needed to enable the team to effectively work together.
Results
By establishing the service provider’s product strategy governing body which utilizes a standardized approach to project analysis and intake, Excelerate increased the executive team’s decision-making effectiveness and its ability to align people and working teams to focus on the right product investments. Excelerate facilitated the initial Product Council sessions which resulted in an overall product roadmap with prioritized efforts for the entire project portfolio as well as a go-forward plan for the executive team to pilot, iterate, and refine the new governance processes.