When CARFAX faced growing complexity across teams and tools, they didn’t throw more processes at the problem; they adopted a smarter approach.

In a recent ‘Ask Me Anything’ session hosted by Dragonboat, Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX, shared how they brought strategy and execution together to accelerate business impact through Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM).

As part of Dragonboat’s “Product Operating Excellence Mini-Series”, this session explored how companies can leverage a modern SPM approach to align their strategies, manage projects and products, and deliver roadmaps across complex portfolios in today’s dynamic business environment.

 

The Challenge of Strategic Alignment at Scale

As CARFAX (a subsidiary of S&P Global) evolved from building stand-alone products to integrated lifecycle solutions, the old ways of working no longer held up. 

“Our initiatives became much more complex, our business became much more complex, and we had to move away from that sort of discrete delivery model and decision-making model into a much more integrated and frankly complex decision-making and delivery model.” 

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

To meet this growing complexity, CARFAX leaned into Strategic Portfolio Management, not just as a process, but as a way to connect business strategy with delivery to accelerate business outcomes.

 

Effective Strategic Portfolio Management – CARFAX’s Transformation

Aaron shared several key strategies that are helping CARFAX navigate its complex business transformation.

1. Focus on Key Questions

CARFAX concentrates on four fundamental questions:

  1. Are we investing in our products and platforms at the right levels, in the right way, and at the right time, given market dynamics?
  2. Are we working on the right projects or initiatives/features?
  3. Are we applying our resources correctly, and do we have the right number and types of resources?
  4. Are we responding dynamically to changes within the organization and market?

2. Integrate Portfolio, Product, and Project Management

Aaron views Portfolio, Product, and Project Management as distinct yet complementary:

  • Portfolio Management: Aligns efforts with business goals >> “Are we meeting the organization’s strategic goals?”
  • Product Management: Ensures offerings are competitive and meet customer needs. >> “How we price, position, and package them, what feedback we receive from customers, and how our features and capabilities evolve.”
  • Program and Project Management: Focuses on tactical execution. >> “Are we tactically executing our projects effectively? And those projects are driving the evolution of our products and platforms right to deliver value?”

“I truly believe that if an organization is phenomenal at one, without working on and having a capability in the other two, it’s going to be sub-optimized. (…) Portfolio management is much more of a strategic activity than the other two, which are probably more in the operational and tactical dimension or paradigm.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

3. Embrace the “Boat Model”

To foster alignment, CARFAX introduced what Aaron calls the “boat model”. This visual helped cross-functional leaders understand the importance of moving forward together.

“We have four key leaders: product, project, design, and technology that have to be working together. The idea of these 4 leaders rowing in a boat on a body of water in the same direction, at the same pace, to keep us moving forward versus zigzagging all over the lake, was simply too good to resist.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

4. Balance Agile Practices with Strategic Planning

Some believe strategic planning and agile delivery can’t co-exist. CARFAX proves otherwise. They’ve been developing software in an agile manner for 10-12 years while maintaining strategic portfolio management practices. As Aaron notes, both share foundational principles such as communication, transparency, iteration, and a willingness to seek feedback.

“Dynamic but structured strategic planning—whether it’s at the enterprise level or all the way down to the tactical level where projects get executed—can and do actually work quite well together along with agile project, product, and technology delivery.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

5. Implement Change Gradually

CARFAX didn’t attempt to overhaul its entire system overnight. Instead, they started with manual processes using Post-it notes, Excel, and PowerPoint before adopting specialized tools. 

“Define a process, get it going, and get some feedback on it before looking at a tool. Because I don’t want to zoom in on a tool, find one we like, and then have to bend our process and our culture into the tool.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

6. Choose the Right Platform and Partner: Dragonboat

After careful evaluation, CARFAX chose Dragonboat as their modern Strategic Portfolio Management platform.

“We looked at a lot of tools in the portfolio management space. Many of them were much heavier, much more integrated, and really intricate insights and analytics. But at the end of the day, our culture is not one that requires nor would it tolerate all of the governance and administration associated.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

Dragonboat stood out because it:

  • Integrated easily with existing tools like Jira
  • Provided engaging visualizations for clear reporting
  • Offered effective capacity planning
  • Aligned with their organizational culture
  • Supported their growth journey

“We needed enough of it so that we could integrate with Jira, deliver really engaging visualizations, some of the great views that you guys have, the capacity management I mentioned earlier, but we also wanted to find an organization like yours, that had a great culture that matched ours, that was growing, and that we could grow along with.”

– Aaron Hall, VP of Portfolio & Project Management and Chief of Staff at CARFAX

7. Communicate Effectively

Aaron highlighted the importance of early and frequent communication, even when all details aren’t known. He also stresses the need to tailor communication to different audiences within the organization, leveraging Dragonboat. 

8. Embrace Continuous Evolution

Aaron views modern Strategic Portfolio Management as an ongoing journey rather than a destination. He encourages organizations to be flexible and willing to sunset rigid, traditional tools or processes that no longer serve their needs.

 

Get Ready to Accelerate Strategic Impact at Scale

As organizations strive to accelerate their strategic impact, modern Strategic Portfolio Management emerges as a crucial approach to align goals, optimize resources, and drive meaningful outcomes. 

By learning from CARFAX’s transformation and applying these strategies, companies can better navigate the complexities of modern business environments:

  • Align portfolio, product, and project management practices for optimal results.
  • Integrate agile methodologies with strategic planning for flexibility and structure.
  • Start with manual processes to define your needs before adopting specialized tools.
  • Choose modern Strategic Product Portfolio Management tools like Dragonboat that integrate well with existing systems and align with your organizational culture.
  • Communicate early and often, leveraging different Dragonboat views to tailor your message to different stakeholders.
  • View modern SPM as an ongoing approach, enabling your organization to continuously adapt to changing business needs.

CARFAX’s story shows that a modern Strategic Portfolio Management approach doesn’t have to be complicated to be powerful. With the right questions, clear alignment, and an AI-powered platform like Dragonboat, you can scale with confidence. 

Dragonboat’s unique data model and ontology, purposely built for Strategic Product Portfolio Management, brings together strategy, execution, and resourcing—all in one place.

If you’re ready to align strategy and delivery and bring visibility to your entire product organization, book a demo today.