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The following transcript has been altered for readability.
Introduction
Alisa Vaz: Hello, good morning, everyone. Welcome to the May 2024 Product Operations HQ Meetup. Thanks for joining us. My name’s Alisa Vaz, I’m joined today by my co-host, Ana, and our guest, Max. For those of us that are new, welcome. Our monthly meetup is created to serve the needs of the growing product operations community. And we do our best to connect our network by putting on informative webinars on the newest topics in the world of product. We provide networking opportunities to meet more like-minded folks. And we host a virtual space to ask questions and tap into the communal prod ops wisdom. We do that through our Slack community. My co-host, Anna, is going to drop a link in the chat. So if you’re not there yet, we’d love for you to join us on Slack today.
Alisa Vaz: And actually, what I love about this community is how global we are. How amazing that you can connect with people from the other side of the world or someone who could be right down your street from your town. So what I would love to see is where you guys are from. What we always do is we tell people where we’re from and then we put that in the chat. So if you want to go ahead and help us and tell us where you’re joining from today.
While we’re all saying hello and introducing ourselves, I just want to make a few notes about today’s session. As always, because of the number of participants, we just want to ask that you keep your mic muted for the majority of our talk or presentation.
Alisa Vaz: As always, this session is being recorded. It’ll be available later on. Finally, the ideas that we’re talking about today are forming across the industry as we speak. It was important for us to capture your thoughts on it, the thoughts of the facilitators of the product operating model. After Max’s presentation, we’ll do a Q&A, but we’d also love to hear from you on the subject. If you feel like your experience here is relevant, feel free to unmute, comment, and jump into the conversation. We’re a big, friendly community in that way.
All right, so we have an amazing session lined up today for you. But as we know, it would not be possible without Dragonboat. Dragonboat helps the entire product team prioritize and deliver impact across their portfolio of products, providing a single platform to manage your entire product operating model. So please do check us out at dragonboat.io/productops. Anna will drop a link in the chat for you to do that.
Today, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about benchmarking your product operating model. And today, we have with us Maxwell Dyke, who is the Senior Portfolio Success Architect working with Dragonboat. Maxwell brings a wealth of experience. He helps companies operationalize their product strategies to drive success. Today, we’re here to learn from his insights in helping teams of all shapes and sizes implement their product operating model. So welcome, Max.
Opening Remarks from Maxwell Dyke
Maxwell Dyke: Hello. Thank you so much, Alyssa and Anna. Really happy to be here, everyone. Thank you all for taking the time.
Quick bit about myself: I’ve worked in tech for the past eight years. Most recently, before Dragonboat, I was at Cloud Kitchens, a Travis Kalanick product-led startup. I was leading customer success SMB over there. I’ve been at Dragonboat for the past two and a half years as a Senior Portfolio Success Architect. Essentially, what that means is I’ve been working with all of our enterprise and key strategic customers on operationalizing their product operating model, which brings us to today.
Benchmarking Your Product Operating Model
Maxwell Dyke: Awesome. So, I wanted to start today off with an interesting stat. This one was actually discovered within this very Product Ops community—really exciting to talk about that. It was based on a study that Anna and Alyssa did about a year ago, where we discovered that less than 30% of product investment and resources were directly connected to revenue. What that implies is that the other 70% is really not directly ROI-driven. It’s a bit of a shot in the dark as far as where those resources are going compared to the direction of the business and the strategy you’re trying to achieve.
So the challenge we have to take up here as product folks is: How do we expand that proportion? How do we make sure there is a connection between what you’re working on and releasing today and the company’s top line? The companies I work with see this as an urgent priority because the market is changing so quickly these days. There’s really no time to lose, and you can’t afford to be spending time and resources on things that won’t drive the business forward.
Adapting to Market Dynamics
Maxwell Dyke: As a result, product organizations need to adapt quickly to rapidly changing market conditions. Product teams are required to be more agile in their product strategy and execution. That brings us to the product operating model.
The product operating model is a leading framework for the challenges we’re discussing. It’s really the best path to resolving the gap between ROI-driven work and initiatives that may lack strategic alignment. You’ve likely heard of the product operating model before—it’s been discussed by folks like Melissa Perry, McKinsey, and others across the industry. Every organization has a unique model, but the key facilitator of this model is product operations.
The Three Main Components of a Product Operating Model
Maxwell Dyke: Let’s break it down into its three main components: data, processes, and people. Understanding these components and how they operate within your organization is essential to driving the type of impact you want at a business level.
- Data: Establishing visibility and creating a single source of truth for your product team.
- Processes: Streamlining roadmapping, prioritization, and decision-making frameworks.
- People: Empowering cross-functional collaboration to align initiatives with organizational goals.
Real-World Implementation: A Customer Success Story
Maxwell Dyke: To illustrate the power of the product operating model, I want to share an example from one of our customers. This customer operates at a massive global scale in the financial services space, managing multiple portfolios with hundreds of team members. Their main challenge was complexity—siloed work across teams and portfolios was causing inefficiencies and delays.
Their first win was establishing visibility. By creating a centralized source of truth for roadmapping, they eliminated silos and allowed teams to see dependencies across portfolios. This visibility enabled more effective collaboration on cross-team and cross-product initiatives. As a result, they were able to streamline their quarterly planning process significantly. What used to take weeks—sometimes even a month—was reduced to about a week or less for smaller teams.
Goal Alignment and Accountability
Maxwell Dyke: Building on this foundation, their next major milestone was calibrating goals across the organization. These were not just product-specific goals but business-level objectives. This top-down approach allowed them to evolve from focusing on the “what”—executing tasks efficiently—to tying their efforts to the “why”—the higher-level objectives driving the business.
This alignment fostered greater accountability at all organizational levels. Teams started working synergistically to achieve outcomes rather than merely completing roadmap items. They also began collecting and analyzing both external customer feedback and internal stakeholder input. By coupling this feedback with their strategic goals, they prioritized initiatives more effectively.
Metrics That Matter
Maxwell Dyke: A key element they implemented was establishing pillars for user experience, guided by data-driven product metrics. Importantly, these metrics weren’t just about engagement or activity (“hands on keyboards”)—they focused on customer value and outcomes. By tracking how their products delivered value to customers, they were able to focus their efforts on features that truly mattered.
ROI-Driven Decision Making
Maxwell Dyke: At this stage, they weren’t just tracking feature completion but measuring the business impact of their work. They tied delivery milestones and resource allocation to clear ROI metrics, ensuring that every initiative contributed to strategic goals. This allowed them to communicate impact effectively to stakeholders and align the entire organization around a cohesive vision.
Challenges and Lessons Learned
Maxwell Dyke: While their journey was a success, it wasn’t without challenges. One of the key hurdles was ensuring that feedback and requests were prioritized strategically rather than being influenced by the loudest voice or perceived urgency. By using the established product operating model, they were able to triage requests effectively, ensuring alignment with organizational outcomes.
Audience Poll and Reflections
Alisa Vaz: That’s a fascinating story, Max. Now, I’d like to open it up for discussion. We have a quick poll for everyone here: “Which aspect of this story resonates most with where your organization is today?” Are you:
- Delivery/output focused?
- Calibrating internal and external goals?
- Outcome-driven and aligning with business cases?
Take a moment to answer the poll. If your experience doesn’t fit neatly into one of these categories, feel free to share your thoughts in the chat.
Responses to Poll Results
Alisa Vaz: The results are in! A significant portion of you identified as being in the delivery/output-focused stage, but there’s notable representation across all stages. That’s a great starting point for discussion. Max, can you elaborate on how teams can transition from output-focused work to being outcome-driven?
Maxwell Dyke: Absolutely. The transition begins with visibility. Once teams have a clear understanding of how their work aligns with broader goals, they can start prioritizing strategically. It’s also important to measure outcomes consistently and communicate their impact. Starting small, with one or two initiatives, can demonstrate value and build momentum.
Audience Q&A
Audience Question: “We’re a small Product Ops team struggling with stakeholder alignment and shifting priorities. Any tips?”
Maxwell Dyke: That’s a common challenge. My advice is to focus on establishing a shared understanding of long-term objectives. While priorities may shift, having clarity on overarching goals provides a stable foundation. Tools that improve visibility and communication can also help mitigate misalignment.
Audience Question: “How do you incorporate requests into roadmap planning effectively?”
Maxwell Dyke: Requests should be filtered through the lens of strategic goals. This ensures that every initiative contributes meaningfully to the organization’s objectives. Having a system in place for collecting and evaluating requests—based on data and impact—makes this process more manageable.
Closing Remarks
Alisa Vaz: Thank you, Max, for sharing these invaluable insights and actionable strategies. It’s clear that the product operating model is a powerful framework for driving alignment and achieving measurable success.
For those interested in exploring this further, check out the CPO Series, where we dive deeper into these topics with leaders like Rob Seidman. Ana will drop the link in the chat.
Once again, a big thank-you to our sponsor, Dragonboat. If you’re looking to operationalize your product strategy, visit dragonboat.io for a demo. And as always, continue the conversation in our Slack community. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. See you next time!
Maxwell Dyke: Thank you, everyone. It’s been a pleasure!
