Beyond the product: The inside story of a business transformation

Product transformation, business transformation—or something else entirely?

As a product leader, I initially thought that building a cloud-based version of our flagship product was merely a product and technology challenge – significant technical hurdles were anticipated. However, I discovered the journey was equally defined by sales, cultural, and organizational dynamics.

This change wasn't merely about adding a new product to our portfolio—it was a fundamental shift in our company's operations. Reflecting on this journey, here's what transpired, the lessons I learned firsthand, and key takeaways for other Product leaders embarking on similar transformations.

Key takeaways

Think end-to-end: A single product shift is rarely sufficient—consider the broader picture, including how the transformation aligns with overall business strategy and impacts various departments.
Customer-first approach: The best strategy? Listen to your users and adapt accordingly.
Pivot & iterate: No plan survives first contact—adaptability is crucial.
Morale is everything: Teams thrive when they believe in the mission.

The case study: A company product stuck in limbo

Our flagship product thrived since its inception, building a loyal customer base and a high Net Promoter Score, with COVID-19 accelerating its success. Post-pandemic, however, sales stagnated, the stock price underperformed, and customers, eager for innovation—especially a cloud-based version—grew impatient. Despite significant investments, the new cloud-based product faced numerous delays.

Identified challenges:

Losing sight of the customer: Internally, R&D teams focused on developing the new product that they perceived as the company's future, at the expense of underinvesting in the core product.
Siloed efforts: Disconnects between Product and Sales led to a roadmap misaligned with customer pain points, impacting NPS and renewals. Sales felt like customer needs disappeared into a black hole – to get anything done in R&D, you needed your ‘pet Product person’.
Resource (mis)allocation & focus: R&D concentrated resources on delivering an overly complex solution for the new product, while starving the core products. It approached the cloud product with the same on-premises mindset and approach, resulting in a technically unwieldy solution that was difficult to deliver and sustain.

A new CEO was installed by the Board, followed by new Product and Sales leadership to restart growth and innovation. From a Product perspective, to break the cycle, we had to rethink not just the product, but our entire approach.

Redefining the strategy: Aligning the roadmap

Our first step was to establish a customer-first strategy by addressing key questions:

Who are our core customers?
Which customer segment has growth potential?
Which products matter most to these customers?
How will shifting to cloud impact revenue and growth?
How can we deliver value additive to the existing business?

After numerous customer visits, we discovered that our clients were seeking more fundamental changes than a new cloud-based solution, prompting us to adjust our product strategy accordingly. After numerous customer visits, we got the pulse on the market and how our solution was received.

Instead of merely adding a cloud product, we needed to revisit our entire product portfolio and realign the portfolio strategy with the market in mind. This effort involved strengthening core offerings, developing the enterprise segment, and ensuring our new product would delight customers.

Revitalizing a 'zombie project' to market—fast

With a clearer roadmap, we revived the stalled cloud project with an aggressive goal: launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in three months.

This deadline forced us to prioritize ruthlessly while rebuilding team confidence. (The team hadn’t had a win after a multi-year build without launch.) The MVP wasn't perfect, but it got us to market quickly, allowing us to learn and iterate. Just as we were gaining momentum, things got complicated.

The unexpected acquisition & sales resistance

We acquired a competing cloud product that was more mature. Initially, we believed this would be advantageous for both sales and investors, thinking that sales could promote both products.

However, sales teams gravitated towards the familiar, and despite supportive incentives, the acquired product was the safer bet to meet targets. Our newly launched cloud product was overlooked, impacting team morale as their work was overshadowed, and the solution's viability was questioned.

The bold move: Integration & reinvention

We faced two choices:

Keep the new cloud product separate, risking further market confusion.
Fully integrate it and position it as the future of our cloud strategy.

The longer it took to make the decision, the more time we lost for both potential sales and team velocity. We chose the latter choice swiftly.

We rebranded the combined product as Product 2.0, creating a clear go-to-market strategy. We fine-tuned the portfolio, highlighting the value of each component individually and collectively, unlocking further innovation coherently.

This decision was more than a product and technical choice—it was an organizational transformation.

Team integration: We merged teams instead of layoffs, maintaining high morale. Combined teams designed their collective mission statement, roles, and work based upon templates designed for increased engagement.
Empowered leadership: Leaders were empowered to drive and own the change, rather than receiving top-down directives. We held collaborative design sessions to orchestrate organizational design in addition to redesigning the collective product roadmap.
Bottom-up approach: Instead of enforcing change from the top, we equipped teams with tools to lead the transition themselves, fostering buy-in and sustainable change.

The lasting impact: More than just a product launch

This experience was both a product and business transformation.

Agility and Accountability: It proved that agility, tough decisions, and shared accountability drive real success.
Continuous Iteration: It reinforced that strategy doesn't stop at launch—ongoing iteration is key.
Empowered Culture: It built a culture where teams felt empowered to take significant initiatives and succeed.

Call to action for product leaders

Focus on the customer: Prioritize (and anticipate) customer needs to drive real impact.
Know the strategy: Deeply understand corporate and product strategies for informed execution.
Be the glue: Connect strategy, execution, and cross-functional teams through constant dialogue (e.g., change plan, regular communications, townhalls, office hours, one-on-ones, etc) for a shared vision, end-to-end seamless execution, and sustainable change.

Looking ahead

This article is part of a series on the practical realities of product transformations. If you’ve been through a similar journey—whether leading a cloud transition, integrating an acquisition, or aligning strategy with execution—I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Wondering how top product managers are making informed decisions that shape the success of their products in 2024?

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