Most IT departments are under-resourced and left to debate what capabilities, improvements, and fixes to prioritize. Past shifts to agile methodologies helped as teams now had a product owner to prioritize backlogs and adopted agile principles that empowered them to commit to a realistic amount of work.
But many enterprises stopped their agile transformations at this layer. Some did manage to scale agile and leverage frameworks to create process standards and improve IT practices. But the work to get business leaders, stakeholders, and end-users to shift to agile mindsets mostly got stuck. People in business functions didn’t want to give up their project mindsets and control of getting what they needed from IT in the timelines required.
As SaaS and other technology companies began to abandon traditional project management, product-based IT became a bold shift to business value. Leading CIOs began to see the shift from project- to product-based IT as a blueprint for success, and product management emerged as a key IT capability, with its customer-centric focus and practices that connect market needs with delivery roadmaps.
Today, enterprise CIOs can still benefit from making the transition to product-based IT and product management practices that focus on customers, business outcomes, and iteratively delivering technology capabilities.
“Product management is crucial for businesses looking to drive innovation and leverage technology as a differentiator,” shared Roman Dumiak, executive-in-residence at the DePaul University Innovation Development Lab, at a recent Coffee With Digital Trailblazers event I hosted on the topic. “Product management addresses the complexities of market research and product strategy definition.”
IT’s product management journey
Developing enterprise product management disciplines is challenging, in part because businesses executives in healthcare, manufacturing, and many other industries don’t typically see IT as developing products. In some cases, IT buys more than builds technologies, though many SaaS platforms configured with low-code capabilities and integrated into workflows can be repositioned as internal products.
Moreover, in companies that develop non-technology customer-facing products, applying the term product management in IT can conflict with other departmental responsibilities. Sometimes, applying product management practices under a less conflicting name can help alignment.
To shift to product management methodologies, CIOs need to get business leaders to see IT as a department that delivers services and technology capabilities as products rather than one that manages projects and platforms.
For example, what may have been a project to roll out a CRM for marketing often expands to integrate with systems and workflows involving sales, operations, and customer service. These platforms can be repositioned as a customer success product that serves various teams and end-user personas while providing a range of workflow and data capabilities.
Instead of having a project manager oversee a series of upgrades, a product manager defines a product vision by reviewing the business strategy, departmental needs, end-user pain points, and operational improvements. The product manager then proposes a roadmap and collaborates with agile teams to develop requirements, sequence the work, and communicate realistic timelines.
The transition from projects to products is a major transformation impacting IT, stakeholders, end-users, and executives. Here are six steps for CIOs leading this evolution in their digital operating models.
1. Oversee change in the program management office
With traditional project-based approaches, stakeholders specify requirements and priorities, and a project manager oversees fulfilling them on time, on budget, and at agreed-upon quality.
But product management functions work differently by considering stakeholder feedback as one of several inputs to the product vision and roadmap, as product managers are responsible for proposing a plan that aligns with the business and targets specific outcomes.
Said another way, not everyone will get what they want, creating detractors. In addition, CIOs must consider how to realign program managers, project managers, and the project management office (PMO) to a different operating model.
“Transitioning from project to product management requires breaking silos and ensuring integrated data, processes, and automation across the enterprise,” says Ram Ramamoorthy, director of AI research at ManageEngine. “Traditional PMOs must move beyond rigid timelines and delivery metrics to enable continuous value delivery, where contextual intelligence flows across the stack to inform real-time decision-making.”
Most enterprise IT departments need program managers but need to restate their responsibilities. Program managers in agile organizations yield timeline responsibilities to product managers collaborating with agile teams. Program managers can then have more time to focus on vendor management, financial planning, and executive-level communications.
CIOs should also consider opportunities to reskill program managers to perform product management, especially those who have developed expertise in business workflows, how departments use data in decision-making, and how end-users learn new technologies.
2. Integrate IT’s product and delivery tools
A second major consideration is the selection and integration of tools used by IT and stakeholders for managing the product delivery lifecycle and fulfilling IT services. CIOs should be looking to integrate agile with ITSM tools, as the lack of collaboration between product and service delivery is problematic in digital transformation. CIOs should also standardize a vision statement template and eradicate portfolio management tools that require manual integration and reporting. Enterprises with many products may want to invest in value stream tools, while those with many departmental initiatives should review dynamic work management.
“Hopping between silos of information and apps in search of data adds to the gray work tax, slowing down work and projects,” says Jon Kennedy, CTO of Quickbase. “Make IT consolidation a priority and focus on how you can move to centralize work management. The organization will be better positioned to support digital transformation, move faster, and avoid the app sprawl that undermines programs.”
3. Shift to continuous agile planning
Another major shift to support product management is transforming from longer-term strategic planning and overengineered quarterly plans to a more dynamic, agile continuous planning model. In this approach, product managers collaborate with teams on roadmaps and release plans, but planning is done every sprint with their agile teams. The change can be challenging for program and project managers who seek more structured project plans and upfront requirements.
“PMOs should abandon traditional approaches emphasizing lengthy planning and documentation,” says Ori Yudilevich, CPO of MaterialsZone. “To create products that truly meet market needs, organizations must equip product managers with the ability to continuously interact with users, prospects, and real-world data, and create cross-disciplinary collaboration involving R&D and business stakeholders.”
Product managers have the added challenge because stakeholders will still want to know what will be delivered and when. Inviting stakeholders to sprint reviews and hosting solution planning meetings is one way to engage stakeholders actively in product management and delivery. Program managers should take on some communication responsibilities beyond just reporting, focus on keeping executives informed, and consider communications that will accelerate end-user adoption of new capabilities.
4. Focus on delivering outcomes, not just hitting deadlines
Trisha Price, field chief product officer at Pendo, says, “Shifting from project management to a product-led approach is a game-changer — success isn’t about deadlines or checklists anymore; it’s about how your product truly impacts users and drives business results. This shift demands clear goal alignment, relentless cross-functional collaboration, and a culture where experimentation and data-driven decisions lead the way.”
This challenge impacts IT teams who focus on achieving ‘done’ in agile user stories and completing frequent deployments to productions. Product managers must communicate the business objectives and end-user value propositions to agile teams so they understand who, why, and what outcomes are targeted.
5. Transform IT to digital KPIs
The number of metrics tied to agile, devops, ITSM, projects, and products is overwhelming. Digitally transforming IT organizations and adopting product management disciplines should be data-driven. However, CIOs leading organizations that overly focus on timelines, productivity, and other operational metrics should consider a holistic review of the department’s performance indicators when shifting to product-based IT.
“The best advice is to go from date-driven to data-driven because success isn’t just on-time delivery, and it’s delivering what users can actually do with the product,” says Joni Saylor, VP of product design, platform, and growth at IBM Software. “We also need to focus on measuring what matters and track more than financial outcomes. Prioritize user engagement, time to value, and retention.”
CIOs should consider top-down digital KPIs or OKRs measuring growth, efficiency, customer satisfaction, quality, and risk reductions. Product managers should then partner with the delivery lead, program managers, and agile teams to identify a select number of continuous improvement metrics their product requires.
6. Foster on customer-centricity and market changes
You can’t have products without happy customers who evangelize the product and push product teams to improve capabilities. Agile teams must reflect on customer feedback and address technical debt and operational issues. Products must also evolve based on how markets, operations, and technologies create new opportunities and expectations.
“When transitioning to product-based IT, organizations often focus too much on processes and not enough on mindset change,” says Eric Johnson, CIO of PagerDuty. “Product mindset means building strong feedback mechanisms with business stakeholders, embracing iterative development, and measuring success through customer and market impact rather than project milestones.”
With AI, automation, workflow, and experiences changing rapidly, CIOs can improve their organization’s focus by shifting to product-based IT, measuring digital KPIs, and fostering a customer-centric culture.
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