Background
To meet growing customer expectations and rising competitive pressure on cost, our client had launched a strategic transformation to capture measurable business value from automation and data, while building a strong foundation for adaptability and innovation in the face of market shifts.
At the core of the transformation was the implementation of an agile MVP approach to enable rapid experimentation, iterative development, and faster time-to-market. To drive this, autonomous cross-functional teams were established, each tasked with solving complex challenges through innovative solutions.
While the teams successfully achieved early milestones, they faced challenges in:
- Proving viability and value early
- Using data analytics and user feedback to gain new insights
- Adopting the mindset of “uncertainty as an opportunity to learn”
There was a strong need to establish a joint method to systematically identify opportunities and evaluate solutions to ensure incremental value realisation and build necessary organisational capabilities to successfully scale solutions. Creating a consistent approach to product innovation across the organisation was an essential step for our client’s larger strategic transformation.
Key insights shaping our scope
- Ambitious OKRs and business cases proved challenging to translate into MVP-level deliverables, slowing the realisation of tangible impact.
- While governance existed, execution suffered from a lack of clarity, with teams operating without a common framework for scope definition, deliverables, or decision rationale.
- Business integration of solutions stalled due to limited leadership ownership and insufficient cross-functional commitment.
What we did
- Gained a deep understanding of the client’s aspirations, business context, and existing practices: We analysed market drivers, strategic transformation priorities, and cost-saving goals to ensure alignment with the client’s agenda. In parallel, we worked closely with the autonomous innovation teams and subject-matter groups to identify proven best practices to build on, as well as areas where they experienced that current practices were inadequate.
- Integrated best practices into a tailored method: This analysis provided a foundation for designing an end-to end MVP lifecycle that addressed both operational pain points and strategic ambitions. This brought together agile ways of working, MVP principles, strategic design, scoping and steering practices, and robust change management. The goal was to ensure speed and adaptability without losing clarity or governance, while enabling teams to move from ideation to scaled implementation in a structured yet flexible way.
- Documented in a Playbook: Design of a user-friendly playbook as a single source of truth. The playbook included detailed methods, case examples, ready-to-use templates and guidelines for every stage of product development. To keep it dynamic, we introduced living documents, artifacts, that evolve throughout the MVP lifecycle, ensuring alignment, traceability, and knowledge transfer. Designed for scalability, the playbook streamlined onboarding and supported rollout from pilot initiatives to enterprise-wide adoption.
- Activation through targeted leadership training: To activate the approach, we designed a leadership training for leaders with a central role in driving innovation as part of the broader transformation. The training combined theory, real-world case exercises, and structured reflection to support practical application of the new method and foster a shift in mindset.
Result
A tailored method for modern product management and innovation, documented in a playbook and activated through leadership training:
- Enabling faster innovation cycles and successful scaling of new solutions at a competetive pace
- Bridging strategy and execution by aligning product objectives to opportunities, solutions and value drivers
- Equipping teams to leverage data, validate assumptions and deliver measurable value through rapid iteration
- Facilitating cross-functional collaboration and rationalised decision-making