How we sped up product releases 500% with strategic prioritization

The Mission

(we chose to accept it)

A program at a global retail company with more than $6.5 billion in annual sales was missing deadlines and failing to achieve its success criteria.

The company struggled to prioritize which outcomes mattered most, leaving product teams working at an unsustainable pace without the results to show for it.

Internal culture feedback surveys were at an all-time low, and progress toward objectives was weak. Fourteen engineers had quit the company in 6 months, including two technical leads.

When yearly funding for the portfolio was slashed by 40 percent, the vice president of product said: “We need help focusing on the things that matter most. Forget the rest.” That's when they turned to Test Double product management consultants.

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The Fix

It takes more than just experienced, talented product managers for a product organization to be effective.

Test Double helps businesses fully embrace product management to anticipate their customer needs and quickly recognize when their strategy is not working. This not only is a more profitable way of operating the business, but also creates an environment filled with purpose and satisfaction for its employees.

Our consultants quickly identified a lack of continuous discovery, a misalignment with KPIs and success criteria, and a lack of cross-functional collaboration.

We worked to align the team around a clear business strategy, shared vision, and measurements to inspire and drive shared accountability. We then partnered with the client sponsor to co-create change.

We defined a decision-making framework, implemented a culture of data-driven decision making, and made decisive moves to trim away elements that lacked clear value for the business. Highlights of our product management work included:

Narrowing the focus from 12 initiatives down to the 5 most impactful

Coached product leaders on coaching, mentoring, and managing the people they serve

Identified and onboarded upcoming leaders, including a designer who took over to lead UX

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CONSULTANTS

Tech & Techniques

Continuous product discovery
Product instrumentation
Product culture

The Results

Test Double delivered a clear business strategy, a shared vision and measurement for driving shared accountability. As a result, the client's product leadership team was able to confidently make tough choices to focus and align the portfolio strategy.

Highly-focused product teams were able to ramp up product releases from once a quarter to at least 2x a month—a 500 percent increase.

They also marked the successful launch of two new technical products and focused, strategic enhancements to their flagship global planning product.

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