Organizational design in the shift from project to product: Getting it right for platform teams

As organizations pivot towards a product-centric operating model, technical product management is facing new challenges. Product teams, while outcome-oriented and customer-focused, still have dependencies on platform teams, impeding their flow. Dr. Mik Kersten, Tasktop CEO, describes the three layers of products in every organization - business-facing products, platform products, and productivity products - and notes that there is often far less investment in the layers below the top layer. Matrix management is required in a world of diverse skills working together, and metrics that measure the right organizational constructs are required to provide leading indicators on whether the organizational design of platform teams is working. Value streams are the correct organizational construct for this measurement.