Your operating model defines how teams prioritize, make decisions, and deliver value. But what happens when different parts of the company operate according to different and sometimes conflicting models? In this article, we’ll unpack the symptoms of a fragmented operating model, explore how and why these fractures emerge, and examine the real risks they pose to strategy, culture, and customer experience. We’ll also offer a path forward through Operating Model Clarity™.

Operating Model Transformation isn’t just about new frameworks or tooling. It’s about confronting deeply embedded ways of working that were designed for a world that no longer exists. And that makes transformation both technically complex and emotionally fraught. In this article, we break down six common complexities that we’ve seen derail teams and stall organizations on the road to becoming transformed.

Every organization wants to move faster, align better, and unlock more value across its tech and business teams. But most don’t realize how much friction is embedded in the way their organization actually works until they try to change it. This is a roadmap for understanding those friction points. Because naming them is the first step to moving through them.

You say you want to go faster. Every tech leader does. You’ve invested in Agile. You’ve stood up teams. You’ve adopted every methodology with a four-letter acronym promising to be the silver bullet. And yet, things still feel slow and progress starts to stall. The problem isn’t your tooling. It’s not your strategy. It’s your decision-making model. Learn more about leadership’s role in speeding up execution in a way that sticks.

You’re familiar with tech debt and what it looks like when the codebase can’t keep up with the business. But what if your biggest slowdown isn’t in your tech stack, it’s in how your company works? That’s Operating Model Debt. And just like tech debt, it doesn’t stay hidden for long. So, let’s define Operating Model Debt, how it shows up, and what you can do about it.

Let’s discuss why Operating Model Clarity is a precursor to maturing your organization, and how to maintain that maturity once you’ve crossed the clarity bridge.

This was Tuckpoint’s second year attending and sponsoring the Product Ops Summit, organized by the Product Led Alliance. Here, I’ve boiled down the three most important takeaways, the hot new Product Operations skill you’ll want on your radar as you build your talent bench, and a few actions leaders can take right now to get on the train before it leaves the station.

In this article, you’ll learn three common obstacles faced by rapid-growth organizations, along with five immediate action items for overcoming those obstacles (including the single most important mindset you need to embrace to make sure your org can flex with the future).

This article covers the hard truth that “mature” is a bit of a fallacy for product-led organizations. Learn why “sustaining” is actually what you’re after, the three key behaviors that must be prevalent in your organization to maintain success, and the KPIs and green flags that indicate forward momentum. 

If you’re a tech leader tired of hearing the C-suite or business leaders refer to Product Operating Model Transformation purely as a technical initiative, this guide is for you. It will help you understand the “watch outs” and phrases that indicate resistance, how to respond in those instances, and shift mindsets around transformation so it’s understood as everyone’s job (not just tech’s).

Does anybody else love using the new year as an excuse to book a retreat in the woods and plan for the year ahead (I do it annually)? As you participate in your own reflection and planning exercises this month, I encourage you to think about what will be required to thrive as a modern product leader in 2025. This article shares my POV on three areas to watch, along with the hard and soft skills you’ll need to cultivate to excel in product leadership this year. 

Running a team, an IT practice, or an entire organization can sometimes be a lonely job.  As we close out our second year at Tuckpoint Advisory Group, I find myself reflecting on a journey marked by scaling pains and, at times, burnout and overwhelm. In that spirit, I’m sharing three actionable insights you can put into practice to scale more smoothly and navigate the sometimes lonely road of leadership.

Learn the four dimensions of Operating Model maturity so you know where to focus your efforts as you lead your organization into the future. You’ll also preview the five stages of maturity for helpful context as you create benchmarks for the work.

Tuckpoint Founder Jen Swanson breaks down three key pillars of a strong product strategy and offers her advice on activating them so you can create a high-performing product organization fueled by teams that take the business where you want it to go. 

This year has ushered in some “anti-pattern” behaviors across many product-led organizations, including a natural tendency to default to what feels comfortable and familiar, like command-and-control leadership behaviors. In this article, you'll learn the "watch outs" for defaulting to old ways of working, and the importance and rewards of honing transformational leadership characteristics within your org.

In this reflection piece, Tuckpoint founder Jen Swanson shares her insights on the Product Operating Model trends of 2024 that surprised her most, the challenges that created stagnancy in the industry, and the wins that make her hopeful for the year ahead.

Learn about the four stages of Digital Transformation and identify the common transitions that stump teams and block momentum on the road to building a mature product-led operating model.

An important characteristic of high-performing product organizations is the company-wide ability to focus on outcomes over outputs. This article will help you understand the importance of focusing on outcomes over outputs, with some initial steps and “watch outs” to follow as you cultivate this mindset across your transforming organization.

When you’re transforming to a product-led organization, change management is futile without the necessary change leadership approach to drive the process. This article details the difference between change leadership and change management, along with the necessary mindset shifts every leader needs to make in order to support a successful transformation toward product-led ways of working.

In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of decentralized decision making for product-led organizations, and how to activate empowered execution to establish a company culture of agility and ownership.