Ideas and Insights

Resources for technology and digital leaders

The Roadmap Gap: Why Your Now/Next/Later Plan Isn’t Delivering Results

As you spearhead your organization's shift to product-led ways of working, you’ll eventually encounter the Roadmap Gap, aka the space between how you want the roadmap to function and how it’s actually functioning. Here, you’ll learn how to diagnose the root cause of your gap and build a bridge to the other side.

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Transforming a Product Organization: Why Tension is a Sign of Progress

The “transforming” stage of shifting to a Product Operating Model is where practice, experimentation, and standardization need to be implemented. It’s also when most people get discouraged and derailed. This article will help you interpret this friction correctly, navigate the tension deliberately, and convert early signs of strain into durable momentum.

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Scaling A Product Organization: What Winning Actually Looks Like

This article explores what real scaling looks like inside a product organization and breaks down how leadership behaviors, team ecosystems, talent practices, and operating standards must converge to sustain alignment at scale. With practical examples and checklists, the article will help you distinguish between true scaling and surface-level progress, offering concrete ways to assess whether your operating model is actually delivering the business outcomes it promises.

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Why Transformation Stalls: 6 Complexities Modern Orgs Can’t Ignore

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.

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3 Actionable Leadership Insights to Scale Your Organization More Gracefully

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.

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Leadership & Change Jen Swanson Leadership & Change Jen Swanson

The Path to a Modern Operating Model: Navigating Transformational Leadership in Uncertain Times

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.

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Leadership & Change Jen Swanson Leadership & Change Jen Swanson

Change Leadership vs Change Management in Product-Led Organizations

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.

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Why Good Governance is Essential to Digital Transformation

This article sheds light on the concept of governance in Digital Transformation and Operating Model Transformation, why it’s so important to get it right, and the small shifts you can start making today to improve your processes and see better results.

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What the Pandemic Taught Us About the Future of Digital Transformation: A Leadership Lesson

Many companies have started return-to-office initiates, mandated in-person attendance, and are shifting back to pre-pandemic norms. But is it the right play? Today’s article explores this misstep with specific regard to Digital Transformation and sheds light on the significant opportunity leaders have to reimagine the way teams work to build resilient structures that take them into the future.

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Land a Coaching One-Two Punch for a Knockout Transformation

When it comes to digital transformation, many organizations try implementing Agile and Product sequentially, doing one first then following up with the other. In either of these approaches, something is missing from the landing. Today's article shares a proven technique for layering in Product and Agile coaching to make digital transformation efforts significantly more effective.

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For the CSuite, Leadership & Change Jen Swanson For the CSuite, Leadership & Change Jen Swanson

Clear Signs Your Product Leader Needs Help ASAP

If you’re at the helm of a product-led organization, it’s important that you recognize the signs that your product leaders and managers need extra support. In this article, you’ll learn the external and internal triggers that threaten a product practice and, as a result, your product managers’ and leaders’ ability to create effective outcomes for the org. 

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Talent Management for Digital Transformation Part III: Addressing Resistance to Change

In the final installment of this series on talent management for digital transformation, we’ll explore the root cause of change resistance, why organizations must address it, and three key elements of successful change-agility frameworks.

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Digital Transformation Problems? 3 Signs a Common Blunder Is Derailing Your Progress

If you’re a leader at the helm of Digital Transformation, you can’t afford to ignore the signs that something is seriously off. Most of these symptoms can be traced back to one root cause, and they need to be addressed so you can get the ROI on your Transformation.

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Is Culture Blocking Your Transformation? Here Are 3 Evaluation Criteria to Find Out

Company culture is critical to digital transformation. Use these three evaluation criteria to examine the truth of your current company culture, find the existing nuggets that can actually be leveraged to your advantage, and understand the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Only then can you build a bridge between the two.

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The 2 Things Leaders Can Do Right Now To Prep Teams for Transformation

When it comes to transformation, an organization's biggest asset is its people. That’s where the Design Sprints and think tanks are firing, and where the change agents and early adopters exist. But without a cultural baseline of trust, vulnerability and curiosity, there’s little chance you’ll be able to activate your talent for the work ahead.

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How to Build a Killer Transformation Team

To build a killer transformation team, you need the right roles and mindsets at the table. It’s kind of like assembling the perfect combination of Avengers for the existential threat at hand. But it isn’t necessary to have all of your Avengers present to achieve success, just the right ones. Here's what that looks like.

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The 4 Planning Mindsets Every Transformation Leader Should Know

Summer is in full swing and the last thing anyone wants to think about is fiscal year planning. Who likes fast-forwarding ahead to January when flip flops and beach weather are top of mind? And yet, July is the typical timeframe for organizations to ramp up planning conversations about the coming year.

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The 5 Reasons Why Canned Plans Won’t Solve Your Transformation Issues

If your team has been spinning out on your organization's digital transformation or the implementation of a product model, it’s easy to see the temptation of a canned plan. It’s billed as turnkey and can get your team out of the weeds quickly, right? Wrong. Here’s what it takes to create a successful transformation and implementation.

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Empowered Execution for Digital Transformation

This article explores the importance of Empowered Execution, why large organizations struggle with it, and how to build a team-based organizational structure and employee empowerment. Because without this core mindset, your teams and the organization are likely to fumble through transformation.

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