Product transformation is easy and everyone in our organisation is both excited and happy to be on the journey…. This sounds far fetched but it is the reality at PageUp. Our speaker, Josh Centner, Head of Product will walk through the journey of PageUp - a successful Melbourne based software company and how they went from a custom software house to a fast paced, customer focused product company. Josh will cover their approach to introducing organisational transformation and how the organisation combined the best of Design Thinking and Lean Startup to revolutionise the structure, process and mindset that drives strategy, operations and product development practices. We will hear about structure, culture and process along with what PageUp did with all 3 and what you can take from their experience.

1. Running a successful transformation to
be a product led company
PageUps journey to successfully implement a cutting edge approach to product
development and innovation

2. Our new
approach to
product
innovation
The PageUp
story so far
What we
learned
along the
way
Agenda

3. PageUps Journey So Far

4. 360
310
260
210
160
110
60
0
2009 2012 20201997 2003
Decision made to transform product
development structure and practices.
In 2020
Product now a full talent
management suite. Dev operating as
feature teams driven by sales
In 2009
Global expansion. Team specialisation
as one person can no longer do & be
across everything.
In 2003
PageUp founded - provider of custom
software solutions. Developers do
everything end-to-end.
In 1997
VC raise accelerates growth. Growing
pains from legacy code and large
product surface area.
In 2012
TimelineCustomers

5. Key Problems
External rate
of change
Internal rate of change
Loss in
competitiveness

6. Key Problems
External rate
of change
Internal rate of change
Loss in
competitiveness

7. Pain points
Alignment
&
autonomy
Separation
of strategy
and dev
Dev, sales,
ops and
marketing
disconnect
People
Holding
each other
accountable

8. Pain points
Managing
legacy
code
Context
switching
Low user
research
capabilities
Alignment
&
autonomy
Separation
of strategy
and dev
Dev, sales,
ops and
marketing
disconnect
Metrics
focus
People Process
Holding
each other
accountable

9. Pain points
Managing
legacy
code
Context
switching
Low user
research
capabilities
Alignment
&
autonomy
Separation
of strategy
and dev
Dev, sales,
ops and
marketing
disconnect
Metrics
focus
People Process
Holding
each other
accountable
Strategy
Retention
Lack of
story
Growth
Not
actionable

10. So what does a transformation look like

11. Transformation Components
ProcessPeople Strategy

12. Transformation Components
ProcessPeople Strategy
Culture
Team Structure
Capability Uplift

13. Transformation Components
ProcessPeople Strategy
Culture
Team Structure
Capability Uplift
Research
Innovation and
Experimentation
Development
and Launch

14. Transformation Components
ProcessPeople Strategy
Culture
Team Structure
Capability Uplift
Investment
pproach
Product
Strategy
Research
Innovation and
experimentation
Development
and Launch

15. Structure

16. Pre-Transformation Feature Teams
Feature teamFeature team
Feature team Feature team
Sales
Requests
Customer
Requests
Value Value

17. Leadership team
Product
Objective
Team
Objective
Mission teams in a low complexity organisation
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam

18. Leadership team
Value Stream
Stream Leadership
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
Value Stream
Stream Leadership
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
Product
Objective
Team
Objective
Strategic
Objective
Mission Teams at Scale

19. Leadership team
Value Stream
Stream Leadership
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
MissionTeam
Product
Objective
Team
Objective
Strategic
Objective
Post Transformation Structure
Product Innovation Framework
}

20. Sales Marketing
Ops &
Support
Cross-functional value streams
All people required to deliver value are part of the team
Dev
Research
& Design
Product

21. Culture

22. Talent Acquisition Stream Values
We choose to have difficult conversations
and put our teams wellbeing above our own
discomfort

23. 5 Dysfunctions of a team

24. Capability Uplift

26. Key components for capability uplift
All people inc.
leadership
attend training
Put training
into action
ASAP
Strong
coaching
support
Active feedback
and support
framework

27. Process and Approach

28. Inspiration Ideation
Empathise Define Design Experiment Specific solutionGeneral problem
statement
Build the right thing

29. Build the thing right
Learn
Measure
Build

30. Find the
problem worth
solving
Discover the
solution worth
investing in
Validate the
solution with
real users
Build, launch
and iterate!
Scope
Research &
Focus
Test & Learn ImplementIdeate
PageUp’s
Product
Strategy
PageUp Customer Centric Innovation Process

31. Soft Launch
DEVELOPMENTEXPERIMENTATION LAUNCH
Experiment Post LaunchEarly Access
Not Viable
Focus on learning
Viable
Prioritise learning over
value
Viable
Focus on value
Not Viable
Focus on learning
Full Launch
Access to all
customers

32. Referral
Revenue
Retention
Activation
Acquisition
Team
Member

33. Key principles
Research led
Metrics driven
Collaborative &
Iterative
Design
Development &
Launch
Consistent
Investment
focused
Prioritisation
Objective
Inclusive

34. Metrics are the ultimate boss

35. Delivery metrics
Speed Output Cost Predictability Sustainability

36. Product metrics
Happiness Engagement Adoption Retention Task Success

37. Aligned business objectives to customer/user metrics
Revenue
Profit
Ops and
Sales
Cost
Product
Dev
Marketing
Retention
Growth Referrals
Customer
Satisfaction
Product
Innovation
e.g. Automated
candidate
matching
Task
Success
Completion
Rate
Complaints
& Feedback
Speed to
complete
LAGGING INDICATORS
Clear quarterly impact
LEADING INDICATORS
Clear weekly impact

38. Investing in risk (and risk mitigation)

39. Two part investment strategy

40. Two part investment strategy
Accelerate

41. Two part investment strategy
Accelerate Enable

42. Product Strategy - your compelling boundaries

43. Under attack
Our story
so far
Purpose of
this strategy
Markets and
Customers
Deepening
our
competitive
advantage
Strategy Components - Telling the story

44. PageUp Product Vision Themes
Revolutionary
Something
It’s totally
revolutionary
Disruptive
Something
Automating
something to do
something
special
Market
Something
Step 1: Build the
thing
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

45. Summing it up

46. Process
Research led
Metrics driven
Collaborative &
Iterative
Strategy
Investment
approach
Compelling
story
People
Culture
Team Structure
Capability Uplift
What we covered

47. Key lessons (what I would do better)

48. Have the metrics sorted before commencing a
transformation

49. Baseline skills needed for the new world and put a
comprehensive, long term coaching plan in place

50. Have a strong and engaging product strategy ready to go
to ensure alignment and enable effective autonomy

51. Thank You
Josh Centner - Head of Product and Delivery
joshcentner