Role
Product Strategy Advisor
Duration
3 Months
Industry
Retail
Focus
Product Thinking & Team Collaboration
The Challenge
A marketing operations team functioned as a solutions group, solving marketing's problems through combinations of people, process, and technology. They performed work similar to product teams but without product management foundations. The team was project-based, output-oriented, and solution-first.
They had product management partners from a separate organization, but the relationship was dysfunctional. Both sides gatekept information and spoke different languages without translating for each other. Product managers didn't understand marketing's unique environment and marketing didn't understand what to expect from product management and would self-solve for expediency, bypassing product entirely.
The result: misaligned priorities, duplicated effort, unclear ownership, and product solving problems marketing didn't care about. Meanwhile, the acceleration team was absorbing product responsibilities they weren't equipped to perform consistently, creating friction and distraction from their core mission.
What I Did
The work had two tracks: upskilling the solutions team in product thinking, and redesigning how they collaborated with their product management partners.
- Diagnosed the root causes of dysfunction between the two teams, mapping six distinct gaps in the partnership
- Taught the solutions team product management fundamentals — problem framing, prioritization, outcome-oriented thinking, and data-driven decision making — adapted to their operational context
- Educated the broader organization on what to expect from product management and how to engage with product managers effectively
- Created the 7D Method, extending the organization's use of a double diamond lifecycle, adding Diagnose, Deploy, and shared Design phases to address marketing's unique needs
- Defined clear role boundaries: product improves technology at scale and sets its strategic direction; the solutions team makes that technology work for each marketing team's specific needs
- Developed an onboarding framework for new product managers entering marketing, addressing the expectation misalignment that had historically derailed integration
The Frameworks
I created two frameworks: one to diagnose the dysfunction, and one to redesign how the teams would work together.
The Partnership Gaps
Before designing solutions, I mapped six gaps between the solutions team and their product management partners to understand where the relationship was breaking down.
Alignment Gap
Product solved problems marketing didn't prioritize, while marketing perceived the discovery process leading to that prioritization as endless and unfruitful.
Availability Gap
Missing product manager staffing forced the solutions team to fill in — absorbing responsibilities they weren't set up to perform consistently.
Ownership Gap
Unclear product role in a 3rd-party tool environment where marketing could self-solve, with no clear ownership of process or change management.
Capability Gap
Marketing lacked understanding of good product management, while product managers lacked the skills specific to marketing's unique environment.
Execution Gap
Standard product management approaches didn't fit marketing's reality of licensed tools, high campaign volume, and fast-moving timelines.
Interpretation Gap
Misaligned mental models, techniques, and decision-making styles — two teams speaking different languages without translating for each other.
The 7D Method
The organization's existing framework, based on the double diamond, didn't account for marketing's unique needs. I extended it into a 7-phase process that gave both teams clear ownership across the full initiative lifecycle.
The Transformation
Before
- Two teams speaking different languages, gatekeeping information
- Solutions team absorbing product work without proper foundations
- Product solving problems marketing didn't prioritize
- No clear ownership of process, change management, or adoption
- Project-based, output-oriented, solution-first mindset
After
- Shared operating model and collaboration framework across both teams
- Solutions team equipped with product thinking fundamentals
- Clear role boundaries: product scales technology, solutions adapts it to teams
- 7D process with explicit ownership at every phase of the lifecycle
- Outcome-oriented, problem-first approach to every initiative
The Outcome
The solutions team adopted a product mindset and learned to frame problems before jumping to solutions, prioritize based on impact, and think in outcomes rather than outputs. They gained the confidence to push back on low-value requests and defend their decisions with data.
The 7D Method gave both teams a shared operating model with clear ownership at every phase. The new Diagnose phase prevented wasted discovery cycles by assessing whether a problem merited exploration first. The Deploy phase ensured solutions actually reached teams with proper training and change management — closing the gap where delivery had been just a push to production.
The framework also clarified the fundamental distinction between the two teams: product management improves technology at scale and sets strategic direction, while the solutions team makes that technology work for each marketing team's specific business needs. This clarity reduced friction, eliminated duplicated effort, and positioned both teams as complementary strategic partners.
Key Takeaways
Diagnose before you discover
Not every problem needs a full discovery cycle. Adding a triage step prevented the "endless discovery" perception that had eroded trust between teams.
Product thinking isn't just for product teams
Solutions teams that adopt product fundamentals — problem framing, prioritization, outcome orientation — become dramatically more effective, even without formal product managers.
Shared frameworks bridge the gap
When two teams speak different languages, a shared process model with explicit role ownership does more than any amount of communication training.