Product Leadership in Times of Change
Client: Large European omnichannel retail organisation (13 shops, 23 countries) Anonymous.
Duration: 8 months
Role: Interim Product Lead, Checkout & Payment (3 agile teams + 2 payment teams)
Background
I joined the organisation during a period of structural transition. A small, modern digital product setup was merging with a long-established IT organisation responsible for payments, logistics, and internal platforms.
Mission
Establish effective ways of working and a product mindset across newly formed teams.
Strengthen collaboration with stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
Improve decision clarity and delivery without sacrificing quality or speed.
Build team ownership and accountability.
The Challenge
Teams were shifting from execution to independent thinking and cross-team collaboration. Decision-making was unclear, priorities were often ambiguous, and strong opinions surfaced, a mix of care and uncertainty about ownership. Urgent requests outside agreed priorities highlighted the need for shared ways to align and clarity around decision-making and ownership.
Approach
I focused on creating environments where teams could think and act differently, blending structure with human-centred leadership:
Establishing pulse and clarity
Defined team cadences, meeting structures, and decision forums.
Experimented with formats to support collaboration and unblock decisions.
Ensured the right people were in discussions and understood their role.
Shifting language and narrative
Moved conversations from “what we are doing” to “why and expected outcomes”.
Strengthened storytelling with stakeholders through structured reviews.
Modelled curiosity and evidence-based thinking by asking critical questions.
Making work visible
Introduced transparent roadmaps and prioritisation frameworks.
Shared release notes and progress updates to build a common understanding.
Empowered teams to take ownership and make informed decisions.
Stakeholder engagement
Made trade-offs and timelines explicit.
Educated stakeholders on product rationale and technical constraints.
Facilitated collaborative decision-making to clarify ownership.
Team enablement and culture
Built psychological safety by admitting what I didn’t know and encouraging others to do the same.
Set clear expectations for participation and contribution.
Created environments for experimentation, questioning, and collective problem-solving.
Impact
Payment teams were fully integrated into product cycles, including planning, prioritisation, and decision-making.
Cross-team forums evolved from status reporting to active decision-making spaces, improving clarity and reducing delays.
Teams increasingly challenged priorities and assumptions independently, demonstrating stronger product thinking and ownership. Collaboration with internal stakeholders and external payment partners improved through clearer communication and shared understanding of trade-offs and constraints.
New payment capabilities, including country-specific ones like Swish, and additional PSP integrations, were successfully implemented across the platform.
Payment method conversion increased by 1.44% year-over-year, across 23 online shops, reflecting improvements in the checkout and payment experience.
Perhaps most importantly, teams began asking the critical questions themselves, reducing reliance on leadership intervention and strengthening long-term product maturity.
Next Phase: Coaching Product Leadership
Following the initial assignment, I continued coaching the product leadership team to:
Strengthen cross-team alignment and decision-making frameworks.
Foster a leadership culture centred on curiosity, evidence, and ownership.
Support leaders in translating strategy into actionable priorities while maintaining team autonomy.
Key Takeaways
Structures alone don’t create change; people do.
Product leadership is about creating environments where thinking, questioning, and learning are safe.
When teams are empowered, aligned, and trusted, speed and delivery naturally follow.