Product-centric operating model (POM) for IT – overview

Welcome to Atlassian IT’s Product-centric Operating Model (POM)! Before diving into the nitty-gritty details, this page serves as your guide to all things POM in Atlassian IT. You can find information on why we decided to embrace this operating model, how this model will change our operations, and what this means day-to-day. For the nitty-gritty details, we invite you to explore the POM pages under this one.

Why are we becoming a product-centric IT Organization?

To date, we have done great work to improve the foundation of IT processes but we have primarily executed in a project-based delivery model where we established our practices around project definition, requirements gathering, funding estimates, resource tracking, and timelines. Today, we recognize that the pace of work continues to accelerate and that we need an operating model that allows us to be more dynamic while operating at speed and scale.

IT will need to become more product and value-driven, focusing beyond the transaction of a sale toward the longer-term customer relationship to continue delivering amazing customer and employee experiences as demand grows. As an agile and forward-thinking IT team in a rapidly growing company, we need to modernize IT for our company and customers and design IT for the future.

Our product-centric operating model will allow business and IT to work together to navigate a dynamic competitive landscape, a seemingly infinite set of digital tools, and shifting stakeholder demands. We will adopt a product mindset, with product owners who not only drive continuous improvement but innovate and experiment, while using data that help us make informed decisions.

What is an operating model?

An operating model defines how an organization positions its people, process, and technology to deliver value to both internal and external customers.

Here’s the breakdown

• A product is a capability, brought to life through technology, business process, and customer experience, with a continuous value stream and an ability to measure success independently

• A product-centric operating model, then, is one in which IT resources are organized around business capabilities or “products” instead of specific IT systems (e.g. SAP, CRM) or functions (QA, Engineering, Infrastructure).

• Products as a service, on the other hand, are centralized, service-focused teams providing services needed across all products and the entire value chain to create scale and drive consistency across the entire organization.

• The trend towards product-centric operating models personifies the recognition that IT is critical to business success and that it should be managed just like a traditional product or service.

What’s changing?

We are moving away from a traditional IT operating model to a product-centric operating model, where our teams will be aligned to core IT products and platform offerings.

It’s all about the mindset

This model will allow us to adopt a product mindset, with product teams who not only drive continuous improvement but innovate and experiment, while using data that help us make informed decisions. Product Managers will develop a product strategy and roadmap in lockstep with the business that clearly articulates how they will mature the product to better meet customer needs and optimize competitive positioning.

More specifically, we see the following opportunities:

• Each of our product teams is responsible for identifying opportunities for innovation in their domains. We will look to the intersection of employee behavior and the tools and technologies our teams use to deliver a continuously improving employee experience.

• Our new operating model will increase capacity for change through accountability with clear roles and responsibilities in our product teams.

• Tighter alignment with our business teams to articulate product vision and create adaptive roadmaps that drive business outcomes and can respond to changing business needs.

• Consistency in our operating rhythm and measures of results: product team health, product performance, and business outcomes, which will allow for greater accuracy in forecasting.

Things we’re still figuring out

We believe this is a step in the right direction, but we also acknowledge that we are in the middle of this journey and still have work to do before we are fully operational. While we’ve got the basics down, there are still details to be ironed out in the following areas: