Sanjay K Mohindroo

Discover how creating product-oriented IT teams drives cultural transformation, reshaping digital leadership and boardroom strategy.

A New Era for IT Leadership

Walk into any boardroom today, and you’ll hear the same refrain: technology is no longer just a support function—it is the business. For decades, CIOs and CTOs fought to secure a seat at the table, often struggling against the perception of IT as a cost centre. That era is over.

Now, the conversation is not whether IT deserves a seat at the table, but how IT leaders shape strategy, create value, and deliver outcomes. The shift is profound: IT organisations must evolve from project executors to product creators. This isn’t about semantics; it’s about culture.

Creating product-oriented IT teams represents one of the most significant cultural transformations in modern digital enterprises. It asks leaders to challenge entrenched hierarchies, break away from “waterfall-era” thinking, and embrace a new mindset where IT doesn’t simply deliver technology—it delivers experiences, growth, and resilience.

This post is written for those at the forefront of this journey—CIOs, CTOs, CDOs, IT directors, and board-level executives. It blends lessons from the frontlines with frameworks, examples, and forward-looking insights. My aim is not to give you a rigid manual, but to spark a conversation about what it takes to build IT teams that are product-driven, outcome-focused, and future-ready.

Strategic Relevance for Boards and Leaders

Why should the boardroom care whether IT teams are product-oriented? This shift is directly tied to outcomes that investors, regulators, and customers care about.

1.   Resilience in Uncertainty

In a volatile global economy, IT functions that operate as project factories struggle to adapt. Product-oriented teams, by contrast, are built around continuous delivery and improvement, allowing them to pivot faster when markets or regulations shift.

2.   Customer-Centric Value Creation

Shareholder value is no longer driven solely by operational efficiency. It comes from digital experiences, personalised engagement, and data-driven insights. Boards are waking up to the reality that IT isn’t just keeping systems running—it’s shaping the customer journey.

3.   Risk and Compliance Integration

When IT is seen as an afterthought, compliance becomes reactive. Product teams, however, embed security, privacy, and governance into their lifecycle. In an age of #DigitalTransformationLeadership, this reduces both reputational risk and regulatory penalties.

4.   Talent Magnetism

The best engineers, data scientists, and digital talent don’t want to work on endless projects that vanish after delivery. They want ownership, purpose, and the ability to see their work live in the hands of users. Product-oriented IT cultures attract—and keep—the best minds.

In short, this isn’t just an IT operating model evolution—it’s a strategic lever for competitiveness.

Key Trends, Insights, and Data

When we step back and look at the global landscape, several trends make this cultural shift inevitable:

1. The Convergence of IT and Business Strategy

Gartner’s latest CIO survey shows that over 70% of CIOs now report directly to the CEO or board, a historic high. This signals a recognition: IT strategy is business strategy.

2. Rise of Platform and Product Thinking

Cloud-native ecosystems, SaaS platforms, and modular architectures have normalised product thinking. Leaders now expect IT to deliver outcomes in the same way consumer tech companies release apps and updates—frequent, iterative, and customer-driven.

3. The Demand for Data-Driven Decision-Making in IT

According to IDC, 65% of enterprises plan to make real-time data the foundation of their digital operating model by 2026. IT teams must evolve into product units that treat data pipelines, APIs, and analytics platforms as core products.

4. Global Talent and Skills Transformation

McKinsey notes that nearly 90% of executives face skill gaps in digital roles. But retention hinges less on pay and more on culture. The rise of #EmergingTechnologyStrategy means product-oriented environments that empower learning and ownership will define the winners.

5. Security and Trust as Product Features

Boards are realising that security can’t be bolted on. In a product-driven IT model, cybersecurity and compliance are designed in from the start.

These aren’t abstract signals—they are reshaping how leaders organise teams, allocate budgets, and measure success.

Insights & Lessons Learned

Over my years leading technology teams through transformation, three lessons stand out:

Language Shapes Culture

Early in my career, I noticed how the words “project” and “product” influenced behaviour. Projects ended. Products lived. Projects delivered on time. Products delivered outcomes. When I shifted language across my team, something clicked—people began thinking in terms of ownership, not completion.

Takeaway: Leaders must use language as a lever. Words frame expectations.

Empowerment Trumps Process

At one organisation, we had robust Agile processes but still shipped late. Why? Teams weren’t empowered to make decisions without multiple approvals. When we flipped the model and gave teams decision rights over “their product,” velocity doubled, and morale soared.

Takeaway: Process matters, but empowerment drives transformation.

Culture Change Is Messy—but Worth It

I’ve learned to stop expecting a clean transition. Moving to product orientation creates friction: clashes with finance on budgeting, with HR on talent models, and with operations on metrics. Yet, every cultural shift I’ve seen has led to lasting agility, stronger partnerships with the business, and deeper credibility in the boardroom.

Takeaway: Expect friction, but frame it as evidence of progress.

Frameworks, Models, and Tools

Leaders need practical tools to act on these insights. Here’s a simple yet powerful framework I call the 3Ps of Product-Oriented IT:

1. Purpose

Define IT’s purpose as value creation, not service delivery. Recast KPIs from uptime and budget compliance to customer adoption, NPS, and revenue impact.

2. People

Reshape teams around cross-functional squads. Each squad owns a product domain—whether it’s data infrastructure, customer portals, or internal workflow automation.

3. Process

Adopt product lifecycle thinking. That means continuous funding, iterative releases, embedded risk management, and feedback loops from users.

To help leaders operationalise this, here’s a Checklist for Tomorrow:

• Have you redefined IT KPIs in business outcome terms?
• Do you have cross-functional squads with true ownership?
• Is funding allocated per product rather than per project?
• Do your leaders reward curiosity, not just compliance?
• Is user feedback embedded into every sprint review?

This isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s a start.

Lessons from the Field

A Global Bank’s Digital Platform

A multinational bank shifted from siloed IT departments to product-based squads. Each squad owned a “customer journey product”—like onboarding, payments, or lending. Within 18 months, time-to-market dropped by 40%, and customer satisfaction improved measurably.

A Manufacturing Giant’s Data Platform

A Fortune 500 manufacturer treated its data lake as a “project” that ended after delivery. Adoption stagnated. When restructured as a “data product” with a dedicated team, adoption soared, and the platform became a revenue generator through data-as-a-service offerings.

My Experience with a Government IT Program

In one government programme I worked on, shifting IT delivery to a product model transformed citizen engagement. Instead of one-off portals, we created “citizen experience products” with continuous updates. This not only improved adoption but also strengthened trust in digital governance.

These examples underline a truth: when IT teams are product-oriented, they stop chasing deadlines and start chasing outcomes.

Call to Action

The future of IT leadership lies in cultural courage. Emerging technology—from AI copilots to edge computing—will only magnify the gap between project-driven and product-oriented organisations.

I predict that within five years:

• Funding modelswill shift wholesale from capital projects to product-based continuous funding.
• Board metricswill evolve from IT spend percentages to IT-driven revenue contributions.
• CIO prioritieswill be framed in terms of customer adoption, not system uptime.
• Talent strategieswill hinge on purpose-driven product ownership, not generic IT roles.

For today’s leaders, the call to action is clear:

• Start by changing the language in your teams.
• Recast KPIs to outcomes, not deliverables.
• Pilot one IT domain as a product-oriented squad.
• Share stories of progress—because culture spreads through narrative.

The real question isn’t whether IT should become product-oriented. The question is whether leaders are bold enough to guide this cultural transformation now, rather than waiting for the market to force their hand.

And so, I leave you with an invitation: How is your organisation reshaping IT culture? What resistance do you face, and what breakthroughs have you seen? Share your thoughts, challenge these ideas, and let’s shape the future together.