It Looks Great on Paper, But the Product Operating Model Benefits Are Not Showing Up

Organizations adopt a product operating model with clear expectations: faster value delivery, better flow, stronger customer impact, and more consistent outcomes.

Yet after the investment is made, many leaders find themselves asking the same questions:

• Why has delivery not improved as expected

• Where is the measurable impact from this change

• How much progress have we really made

• What is still getting in the way

These questions are not uncommon. In fact, they are becoming the norm for organizations investing in a product operating model.

When the Expected Benefits of a Product Operating Model Do Not Materialize

On the surface, everything appears to be in place.

• Product teams have been reorganized around products

• Roles and responsibilities have been updated

• New ways of working are documented

• Leadership agrees the product operating model makes sense

But on the ground, the results are underwhelming.

• Value delivery does not feel faster

• Product teams struggle to adapt when priorities change

• Customer impact remains inconsistent

Research from McKinsey shows that organizations with well established product operating models can see significant gains in engagement and innovation. However, those gains only appear when the model is fully embedded into how product teams operate day to day.

This is where many organizations get stuck.

The Real Issue Is Not the Product Operating Model

The Product Operating Model itself is not the problem.

The challenge is that implementation alone does not produce outcomes.

Across digital and organizational transformations, research consistently shows the same pattern. Most initiatives fail to deliver expected benefits because the change never truly takes hold in daily behavior. Teams may follow new processes for a short time, but under pressure, old habits return.

Studies published in ScienceDirect and similar research sources highlight that change efforts often focus heavily on rollout and governance, while adoption receives far less attention. As a result, strategies stall and benefits remain theoretical.

This pattern applies directly to Product Operating Models.

Why Leaders Struggle to See Progress

Change does not fail because people resist it outright. It fails because behavior does not change in a sustained way.

Research in organizational psychology shows that people rely on familiar routines unless new behaviors are consistently reinforced, supported, and rewarded. Without that reinforcement, the new model simply sits on top of the old way of working.

This leaves leaders without clear answers.

• They see activity, but not impact.

• They hear confidence, but lack evidence.

• They sense friction, but cannot pinpoint where it lives.

Without visibility into what is actually happening inside product teams, progress is difficult to measure and even harder to improve.

What Leaders Actually Need

To understand why benefits are not showing up, leaders need clarity in three areas:

• What good looks like for a product team

• What is really happening in daily work

• Where capability gaps are limiting outcomes

These are not questions of process compliance. They are questions of behavior.

Answering them requires more than opinions or self assessments. It requires an evidence based view of how teams operate in practice.

From Assumption to Evidence

The first step is defining clear behavioral expectations for product teams. When teams know what good looks like, improvement becomes focused instead of scattered.

The second step is understanding the current state. Not what leaders assume is happening, but what teams are actually doing on the ground.

The third step is using those insights to take intentional action. Supporting teams where needed. Removing systemic blockers. Aligning leadership decisions with real constraints.

This is how value delivery moves from plans and slide decks to reality.

A Practical Way to See What Is Working

To support this shift, we created the Product Team Essentials & Flow Assessment.

This product assessment provides a lightweight, evidence based approach to understanding whether a product operating model is producing the behaviors it was designed to enable.

It focuses on:

• Observable team behaviors

• Leading indicators of speed and flow

• Real signals instead of guesswork

Rather than asking whether teams are following a process, it reveals whether the process is delivering results.

Join the Beta Program

We are inviting organizations to join the Beta Program for the Product Team Essentials & Flow Assessment.

As a beta participant, you will:

• Gain clarity on why expected benefits are not showing up

• Understand where progress is real and where gaps remain

• Use evidence to guide next actions and investments

If your Product Operating Model looks strong on paper but is not delivering the impact you anticipated, this beta is designed to help you move from uncertainty to clarity.

Join the Beta Program and start seeing what is really happening inside your product teams.