Clarifying roles, interfaces, and resource planning to enable a globally configurable product portfolio
Challenge – why change?
Our client managed a large, organically grown engine portfolio characterized by high product complexity, extensive variant proliferation, and limited component reuse. New customer requirements were primarily addressed through expert knowledge rather than standardized processes. Product configuration was neither tool-supported nor data-driven, and clear configuration rules, as well as a well-defined collaboration model between Product Management and Engineering, were largely absent.
The client had already established a new methodology as the technical foundation for a globally configurable product portfolio. While this approach significantly improved transparency and introduced a tool-supported configuration process, it also created new responsibilities and interfaces – particularly between Product Management and Engineering—that had not yet been organizationally defined.
Our assignment was to address these organizational challenges by designing the future operating model. This included defining workflows, roles, responsibilities, interfaces, and handoffs for the new activities, while assessing the impact on organizational structure and resource requirements.
Our approach
Our consulting team analyzed the current state of processes, roles, and cross-functional collaboration. Through interviews and workshops with Product Management and Engineering, we refined the key use cases for the future configurable product approach.
Based on these insights, we structured the core activities of the future operating model, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and established the critical interfaces and handoffs between organizational units. We also developed governance and organizational design options and quantified the additional resource demand using a T-shirt sizing approach. The analysis identified an incremental resource requirement of 2.88 FTEs, and we developed practical options for both expanding and reallocating resources to support the future organization.
Impact and benefits
The project established a robust target operating model for the future product configuration process. It created transparency around roles, interfaces, and handoffs between Product Management and Engineering, providing the organizational foundation required to successfully implement the new configurable product approach.
At the same time, the project delivered a solid basis for future standardization, portfolio harmonization, and the strategic phase-out of selected products and variants.
In addition, the analysis highlighted a significant increase in resource requirements within Product Management. Building on these findings, we developed both a reliable foundation for workforce planning and a practical organizational concept for integrating the additional roles into the existing structure.
As a result the team created a clear basis for leadership decision to redefine the setup of product management – for future responsibilities and the continued evolution of the product portfolio.
