Posts

Transformation Rescue for Specialized Medium-Sized Saas Company

/0 Comments/in /by

Case Study

Role: Engagement Lead
Timeline: 15 months
Organization Size: 500-person technology organization (18 product teams, 4 value streams)
Distribution: US, India, Ukraine, Latin America

Challenge

A specialized SaaS company was six months into a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) implementation that had stalled due to a lack of transparency of the portfolio work, inconsistent agile practices, and political infighting among the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). The organization faced critical delivery and operational problems, such as:

Delivery Issues:

  • Deployment times remained stagnant with work sitting undeployed for 6+ months
  • No CI/CD pipeline established
  • Security vulnerabilities discovered with no clear remediation path
  • Bloated operations organization

Organizational Dysfunction:

  • Zero visibility into teamwork or how results were measured
  • Teams using fragmented Jira instances (mix of team-owned and company-owned boards, creating a lack of transparency into the team’s backlogs)
  • Low trust between Product and Technology organizations
  • Open conflict between the Chief Product Officer and the CTO creating a highly charged political environment
  • Constant political maneuvering across the VP and C-suite levels

Mandate: The CTO brought me in to restructure the deployment strategy and transform PI planning to deliver more value in less time while moving the organization toward flow-based delivery.

Approach

Phase 1: Establish Visibility (Months 1-3)

Standardized Jira Instances Across All Teams

The priority was creating transparency into work and measurement. Teams were operating with fragmented, inconsistent Jira boards that hid problems and prevented any systemic view of delivery.

Change Management Challenge:

  • Strong resistance from teams who felt they were losing autonomy
  • Product managers had built elaborate but brittle workarounds
  • Passive resistance manifested as avoided meetings and ignored feedback requests
  • Political opposition from VPs and C-suite members

Executive Support: Secured public backing from CTO in company town hall, legitimizing the change and reducing passive resistance.

Outcomes:

  • Created systemic visibility into bottlenecks and deployment process variations
  • Identified teams with hidden internal dysfunction
  • Enabled data-driven decisions about team restructuring (broke apart struggling teams, reducing overall strain)

Phase 2: Prove the Model (Months 2-4)

Kanban Pilot with CTO’s Moonshot Teams

Selected highly technical teams working on innovation initiatives without heavy product oversight to demonstrate the value of flow-based delivery.

Implementation:

  • Transitioned pilot teams to Kanban methodology
  • Established weekly demos, creating natural accountability
  • Eliminated cross-departmental approval delays

Results: Within 2-4 weeks, visible progress convinced the C-suite to mandate scaling across the organization.

Phase 3: Scale and Optimize (Months 4-15)

Restructured Planning Process

  • Reduced PI Planning from 4 days to half-day quarterly planning sessions
  • Refocused time from process to outcomes
  • Financial Impact: $250,000 annual cost savings

Standardized Deployment Practices

  • Established 2-week deployment cadence across all 18 teams
  • Shifted from large-batch irregular releases to small-batch frequent deployments
  • Cleared 6-month backlog of undeployed work

Connected Work to Strategy

  • Coached Release Train Engineers to consistently ask whether work fed into company OKRs
  • Improved priority clarity and strategic alignment across teams

Improved System Reliability

  • Partnered with DevOps team to establish outage reporting
  • Technical Impact: 10% increase in system stability (2023)

Optimized Vendor Management

  • Restructured vendors under my domain
  • Financial Impact: $8,000 annual savings

Results

Operational Improvements

  • Deployment Velocity: Moved from irregular releases with 6-month backlogs to standardized 2-week deployment cycles
  • Cycle Time: Improved through systematic bottleneck identification and process mapping
  • System Stability: 10% improvement through established outage reporting
  • Risk Reduction: Smaller batch deployments reduced deployment risk

Organizational Improvements

  • Strategic Alignment: Improved priority clarity through consistent OKR-to-work connection
  • Team Health: Higher morale as coaches engaged more deeply with visible work
  • Conflict Resolution: Surfaced and resolved previously hidden team dysfunction

Financial Impact

  • $258,000 in annual cost savings: 
  • $250,000 from restructured planning (4 days → half day)
  • $8,000 from vendor management optimization

Constraints and Context

Political Environment: The transformation occurred within a challenging political environment. Open conflict between the CPO and CTO created friction that cascaded through the organization. Opposition from other VPs and C-suite members alternated between overt and covert resistance.

Incomplete Transformation: The engagement ended after 15 months when I was laid off as part of broader organizational cuts in January 2024. The layoff occurred before completing the full transition to flow-based delivery.

Cultural Limitations: Some cultural issues proved resistant to change within the available timeframe:

  • OKR misuse (treated as commitments with 100% completion targets instead of 80% stretch goals)
  • Reinforcement of wrong behaviors through promotion decisions
  • Deep-rooted political dynamics at executive level

Key Lessons

Visibility as Foundation: Standardization may be unpopular, but transparency is non-negotiable. You can’t fix what you can’t see. Jira standardization, despite resistance, enabled every subsequent improvement.

Executive Alignment is Critical: Executive-level conflict limited the scope of possible change. The CTO’s public support was essential for legitimizing the work and overcoming passive resistance, but misalignment at the C-suite level ultimately constrained the transformation’s reach.

Prove Value Quickly: The kanban pilot with moonshot teams demonstrated results within 2-4 weeks, creating momentum for broader adoption. Quick wins matter when facing organizational skepticism.

Change Management Requires Sustained Effort: Passive resistance doesn’t disappear. It shifts between overt and covert forms based on political dynamics. Sustained executive support and consistent follow-through are essential.

Scientific Publishing Organization SAFe Implementation

/0 Comments/in , /by

Case Study

Role: Engagement Lead (Consultant)
Timeline: July 2024 – February 2025 (8 months)
Organization Size: ~400-person publishing organization (18 teams, 3 value streams)
Team: 1 Agile Coach, 1 Product Coach (both reporting to Engagement Lead)

Challenge

A leading non-profit scientific publishing organization had scattered agile practices following a major reorganization. The organization faced critical delivery and operational problems:

Delivery Issues:

  • Too much work in process with no prioritization by business value
  • Overburdened, reactive teams managing multiple competing priorities
  • One small, low-complexity ART with no identified value streams
  • Lack of end-to-end product management causing delays and dependency conflicts

Organizational Dysfunction:

  • Siloed decision-making with each business area independently solving common problems
  • No visibility into how work aligned to strategic goals
  • Product management resistance despite early involvement in planning

Mandate: The VP of Transformation brought me in to lead an end-to-end SAFe implementation, scaling and formalizing agile practices to align 18 teams across 3 value streams to strategic goals.

Approach

Phase 1: Foundation and Structure (Months 1-3)

Value Stream Identification and ART Formation

Identified 3 value streams (Journals, Technology Refresh, Engagement Platform) and organized 18 teams into 3 ARTs with 1:1 value stream mapping.

Change Management Challenge:

  • Strong resistance from one product manager who felt threatened despite early involvement
  • Confrontational behavior disrupting team dynamics
  • General anxiety about process changes across organization

Executive Support: VP of Transformation sponsored the work and provided consistent backing throughout implementation.

Outcomes:

  • Established Executive Action Team and SAFe Transition Team
  • Implemented Portfolio Kanban (new for organization) forcing strategic prioritization conversations
  • Built champions network to reduce resistance
  • Resistant individual eventually removed; organization able to move forward

Phase 2: Training and Enablement (Months 2-5)

Comprehensive Training Program

Delivered multi-tiered training to build organizational capability and ensure sustainable practices.

Implementation:

  • Trained 18 teams on agile and SAFe foundations
  • Trained 25 leaders in Leading with Agility
  • Trained and certified 2 RTEs
  • Trained 5 coaches on coaching practices
  • Engaged 5 agile champions to drive continuous improvement
  • Delivered workshops: epic/feature/story writing, estimation, WSJF, Lean Portfolio Management, blameless retrospectives

Results: Built sustainable capability with trained RTEs and coaches ready to continue the work post-engagement.

Phase 3: Process Implementation and Refinement (Months 4-8)

PI Planning and Portfolio Management

Executed first PI Planning in January 2025, established portfolio governance, and built continuous improvement mechanisms.

Established Portfolio-Level Practices

  • Portfolio governance and intake flow
  • Regular cadence for all portfolio meetings
  • 2 Communities of Practice established (RTEs and others)
  • Value Management Office capabilities implemented

Addressed Organizational Design Gaps

Identified teams missing technical skills and Product Owners with too many dependencies. Recommended org design changes that were implemented during and after the engagement.

First PI Planning Outcomes

Teams surfaced significant dependencies and learned they needed better pre-planning and prioritization. These learnings informed improved backlog preparation practices for subsequent PIs.

Results

Organizational Improvements

  • Strategic Alignment: Work 95% aligned to division goals and strategy through Portfolio Kanban and value stream organization
  • Reduced Silos: Cross-functional collaboration greatly improved through ART structure
  • Teams Formed and Aligned: 18 teams organized in ARTs and aligned to value streams
  • Dependencies Reduced: Teams reformed during and after engagement to reduce dependencies

Capability Building

  • 18 teams trained and operating in SAFe model
  • 25 leaders equipped with agile leadership skills
  • 2 RTEs trained and certified to sustain practices
  • 5 coaches trained to continue team development
  • 5 champions driving continuous improvement culture
  • 2 active Communities of Practice established

Process Maturity

  • Portfolio governance and intake flow established
  • Portfolio Kanban forcing strategic prioritization conversations
  • Teams moving toward predictable delivery
  • Continuous improvement practices embedded

Constraints and Context

Resistance Management: The transformation faced initial resistance from product management. One individual’s confrontational behavior required eventual removal from the organization. Built champions network and provided real-time coaching to address broader concerns.

Organizational Design Limitations: Teams initially lacked appropriate technical skills and Product Owners, creating too many dependencies. Some recommended changes were implemented during the engagement, others after departure.

Successful Handoff: Transitioned leadership to Product Coach and Director of Strategy & Execution in February 2025. Teams in refinement mode with nothing at risk, positioned for continued improvement.

Key Lessons

Build Champions Early: Engaging 5 agile champions early created advocates who could address resistance and model desired behaviors throughout the organization.

Transparency Drives Prioritization: Portfolio Kanban visibility forced difficult but necessary conversations about what work truly mattered, ultimately aligning 95% of work to strategic goals.

First PI is About Learning: Teams surfacing dependencies and planning challenges in the first PI was expected and valuable. These learnings informed better practices for subsequent planning cycles.

Sustainable Capability Requires Investment: Training 2 RTEs, 5 coaches, and establishing Communities of Practice ensured the organization could continue improving after the engagement ended.