The transition to a product operating model requires nuanced thinking and careful consideration of organizational context. Success lies not in converting everything to products, but in applying thoughtful product thinking where it adds value. By focusing on value streams, maintaining appropriate team boundaries, and ensuring that platforms are treated as products, organizations can create sustainable and effective product-centric operations.

While product thinking is powerful, it's not a universal solution. The goal is to accelerate value delivery and maintain sustainable operations, whether through products or other organizational structures. By avoiding the common pitfalls and focusing on true value delivery, organizations can build more effective and resilient operating models that serve today’s needs and evolve for tomorrow.

Applying a Team Topologies approach in contexts that are introducing generative AI involves structuring your teams and their interactions to maximize the benefits of generative AI while minimizing potential challenges.

Read the article to find out how you can implement this.

What challenges have you faced with team dynamics or flow in your organization? Kudos to Brian Graham for this edition.
Ever felt like team names, smart hires, or platform setups weren’t solving the real problems? There’s more to unlocking fast flow and innovation than meets the eye. Let’s dive into the hidden opportunities together!

Curious about transitioning from project-based work to a Product Operating Model? Our latest newsletter dives into how Team Topologies can help leaders navigate the unique challenges of this shift, especially in complex enterprise environments. We explore why internal platforms need to be treated as products and discuss the complexities of defining product boundaries in ways that empower teams. Discover insights on structuring value streams for multi-team products and building effective 'team-of-teams' architectures.

The future of Team Topologies, dominated by AI agents, presents both opportunities and challenges. As AI continues to evolve, organisations must navigate this new landscape thoughtfully, ensuring that technology enhances rather than diminishes the human experience at work. By reimagining principles like Conway's Law, Dunbar's Number, and context switching in an AI-driven world, we can create teams

What is Team Topologies? Is it a framework? Is it a set of principles? How can you start using it without having a big-bang, top-down approach? And is that ever the right approach?

Curious about transitioning from project-based work to a Product Operating Model? Our latest newsletter dives into how Team Topologies can help leaders navigate the unique challenges of this shift, especially in complex enterprise environments. We explore why internal platforms need to be treated as products and discuss the complexities of defining product boundaries in ways that empower teams. Discover insights on structuring value streams for multi-team products and building effective 'team-of-teams' architectures.

In a recorded interview from the Acceler8IT Conference in Krakow, Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies, sat down with Sabine Wojcieszak from getNextIT to discuss the practical and human-centered value of Team Topologies in modern workplaces. Their conversation delves into the potential of this flexible framework, which promotes adaptive team structures, reducing cognitive load, and nurturing a sense of security and fulfillment at work.

In our recent Project to Product Open Forum, we gathered leaders, practitioners, and transformation experts to explore the challenges and opportunities of moving from a project-centric to a product-centric way of working. The conversation couldn’t have been more timely; with only 2% of organizations fully mature in these transformation attempts and with a failure rate of 70% for business transformations, the shift is proving to be more difficult than anticipated for many organizations.

Organizations that adopt a "platform as a product" approach can fundamentally transform and accelerate the value realization from their digital product development. With the move to Product Operating Models, aka Project-to-Product transitions, more and more leaders realize the importance of sound platform engineering strategy and approach.

In the five years since Team Topologies was published, the framework has become a go-to tool for leaders looking to streamline their organizations. The book’s core concepts—stream-aligned teams, managing cognitive load, and clear interaction modes—have been widely adopted across industries, from startups to large enterprises. Case studies show that while the framework provides structure, it's flexible enough to adapt as teams and their needs evolve. Companies have particularly benefited from the emphasis on reducing cognitive load, which has helped improve delivery speed and team efficiency. 

Transitioning from a project-based approach to a product-driven mindset can significantly enhance how organizations deliver value and meet customer expectations. Unlike projects, which have a defined end date, products are continuously evolving and require adaptability to meet changing market needs. That ability for products - and thus teams - to quickly respond and adapt, requires an environment which is supportive of change. Many organizations today are restricted in that area, because of their structure and decision making processes.