Scotiabank product operating model
Product Operating Model Lead, Office of the Global CIO · 2018 to 2020
Situation
Nothing ever got stopped. Technology just added. The bank ran about 3,500 applications, funded as projects, and 1 in 3 new ones was decommissioned within two years of going live. Many did the same job in different countries. Nobody owned the decision to retire one.
What I did
Designed the product operating model the Global CIO adopted: product councils, strategic product management, KPIs reported to the Board, and a global app store. Built the database that mapped 3,500 applications to 525 business capabilities, each with a VP owner, and put it inside Finance's project approval. Ran quarterly capability steering committees. Coached hundreds of product managers and product owners into the roles, and worked the portfolio with 12 SVPs, application by application. Omar Shakil ran Product Finance beside me; we now do this for other companies as Strategy Go.
Result
533 applications retired, removing $12.1M a year of licence spend. $102M redirected from unnecessary programmes to the strategy. 318 applications globalised, one version serving many countries.
What it took
Clear roles. An application is retired when one named owner can say so. The operating model gave them the role; the coaching gave them the confidence.