From Projects to Products: How Best Egg Evolved Their Operating Model

In 2024, I guided Best Egg's transformation from a project-centric to a product-centric operating model. As a fractional product executive, I helped their team establish the foundations for sustainable product excellence by creating focused teams with clear charters, shifting from outputs to outcomes, and strengthening leadership capabilities.

"David played a pivotal role in helping Best Egg transition to the Product Operating Model, bringing deep expertise, strategic insight, and a strong focus on customer value and business results. His guidance was invaluable in shaping our transformation, ensuring we built a model that drives both innovation and meaningful impact. We couldn't have achieved this success without his leadership and expertise." 

 — Brian Conneen, Chief Information Officer at Best Egg

“David’s perspective was incredibly valuable as I stepped into my Chief Product Officer role during a period of transformation. With the organization already mid-transition, David’s deep understanding of the team and its history provided important context that helped me make faster, more informed decisions. He was a trusted sounding board as I worked to shape our vision and align our teams, offering insights that complemented my own perspective. David’s thoughtful, collaborative approach made him an impactful partner in those early months and beyond.”

 — Colleen Wilson, Chief Product Officer at Best Egg

Background: The Starting Point

Before my involvement, Best Egg operated through a centralized quarterly planning process that produced a "top 20" list of initiatives handed to delivery teams for implementation. Inspired by product literature, an acquired company team's different approach, and internal advocacy, they had begun their transformation by:

• Forming cross-functional product "pods" with PM, UX, engineering and insights
• Pairing each pod with executive sponsors and general managers
• Staffing product manager roles with new hires and internal transfers

This created significant challenges:

• Many team members in unfamiliar roles
• A complete shift in working methodology
• Limited experience with product-centric operations

They brought me in to accelerate this transformation.

Building a Transformation Plan

My initial focus was assessment rather than prescription—interviewing stakeholders, reviewing plans, and joining key meetings. This allowed me to:

1. Develop an understanding of the team's state
2. Prioritize focus areas
3. Create a shared transformation roadmap

By treating the transformation itself as a product with a vision and roadmap, we gained leadership alignment and addressed critical needs first.

Establishing Team Purpose and Goals

With teams in the early forming stage, we initially focused on three foundational elements:

1. Stabilizing Team Composition

Previous practices of frequently moving team members undermined the continuity and understanding essential to the product operating model. We:

• Ended ad hoc team member transfers between pods
• Prioritized stability over resource optimization
• Allowed time for building domain expertise

2. Refining Team Charters and Metrics

We helped teams define their purpose and success measures by:

• Introducing Outcome KPI Pyramids to identify key outcomes and drivers
• Facilitating sessions to develop and iterate metrics
• Creating clear charters with priority areas
• Aligning team goals with organizational objectives

3. Building Team Cohesion

For this distributed organization, we:

• Organized onsite events that combined planning and team building
• Reinforced product operating model principles through hands-on activities
• Created collaboration opportunities across teams
• Celebrated early wins to build momentum

From Output to Outcomes

Shifting focus from delivery dates to business results required several key changes:

1. Implementing Outcome Measurement

Pods built dashboards to track their impact, which:

• Focused teams on customer value rather than feature delivery
• Revealed opportunities in both capabilities and technical performance
• Demonstrated iterative improvements with measurable results

2. Shifting Focus of Product Reviews

We replaced weekly schedule reviews with rotating product deep dives that:

• Engaged one team at a time with meaningful depth
• Focused on outcomes and strategic challenges
• Reduced update overhead while improving collaboration

3. Accelerating Learning Through Pilots

For larger initiatives, we:

• Introduced smaller pilots for earlier customer feedback
• Validated hypotheses before full deployment
• Reduced risk while accelerating learning

Investing in Leadership

With the CIO initially serving as interim head of product, leadership development was critical. I provided:

• Weekly coaching for the CIO and product leaders
• Strategic input in leadership meetings
• CPO profile development and recruitment support
• Interview participation for executive candidates
• Onboarding assistance and support for the new CPO

Bottom Line: Foundations for Sustainable Transformation

In this first phase, Best Egg established essential foundations:

• Teams operating with clarified charters, focus, and goals
• A shift from outputs to outcomes with successful examples
• Strengthened team leadership to sustain transformation efforts

These early phases are critical—initial momentum comes from trust and enthusiasm, but visible progress prevents reverting to past approaches. Best Egg is positioned to continue its evolution toward product excellence.

Moving forward, they'll focus on improving consistency across teams—a natural step in this multi-year journey. Notably, organizational support has only strengthened over time.

Is a Fractional Product Executive Right for Your Company?

A fractional product leader provides value when you:

• Need experienced leadership before a full-time executive hire
• Have knowledge gaps requiring immediate expertise
• Want to accelerate improvements while controlling costs
• Need help designing and implementing transformation