Building Product Capability for a Private Equity-Backed Logistics Firm

A leading parcel delivery company was acquired by a private equity firm with the ambition to uplift and sell the business within three years. A key part of the growth strategy was to establish a strong, end-to-end product management capability, enabling the company to generate significantly more value from its existing and new products.

The delivery company faced a significant capability gap within its product management team. Product managers needed the skills and confidence to effectively lead products and product teams, while broader business stakeholders required a better understanding of product ways of working to improve collaboration across teams. Addressing these challenges was critical to ensuring their long-term success and maximizing its their market value ahead of the anticipated exit.

Solution

To build a mature and scalable product management function, we implemented a structured training and capability development program:

• Skills Assessment: Conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the product management team, from associate product managers to heads of product, to identify capability gaps and training needs.
• Bespoke Training Program: Designed and delivered a tailored 10-part training course to a cohort of 90 product managers, covering core product management principles and best practices.
• Product Clinic Sessions: Led 14 collaborative product clinic sessions, where teams worked through real, context-specific product challenges with expert guidance.
• Career Pathways & Capability Framework: Developed structured career paths and a capability framework to support long-term growth and development within the product management function.

Outcomes

The product management capability development program was a critical step in the organisational transformation, equipping product management team with the skills and frameworks needed to drive product innovation and business growth.

• Enhanced Product Management Skills: Post-training assessments showed a 40% improvement in self-assessed product management competencies.
• Successful PE Firm Exit: The strengthened product management function helped enable significant business growth, leading to a successful exit for the private equity firm for £2.7 billion, a 135% ROI.