How Diageo strengthened product capability across five teams, with DSM
A global beverages leader moved from running projects to owning product outcomes, in one cross-functional cohort, working on their own live problems in SAP, Analytics, Commercial, Supply Chain & Operations.
The four capabilities we built with the teams across the programme.
Focused on projects and tasks, not products and outcomes
In the initial assessment with D&T leaders, we saw teams working through projects and tasks, and wanting to make an impact on the business by owning products and outcomes. They were motivated to build products to serve end customers, but lacked a formal product-management structure, well-defined Agile ways of working, and clear use cases to leverage the enterprise AI tools.
Assess → Train → Apply → Reinforce
We started with a deep-dive assessment with D&T leaders, followed by seven live workshop sessions covering the teams' own projects, with hands-on exercises and 25+ online quizzes to make the learning stick. We closed with a case study-based assessment to ground all the learnings.
Hands-on group work · live gamified quizzes · framework teach-throughs, across seven live workshops, entirely in-person.
Product mindset, 7 phases of product management,
Agile implementation
All five teams created a team-specific 30-60-90-day playbook of the frameworks, models and concepts they will apply on their projects. They picked up defining OKRs, finalising user personas and user journeys, using a prioritisation model, and leveraging enterprise AI tools to gain productivity. That is massive when you combine the work being done across five different teams.
What we achieved, function by function
Each team left with a playbook of frameworks, models and live examples of implementing these in their respective projects. They are equipped to spread the product mindset shift and outcome-driven thinking. The photographs below are the teams' own session work.
From "projects given to us" to outcomes the business can measure
The challenge: how do you demonstrate the value of D&T to the business, and shift a delivery culture from project mindset to genuine product ownership?
"We work on projects given to us."
"We will now define OKRs for each project and agree measurable objectives and key results with the business, deliver in priority, across every team and every project."
DPCT helped my team develop a standardised understanding of key concepts in product management. Eight in-person sessions, led with great energy and insight, kept the cohort highly engaged, and the team is now eager to apply these concepts day to day.
CXO, Diageo
The challenge: siloed data and different versions of the truth, with every business request treated as urgent, with no structured way to say no.
"Difficult to prioritise business requirements and collaborate across teams. Everything was treated as urgent."
"Able to prioritise multiple business units' requirements by weighing strategic value against customer value, driving high-impact delivery of analytics."
It connects strategy, prioritisation, stakeholder management, and delivery through real-world examples and tools that can be applied immediately in day-to-day work.
Anirudh Kunjal, Head of Analytics & MarTech, Diageo
The challenge: user adoption and change management, for a product that was trying to serve everyone at once.
"We serve everyone."
"We now know exactly which user persona we're serving, and can handle change management and adoption efficiently."
Gaining an understanding of how to turn data to information, synthesise, prioritise, and optimise, makes it easier to really focus on defining what needs to be done.
Kevin Arnav Roshan, Product Owner – SAP, Diageo
The challenge: selecting and integrating multiple third-party tools across use cases, without a clear view of what was actually needed.
"Difficult to manage the various third-party tools integrated for project goals."
"We map our internal customers' journeys, define exactly which features existing tools must provide, and specify what a new tool needs, making selection far easier."
Every project now follow the Agile principles, ceremonies and OKRs principle in 1 way or the other. It is embedded in our ways of working now that has caused the mindset shift not only for myself but for the entire team.
Subhiksha Sivakan, Product Owner – Digital Supply Chain, Diageo
The challenge: AI tools were available but not embedded in core commercial workflows, with limited clarity on how AI is reshaping FMCG value chains.
"AI wasn't embedded into product workflows, with tools available but unused in core work."
"We now understand and will leverage AI in an FMCG context, with hands-on exercises using enterprise ChatGPT to produce real deliverables."
The most impactful shift has been dividing work by user personas, prioritising, and realising who the customer is, and bringing them into the loop often.
Product Manager – Commercial, Diageo
The challenge: continuous optimisation at scale, made harder by constant switching between projects.
"Unable to structure multiple projects and tasks to see them through to closure."
"We now understand the application of Agile Kanban to prioritise the tasks that matter, close them, and build momentum as a team."
I now have practical frameworks to structure requirements, manage priorities, collaborate across teams, and deliver with greater confidence.
IT Infrastructure & Operations Manager, Diageo
In their words
I have a ready reference of product-management methodologies, frameworks and a handbook I can already apply to real projects and work.
Product-led thinking, roadmapping, backlog, stakeholder alignment and governance, all practical tools I apply day to day to drive better outcomes.
Thanks to both of them, all sessions have been driven with examples, also interaction with all the participants to have actively engaged through out the session.
Creating OKR's, User persona's is going help gain clarity in the outcome to all stakeholders.
If any of this sounds like your teams, we'd love to talk.
Everything you've just read was delivered hands-on by the two of us. We'd be glad to do the same thinking with you: a free capability assessment for your D&T and business teams, and a benchmark against others in your industry.
