Transforming Product Operations: How I Built the Hub to Help Teams Decide Faster and Release Sooner

I have seen the same problems play out time and again across product teams: endless escalations, unclear ownership, and a constant scramble to juggle priorities that all seem urgent. Teams get stuck in cycles of rework, and the pressure to deliver quickly often leads to burnout. At first, I thought better tools would solve these issues. But after years of experience, I realised the real challenge was not the tools themselves but how teams operate—their processes, communication, and the way work flows between people.

That insight led me to create the Product Operations Hub. It’s a space where product operations come alive to help teams decide faster and release sooner. The Hub is built on three pillars: light guardrails, clean hand-offs, and a people-centred approach I call Ops for Humans. This blog post explains why I built the Hub, the services I offer through it, and how these pieces fit together to help product teams work smarter without burning out.

Why Product Operations Hub Exists

There is a persistent gap between strategy and delivery in many organisations. Product leaders set ambitious goals, but the teams responsible for discovery and delivery often struggle to translate those goals into clear, manageable work. This gap creates confusion about who owns what, leads to duplicated efforts, and causes delays.

More importantly, this gap places a heavy emotional load on the people in the middle. Product managers, designers, researchers, and engineers find themselves caught in endless context switching, firefighting, and trying to keep everyone aligned. The stress can be overwhelming.

The Product Operations Hub is my way to codify the approach I use daily as Product Operations Manager at Betsson Group and share it with others facing similar challenges. It’s not just about processes or tools; it’s about creating a supportive framework that respects the human side of product work while improving clarity and flow.

The Services I Built and Why

ProductOps Playbook and Operating Model

The first step in transforming product operations is understanding how teams currently work. I map out existing workflows, communication patterns, and decision points to identify friction and gaps. From there, I design light guardrails—simple rules and structures that guide teams without stifling creativity.

Clear ownership is critical. I define who is responsible for each stage from strategy through discovery to delivery. This clarity reduces escalations and confusion. I also establish regular cadences for check-ins, planning, and retrospectives to keep everyone aligned and informed.

This playbook is not a rigid manual but a flexible operating model that adapts to each team’s context. It helps teams move from chaos to calm by creating predictable rhythms and clear roles.

Jira Product Discovery Setup

Managing ideas, insights, and roadmaps in separate tools or spreadsheets leads to lost context and duplicated work. I use Jira Product Discovery (JPD) to bring everything into one place. JPD allows teams to capture ideas, score them based on impact, link them to research insights, and visualise roadmaps.

This setup creates transparency and helps teams prioritise based on evidence rather than gut feeling. It also supports collaboration across functions by making information accessible and easy to update.

UCDM Framework: Understand, Create, Develop, Monitor

One of the biggest sources of rework is misalignment between UX and product teams. To address this, I developed the UCDM framework. It breaks the product lifecycle into four shared phases:

• Understand: Gather user needs, market context, and business goals.

• Create: Design solutions and prototypes.

• Develop: Build and test the product.

• Monitor: Measure outcomes and learn from data.

  
  

Using UCDM gives teams a common language and clear expectations for each phase. It reduces misunderstandings and helps teams focus on the right activities at the right time.

Research Repository Architecture

Research insights often live in scattered decks or personal notes, making it hard to reuse evidence or build on past learning. I designed a journey-based research repository that organises insights by user journey stages and themes.

This structure makes it easy to find relevant research, share findings across teams, and avoid repeating studies. It also encourages a culture of evidence-based decision-making.

Ways of Working Workshops

Processes and tools alone don’t solve problems if teams don’t openly discuss their pain points and preferences. I facilitate ways of working workshops where teams surface challenges, share ideas, and co-create improvements.

These workshops build trust and buy-in, making changes more sustainable. They also uncover hidden blockers that might not show up in formal meetings.

Product Operations Hub workflow visualisation

How These Pieces Fit Together

The services I offer through Product Operations Hub are designed to work as a cohesive system. The playbook sets the foundation with clear roles and rhythms. Jira Product Discovery brings transparency to ideas and priorities. The UCDM framework aligns teams on process and language. The research repository ensures insights are accessible and reusable. Ways of working workshops keep the system alive by adapting to team needs.

Together, these elements help teams:

• Decide faster by reducing confusion and making evidence visible.

• Release sooner by cutting down rework and improving hand-offs.

• Avoid burnout by creating predictable workflows and respecting people’s capacity.

  
  

For example, at Betsson Group, applying this system reduced the number of urgent escalations by 40% within six months. Teams reported feeling more in control and less overwhelmed. Product delivery cycles shortened by 15%, allowing faster feedback and iteration.

Putting Ops for Humans at the Centre

Operations can feel mechanical or bureaucratic, but the heart of Product Operations Hub is Ops for Humans. This means designing processes that support people, not just output. It means recognising the emotional load product teams carry and building systems that reduce stress.

For instance, I encourage teams to set realistic priorities and say no to “everything is top priority.” I promote psychological safety so people can raise concerns early. I also build in regular pauses for reflection and learning.

This human-centred approach makes operations sustainable and helps teams thrive over the long term.

Final Thoughts

Product operations is not just about tools or processes. It’s about creating a framework that helps teams work clearly, quickly, and kindly. The Product Operations Hub is my response to the common struggles I’ve seen in product teams: unclear ownership, constant context switching, and burnout.

By combining a flexible operating model, a unified tool setup, shared frameworks, organised research, and collaborative workshops, I help teams decide faster and release sooner without sacrificing their wellbeing.

If your team feels overwhelmed by escalations and unclear priorities, consider how a people-centred product operations approach could help. Start small with one piece—maybe mapping your current ways of working or setting up a research repository—and build from there.

The goal is not perfection but progress. Better operations mean better products and healthier teams.