From patchwork to platform: Transforming an acquisition-built business into a product-led company
The leadership table is full. The CFO’s got the deal sheet spread out… ten acquisitions, eight of them service-heavy. Revenue’s decent, headcount looks impressive on a slide. We’ve got market share in more than a few regions.
It’s a patchwork empire, stitched together deal by deal.
The CEO leans in. “We’ve done well. But now… it’s time to be more product-led. We have the footprint. What we need is efficiency… scalable revenue, predictability, higher margins, rule of 40.”
I’ve heard those words before – and I remember the look on the Head of Delivery’s face. Half excitement, half you have no idea what’s about to hit us. Because if your entire growth engine runs on acquisitions, becoming product-led isn’t a pivot. It’s a reinvention and it will touch… everything.
The starting point: a services portfolio in disguise
On paper, it all looks impressively diverse. But scratch even slightly and here’s what you find:
Most acquisitions came with their own bespoke delivery and support models.
The tech exists, but it was built for one specific client’s needs, not the market’s.
Sales cycles – long, relationship-driven, proposal-heavy, signed with tailored contracts.
I once saw a “product” we’d acquired that came with it's own encyclopaedia of a custom implementation manual. It was brilliant for that one customer, but completely un-sellable to anyone else. That’s services DNA, revenue growth reflects headcount growth.
Shifting to product-led means breaking that link. Growth stops being about adding more people on day rates. It demands a different operating model, a different mindset… and different bets on where your money and talent go.
The good – why starting from services isn’t all bad news
There’s an upside though. Service companies have something a lot of product-first firms quietly envy… deep, hard-earned customer intimacy.
Your teams already know the clients inside out. They’ve walked the floors, seen the bottlenecks, lived the awkward workarounds. They know what actually triggers a budget approval. And they’ve built trust the hard way.
I remember a warehouse visit where a client walked me through a 4-step workaround they’d invented because our “solution” didn’t quite fit. They were laughing about it. I wasn’t. But that moment told us exactly what the next release had to fix – and why they’d buy it.
You’re not guessing what the market might want. You’ve delivered it before – even if only once, for one client. If you can distil that into something scalable, you can skip a big chunk of the trial-and-error your competitors are still slogging through.
The bad – where the grind kicks in
But the services mindset doesn’t wake up one morning and turn into product thinking.
Sales teams are wired for big, one-off wins, not for adoption curves and lifetime value.
Delivery teams take pride in customising for the client – exactly the thing you now need to stop.
Engineering is used to project milestones, not continuous roadmaps.
I’ve lived roadmap meetings where sales promised a client “just one last” custom feature… which quietly turned into three sprints of unplanned work, derailing the roadmap for everyone else.
And then there’s the portfolio mess. Acquisitions pile up overlapping capabilities, multiple brands, and tech stacks that don’t talk to each other. Avoid the hard decisions and you’ll try to productise too many things… and progress will slow to a crawl everywhere.
The ugly – when it just… stalls
The worst outcome? You stick “product-led” in the slide deck but still run like a services shop that happens to ship software.
You keep every acquired offering alive so no one’s upset. You launch “new products” but never bring them together in one coherent experience. Sales keeps chasing custom deals because they’re easier to close this quarter.
I’ve seen this movie. Twelve months later the transformation had been announced, re-announced, and celebrated… but nothing fundamental had changed.
What great CPOs do in this situation
Walking in as a CPO to an acquisition-built, services-heavy business is one of the toughest gigs you’ll ever take. The ones who pull it off are clear about the end game… and ruthless about the portfolio.
They work on two fronts: The Product Journey and The Customer Journey.
The Product Journey
Map the future – Choose the few product bets that will fuel growth. Everything else gets integrated, briefly supported, or retired.
Cut the distractions – If it won’t scale, doesn’t fit the vision, or drags focus from the flagship, it goes.
Pull it together – One platform feel, one design language, one architecture. Customers should never feel like they’re hopping between unrelated tools.
Change the scorecard – Stop counting launches and big deal sizes. Start measuring adoption, retention, expansion.
Build product muscle – Teach teams to think scale-first. Say “no” when a request derails the roadmap… even if it’s your biggest client asking.
The Customer Journey
Your long-term service clients are used to “your way, always.” Dropping a standard product on them cold will feel like a downgrade – unless you manage it well.
Explain the why – Position it as faster, more secure, more innovative… not just cheaper for you.
Map their route – Give them a clear migration plan from custom to standard without a hard cut-off cliff.
Keep a blend – Allow some flexibility for key customers but with a clear path to the standard model.
Bring them in – Get your best clients into early design work so they’re emotionally invested in what’s coming.
If you're sceptical on this, your customers will surprise you. I’ve had clients thank us for involving them early – even when the end result meant losing some custom features – because they felt like partners in the journey, not casualties of it.
Final thought
If your empire was built on service acquisitions, going product-led isn’t about adding “software” to your homepage. It’s rewiring the whole business.
That means fewer offerings, bigger bets, and walking away from work that’s profitable but off-strategy.
The reward? Scaling on the trust and insight you already have, unlocking recurring revenue, and building something the market values – not just the next client with a big enough budget.
The price? Discipline. Tough calls. And the nerve to take a patchwork… and turn it into a platform.
