How ATB Escaped the Build Trap

This interview with Siamak Khorrami, Product Operations and Governance Lead at ATB Financial, a government-owned Canadian bank, describes how the bank built a product management capability during a multi-year digital transformation. The bank moved technology work in-house, created a separate transformation office, then embedded digital capabilities back into business lines. Early training failed to change behavior until role clarity and strategy alignment were established, and a product management assessment provided a shared baseline. The story matters because it shows that enterprise product transformations depend on clarifying roles, connecting strategy to daily work, and building shared language, not just hiring or training.

01Key takeaways

• Do not invest in product training until the organization has clarified what product managers do and how they will be supported.
• Connect bottom-up product management efforts to a top-down strategy so teams produce outcomes that matter to the business.
• Use an assessment to create a shared baseline and desired future state before choosing actions.
• Define key terms like roadmap and product owner explicitly, since different people hold very different meanings.
• Frame Product Operations as an enabler that gives product managers a clear playing field, not as a compliance function.
• Shift leadership conversations from delivery status toward outcomes, using analytics to ground those discussions.

02Key sections

Why the bank transformed

Leadership concluded that serving customers well required changing how the bank worked, not just adding digital tools. The 'Work Reimagined' initiative aimed to break silos and increase collaboration.

Structure and capability building

A separate Chief Transformation Office gave people room to learn without disrupting branches, but the team later learned that a separate office was not sustainable and embedded capabilities in business lines.

Training before role clarity

Early product manager training changed nothing day to day because roles and support were unclear, so the bank shifted to an assessment and leadership alignment first.

Redefining products and channels

The team reframed digital apps from channels to products that solve customer problems, helping the wider organization adopt a broader and customer-centered view of what a product is.

Product Operations and outcome cadences

Product Operations was framed as a playing field enabling excellence rather than policing, and leadership cadences moved from delivery questions toward outcome questions supported by analytics.

03From the post

“Digital Transformations are plentiful across the enterprise world, but it’s not often that we hear of their success stories. That’s why I was excited to sit down with Siamak Khorrami, Product Operations and Governance Lead at ATB Financial, as he reflected on their digital transformation.”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.