Product Ownership Unification
Executive Summary
Product ownership across RRI is fragmented across 6+ people: Tony AI & RPM (Justin), Coaching (Chris Schenke), Platinum (Scotty), Inner Circle & Business Accelerator (Bree under Diane), Summit (Jesse), traditional events (no single owner). No one owns the full customer experience.
This creates conflicting priorities, duplicated efforts, and the SKU chaos that cascades through every system. Last year’s code freeze lasted two weeks before marketing started changing things 5 minutes before go-live, creating new SKUs that rippled through order-ingestion, Salesforce, Blackthorn, and the portal.
The fix is organizational, not technical: appoint Justin Kahn as unified product owner, establish a Product Council with a Product Change Request (PCR) process, and enforce a 30-day lead time for new SKUs. The North Star is the Mastery Path progression — every product decision evaluated against: does this advance or fragment the path?
What Needs to Happen
- Appoint Justin Kahn as unified product owner — VP/Head of Product title. Single point of accountability for the full customer experience across all products. Week 1-2 (decision).
- Establish SVPG Product Council — Quarterly strategy review (3hr) + monthly operating review (90min). 7 members max. Inigo (Justin’s AI strategy agent) drafts pre-reads. Week 3-4.
- Implement Product Change Request (PCR) process — 30-day lead time for new SKUs. Engineering impact assessment required. Council approval gate. Week 4-6.
- Define North Star: Mastery Path progression — UPW → Tony AI → RPM → Coaching → Inner Circle → Platinum. Every product decision evaluated against this path. Week 4-6.
- First enforcement moment — Erik must enforce the structure when the first bypass attempt happens. One enforcement moment sets the precedent. Authority without enforcement is theater. Week 6-8.
- First event with clean code freeze — No last-minute unreviewed SKU changes. PCR process catches changes 30 days before go-live. Week 8.
Critical risk: Authority without enforcement is theater. Erik must enforce the structure when the first bypass attempt happens. One enforcement moment sets the precedent. This is entirely an organizational change initiative — no code can accelerate it.
Claude Code acceleration: This is an organizational change initiative, not a technical one. Claude Code cannot compress the timeline. 8 weeks remains 8 weeks — this is people, politics, and process.
Completion Criteria
- Justin Kahn formally appointed as unified product owner (VP/Head of Product)
- SVPG Product Council established with quarterly + monthly cadence
- Product Change Request (PCR) process published and adopted across all departments
- 30-day SKU lead time enforced for engineering impact assessment
- Mastery Path progression defined as North Star for product decisions
- First event with clean code freeze — no last-minute unreviewed SKU changes
- Erik has enforced the process at least once (precedent set)
Initiative Attributes
Current Product Ownership Fragmentation
| Product Area | Current Owner | Issue |
|---|---|---|
| Tony AI & RPM | Justin Kahn | No growth strategy, no product owner |
| Coaching | Chris Schenke | Disconnected from digital products |
| Platinum | Scotty | Premium tier with separate systems |
| Inner Circle / Business Accelerator | Bree (under Diane) | No technical integration |
| Summit | Jesse | Marketing-led, no product coordination |
| Traditional events | No single owner | SKU chaos cascades through all systems |
Related Risks
No direct risk factors mapped to U8, but the absence of unified product ownership is the root cause behind multiple downstream risks. SKU chaos from fragmented ownership directly contributed to the code-freeze failure and cascades through order-ingestion, Salesforce automation, and portal systems.