Creating Joint Ownership of Outcomes Between Business and IT

Moving beyond mutual understanding, true business-IT partnership requires shared ownership of outcomes. This means shifting from a transactional “order-taker” relationship to one where both groups are jointly accountable for business results. This installment of our series on bridging the business-IT gap provides specific approaches for creating this shared ownership.

Implement Outcome-Based Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

“Winning Together” demonstrates how shared OKRs can align business and technology teams around common goals. Here’s how to implement this approach effectively:

Focus on Customer and Business Outcomes: Rather than separate business and technology objectives, define objectives at the value stream level that focus on customer and business outcomes.

Connect Technical Capabilities to Business Value: For each objective, explicitly map how technical capabilities enable business outcomes. As the authors of Flow Engineering state: “If you can’t explain how a technical initiative drives business value, it shouldn’t be a priority.”

Create Nested Objectives: Establish a clear line of sight from enterprise objectives down to team-level objectives. This creates coherence while still allowing autonomy at the team level.

Balance Outcome and Capability Metrics: Include both outcome metrics (customer adoption, revenue) and capability metrics (delivery speed, reliability) in your OKRs. This helps both groups understand the connection between technical excellence and business results.

Practical Example: An insurance company described in “Winning Together” established the OKR “Customers love our mobile experience” with key results including “20% mobile customer NPS improvement” (business metric) and “30% Flow Time reduction for features” (technology metric). By connecting these metrics, they showed how technical improvements directly contributed to customer satisfaction.

Shift from Project to Product Orientation

Research shows that product-oriented organizations significantly outperform project-oriented ones. Here’s how to make this shift:

Establish Persistent Cross-Functional Teams: Replace temporary project teams with stable, cross-functional product teams that include business and technology roles. Flow Engineering provides a structured approach:

• Identify clear product or value stream boundaries.
• Staff teams with all skills needed to deliver end-to-end value.
• Ensure both business and technology leadership representation.
• Give teams long-term ownership and accountability.

Implement Product-Based Funding Models: Move away from project-based funding to product-based funding. “Winning Together” suggests starting with:

• Capacity-based funding for product teams rather than project-specific funding.
• Quarterly review and adjustment of allocation based on outcomes.
• Flexibility for teams to determine how to best achieve outcomes.
• Metrics that balance short-term features with long-term sustainability.

Create Product Ownership Partnerships: Establish clear roles where business and technology leaders share product ownership. “Measuring Leadership” suggests defining specific accountabilities for:

• Business context and user needs (typically business leadership).
• Technical feasibility and sustainability (typically technology leadership).
• Joint accountability for delivery and outcomes (shared).

Practical Action: Select one value stream to pilot a product-oriented approach. Establish a dedicated, cross-functional team with stable funding and joint business-technology leadership. Run the pilot for at least 90 days, measuring both business and technical outcomes.

Implement Joint Decision-Making Forums

“How to Thrive in Building a Learning Culture” emphasizes the importance of structured forums for joint decision-making between business and technology.

Product Portfolio Reviews: Quarterly sessions where business and technology leaders jointly review the product portfolio, assess performance, and make investment decisions.

Technology Investment Councils: Forums where business and technology leaders collaboratively decide on strategic technology investments, balancing short-term feature needs with long-term architectural sustainability.

Joint Prioritization Methods: Structured approaches like Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) that incorporate both business value and technical considerations into prioritization decisions.

Regular Operating Reviews: Weekly or bi-weekly sessions where business and technology leaders review progress, address impediments, and make adjustments together.

Practical Action: Implement monthly Joint Operating Reviews that examine both business and technical metrics, with equal time allocated to both perspectives. Ensure that adjustments to plans incorporate both business and technical considerations.

Create Shared Accountability for Results

“Measuring Leadership” shows that joint accountability drives better outcomes than separate business and technology accountability:

Shared Success Metrics: Define shared success metrics on which both business and technology leaders are evaluated. These should include both business outcomes (revenue, customer satisfaction) and technical outcomes (reliability, security).

Joint Retrospectives: Regular sessions where business and technology leaders reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve together:

• Start with data on both business and technical outcomes.
• Jointly analyze root causes of successes and failures.
• Create shared improvement plans with specific actions.
• Follow up in subsequent reviews.

Transparent Performance Reporting: Create dashboards that show both business and technical performance side by side, making the connections between them visible to all stakeholders.

Joint Recognition and Rewards: Celebrate successes together with recognition that acknowledges both business and technical contributions to outcomes.

Practical Action: Implement quarterly joint retrospectives that include both business and technology leaders, focusing on learning and improvement rather than blame. Ensure that findings and action items are widely shared.

Case Study: Nordstrom’s Digital Transformation

“Winning Together” describes how Nordstrom transformed their digital capabilities through joint business-technology ownership:

1. They created persistent product teams aligned with customer journeys rather than organizational functions.
2. They implemented joint business-technology leadership for each product area.
3. They shifted from project-based funding to capacity-based funding for product teams.
4. They established shared OKRs focused on customer outcomes rather than separate business and technology objectives.
5. They created joint operating reviews where business and technology metrics were reviewed together.

The results were dramatic: deployment frequency increased from monthly to daily, mean time to recovery decreased from days to hours, and most importantly, digital sales grew significantly faster than the industry average.

Joint ownership is more than just a structural change—it’s a fundamental shift in how business and technology leaders think about their roles and responsibilities. By implementing the practices outlined above, you create the foundation for a true strategic partnership that drives superior business outcomes.

In Part 4, we’ll explore how to sustain this partnership over time, ensuring that it becomes embedded in the organization’s DNA rather than being dependent on specific individuals or initiatives.

- About The Authors

Leah Brown

Managing Editor at IT Revolution working on publishing books and guidance papers for the modern business leader. I also oversee the production of the IT Revolution blog, combining the best of responsible, human-centered content with the assistance of AI tools.

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