Building high-performing product teams at Europe's leading digital product consultancy

When I first joined Apadmi six years ago, I was the only Product Owner in the business, leading the charge on all things Product for our clients. Fast forward to today, and I’m proud to lead a talented team of more than 30 product professionals - Product Managers, Product Owners, and Product Executives - who sit at the heart of a 320-strong business.

Together, we work with some of the biggest names in Europe across industries such as Retail, Finance, Healthcare, Telco and Utilities.

Scaling from one to 30 while integrating product thinking into Apadmi’s ways of working has been a journey of challenges, learnings, and ultimately success. And there are some key principles which remain essential to our high-performing product teams. 

Trust - the key to a strong foundation

In product, trust is everything. Without it, teams can’t innovate, collaborate, or navigate challenges effectively. At Apadmi, we’ve built a culture where openness and trust are non-negotiable, and this is driven from the top down.

This starts with a “no blame” mindset that empowers everyone to ask questions, share ideas, and seek support. We’ve introduced processes like regular roundtables, communities of practice, and cross-team collaboration to foster open communication.

Quarterly Product days help align personal development with business goals, ensuring that every team member has the time and space to grow.

Trust also extends to our client relationships. With one of our Telco clients, for example, the team recently identified a need to pause and reassess priorities to ensure we delivered within budget whilst maximising value. The client trusted us to make that call, and because our team was empowered to act, we turned a potential challenge into a win.

Repeatable processes to enable autonomy

When scaling a team, repeatable processes are vital. They provide consistency, reduce ambiguity, and give teams the confidence to act with autonomy.

At Apadmi, we have adopted frameworks like Scrum and structured our product team into industry-specific squads. This approach allows our Product experts to focus on the needs of each client while sharing ideas and tackling challenges collectively.

Alongside this, we’ve developed a suite of templates and processes - the “Apadmi Way”—to ensure every squad has the tools it needs to succeed.

These processes make a tangible difference. When we partnered with a Retail client embarking on a long term digital transformation. Initially there was a desire to deliver everything at once. By guiding the client through our iterative approach, we launched the first native mobile app within 12 months.

Today, that product has become central to their customer engagement strategy and is responsible for driving a large share of the company’s digital revenue, as well as increasing basket size and driving loyalty. And we’re helping them to plan the next phase of their journey.

Making data-driven decisions

Impactful decisions are grounded in data. Data is used to empower Apadmi’s teams, provide clarity, and foster confidence in every decision we make, for both our clients and our own teams.

Our squads track metrics such as sprint predictability, stakeholder satisfaction, and defect rates, using these insights to identify opportunities for improvement. This approach also helps us spot potential challenges early, enabling proactive solutions.

One of our Financial Services clients faced significant delays due to third-party dependencies. By presenting the data clearly and collaboratively revising timelines, we not only helped the client navigate the situation, but also strengthened their trust in us as a strategic partner.

It’s also essential we agree what success looks like and how we measure it in the team. Everything has to link back to the client’s goals and initiatives. How do we create success for the business by changing user behaviours, and measuring it? 

For our long-standing client Domino's, we knew that increasing basket size and app orders was a key measurement point for them. By working closely with the client to improve their product with these goals in mind, we have been able to significantly increase basket size and app orders whilst reducing abandoned baskets.

We need to track and confirm that our actions deliver the expected results. Data-driven decisions aren’t just a tool for delivery; they’re a cornerstone of building resilient and effective teams.

Making learning and development a continuous priority

For a team to thrive, learning must be a priority. At Apadmi, we’ve embedded it into our Product teams, with our internal L&D team (Apadmi Academy) driving personal development.

The Apadmi Academy, and introducing entry-level roles such as Product Apprentice and Product Graduate Programme, has opened new pathways into Product careers. Meanwhile, structured learning paths, mentorship programs, and monthly team topics keep everyone on a growth trajectory.

We have also created a Product Community of Practices - which is a space to share learnings, as well as success and failure stories in order to give others actionable insights, tips and tactics for their own projects. 

These initiatives aren’t just about individual development—they strengthen the entire team. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement, we’ve built a team that’s collaborative, forward-thinking, and driven to deliver exceptional outcomes.

Alignment with company-wide initiatives

High-performing teams thrive when their work aligns with broader company goals. At Apadmi, this alignment is reinforced from day one, with new joiners getting to know our shared values and vision.

This alignment creates a sense of unity and shared purpose. From quarterly company meetings to peer-nominated awards which celebrate achievements, these initiatives remind us that we’re all part of one team, striving for the same goals.

It’s this alignment that drives us forward, allowing each of us to deliver the best for our clients, colleagues, and ourselves.

As we’ve gone from zero to 30, focussing on trust, process, data, learning, and alignment has given us the right foundations to swiftly scale and grow a successful team capable of delivering award-winning digital products for our clients.

As Apadmi continues to grow and partner with some of Europe’s leading brands, these principles remain at the heart of how we work. If you’d like to get to know our Product team better and find out how they can accelerate your digital product vision, we’d love to hear from you!