The 3 types of teams in the product operating model

Product teams focus on customer-facing or business-aligned products—solutions designed for direct end-users, whether external customers, employees, or partners. These teams operate in close collaboration with business units, iterating on features that enhance experiences and drive revenue. Because they are continuously evolving their offerings, product teams typically allocate the highest proportion of their efforts to grow and transform work—building new capabilities, improving customer experiences, and responding to emerging market demands—while still maintaining the core functionality of their products.

Platform teams provide shared capabilities, APIs, and infrastructure that support multiple product teams. Their customers are often internal, ensuring that foundational technology services—such as data platforms, authentication systems, or integration layers—are scalable and reusable. The nature of their work is more evenly distributed across run, grow, and transform activities, as they must balance maintaining system stability with improving and expanding the services they offer to product teams.

Services teams maintain critical technology operations, supporting both internal users and other product teams. Unlike product teams that focus on innovation, services teams prioritize run activities—ensuring uptime, compliance, and operational efficiency—while still making measured improvements over time. Their primary responsibility is to keep core capabilities and infrastructure reliable while adapting to business needs and regulatory changes.