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Strategic Refocus Balancing Product Viability and Talent Alignment

Challenge

A Canadian tech company was managing three separate cloud-based products. While two showed strong market traction and operational synergy, the third struggled with adoption and required distinct technical capabilities. Leadership faced a strategic decision: continue investing in the underperforming product or refocus resources on the core business.

Approach

We were brought in to support a strategic assessment of the product portfolio, with a focus on workforce impact, opportunity cost, and readiness for acquisition.
Our approach included:
  • A performance review of all three products: growth rate, customer acquisition, retention, and profitability
  • Market benchmarking to evaluate competitive pressure and barriers to scale in the retail tech space
  • A talent and org structure assessment, identifying role overlaps, dilution of key resources, and hiring risks
  • Key stakeholders' engagement to understand and validate the environmental requirements to enable reasoned product selection.
Scenario planning around three pathways:
  • Maintain and invest in all three products
  • Spin off the third product as a separate entity
  • Retire the third product to focus on the two core offerings
Our workforce modeling included analysis of hiring needs, skills gaps, onboarding costs, and operational strain. We helped quantify not just what it would take to continue—but what it might cost the business in focus, speed, and strategic clarity.

Outcomes

The company made the decision to sunset the third product and reallocate resources to the core platforms. This sharpened their go-to-market strategy and aligned teams around a unified vision—just in time for acquisition discussions.
  • Key results:
  • Reclaimed ~25% of engineering and GTM capacity to invest in high-growth areas
  • Avoided an estimated $2.5M in future hiring and infrastructure costs to support a third, noncore solution
  • Improved organizational focus and messaging—enhancing the company’s valuation and appeal to investors
  • Within 12 months, the company was successfully acquired by a global investment fund
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Industry

Software Industry

Geography

Canada