Self-service product data, with controls that pass audit
Scaled a self-service product data platform from 0 to 400+ users, replacing $50K, six-month engineering projects with same-day changes under a risk-based change framework.
Context
Every product definition change required a $50K engineering project with a six-month lead time. Business teams could not update product configurations, pricing rules or eligibility criteria without filing tickets and waiting.
Minor changes were economically irrational, so they did not happen. Product data was duplicated across downstream channels, teams kept parallel spreadsheets, and configurations drifted.
Constraints
- A regulated catalog: every change needs an owner and an audit trail.
- Downstream systems could not all be changed to suit a new platform.
- Users across front, middle and back office, most of them not technical.
Options on the table
Would shave weeks, not months, and keep engineers doing routine data changes.
Simple to build, but one approval path is either too heavy for trivial changes or too light for risky ones. Reviewers end up skimming everything.
Low-risk changes flow through automated approval; high-risk changes go through controlled release trains with compliance review. Most of the volume gets fast, and the risky part gets more attention, not less.
The decision
The platform became the single source of truth for 180+ product definitions, consumed by downstream channels through APIs, so a change made once propagated everywhere. An integration orchestration layer connected it to activation systems and systems of record without requiring them to change.
Launch started with a pilot of 10 users in one business unit, with guided workflows, inline validation and previews so users could see exactly what would change before committing.
My role
Owned the product: discovery across business units, the risk-based change framework, the rollout, and the roadmap as the platform grew.
Grew from individual contributor to product lead of a team of eight over the life of the platform.
Outcome
The platform scaled from 0 to 400+ users and unlocked 1,200+ product changes a year that had been blocked by cost and lead time, worth $4M+ in annual cost avoidance. Changes that took six months now take hours.
The risk-based framework delivered zero critical audit findings over four consecutive years. Self-service and governance turned out not to be a trade-off when the controls are designed into the platform.
What I would change
Publish the risk-tier rules to users from the start, so people can see why a change is low or high risk and structure their changes to stay in the fast lane.
Instrument time-to-change per tier from the first release instead of reconstructing it later for the business case.