Convergent TribesEvolving product organizations into value champions
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Your product teams ship. Is it creating value?

Convergent Tribes helps product and engineering organizations create maximum value, and make it visible. By value we mean revenue that grows, costs that drop and risk that shrinks.

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Afterwards, book a free 45-minute results session to go through your result and what to fix first.

Your teams work hard and ship. Yet not enough value shows.

  • Priorities follow the loudest stakeholder, not evidence of customer value.
  • The budget funds features, not outcomes.
  • Nobody can name the value the teams own, let alone measure it.
  • Platform teams keep the business running, yet their value stays invisible.
  • AI makes teams faster, but revenue, cost or risk barely moves.

Recognize even one? Then value is left on the table.

Take the free Quick ScanSee where you stand in 15 minutes.

Why act now

Today, every budget line has to show its value.

The era of cheap capital ended. Investors got selective. At the same time, AI makes output cheap, but not more valuable. So one question reaches every product area: why invest in this?

End of easy money−53%

fewer global VC deals than in 2022.1

AI boosts output+66%

more tasks completed by teams using AI.2

Value stays rare6.4%

of features shipped drive 80% of usage.3

No visible value, no budget.No budget, no mandate.Visible value secures both.

Sources

1 CB Insights, State of Venture 2025 (2026). 2 Faros.ai, The Acceleration Whiplash (2026). 3 Pendo, Product Benchmarks (2024).

It’s rarely the people. It’s the model they operate in.

These patterns share one root: the product operating model. It sets where you steer, how you work, how you use AI and what you measure. Most models simply grew over time.

Without a clear picture of value, you lose control of direction. The loudest stakeholder, the budget cycle or the next deadline takes over.

Training changes people. New tools change workflows. Reorgs change the org chart. None of them changes how far your organization takes responsibility for the value it creates.

Change the model, and the same people can create more visible value.

A stronger operating model pays

+60%

total shareholder return for the most mature product operating models, versus the bottom half.4

+16%

operating margin, same 400+ listed companies.4

+38%

customer engagement for the top quarter.4

Sources

4 McKinsey, The bottom-line benefit of the product operating model (2023). Self-reported maturity; the figures show correlation, not causation.

From cost line to investment.

A real case, anonymized: a revenue collection application at a global e-commerce company.

  1. 1

    The question.

    In the yearly budget cycle, leadership singled the application out as a cost line: “An outside vendor can do this better.”

  2. 2

    The comparison.

    The team compared the internal application with vendor alternatives on value. The internal application delivered more. It combined unique data with business logic that no vendor had.

  3. 3

    The wider view.

    Instead of chasing late payers, the team looked into why they paid late. Knowing each customer’s risk made flexible payment terms possible. More customers survived and kept generating revenue on the platform. Risk went down.

  4. 4

    The investment.

    The risk logic also let AI handle more collection conversations. Other teams wanted to use the same risk model. Leadership now saw the application as an investment with a return, not a cost.

“We should have shown this value from day one. Because we didn’t, a decision from above nearly traded away the option with the most value.”The product lead at the time

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Maarten Wolters, founder of Convergent Tribes

Maarten Wolters
Founder, Convergent Tribes

What my former manager says

“He led his product managers through a real shift from a delivery-first mindset to a much more customer and value-driven way of working.”Nikhil Colaço, VP Product at Pencil, former Director of Product at Booking.com

I have been there myself.

Twenty years in the product management craft, most recently as Head of Product at Booking.com. There I led product teams from a delivery-first to a value-driven way of working. Same people, different model, more value. Now I want to help other product organizations make that shift, and show the value from day one.

  • Scale and scope. Head of Product in Booking.com’s fast-scaling FinTech unit. Led one department across Amsterdam and Bangalore, and built its teams in Bangalore.
  • From delivery to value. Took every PM through a customer-centricity program. Highest people-manager score in FinTech (2023); reports promoted to Senior and Group PM.
  • AI in operations. Led one of the first AI initiatives in Booking.com’s FinTech unit. Far exceeded its workload-reduction target and won multiple internal awards.

More about Maarten  ·  LinkedIn

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Four steps to create maximum value, and make it visible.

  1. Steer to value

    Set the scope of responsibility your product area needs. The gap with today shows your biggest untapped value.

    With the CT Value Rings™

  2. Strengthen the organization

    Bring every part of how you work, such as priorities, teams, processes and hiring, to the level your product needs.

    Based on McKinsey 7S

  3. Multiply with AI

    Once your organization works at the level it needs, multiply value by scaling AI.

    With the CT AI Value Matrix

  4. Measure the value

    Make the value you create visible, so budget and mandate talks start from facts.

    With the CT Value Pyramid

“One of the managers who set the bar for what a well-led, high-performing product organisation looked like.”Robert Kooyman, former peer at Booking.com
See how it works

See where you stand in 15 minutes.

The free CT Quick Scan shows where your product area stands today. Afterwards, book a free 45-minute results session to go through your result and what to fix first.

Which describes your role best?

Not in product yourself? Introduce a product leader →

Four phases. Start free, decide at every phase.

1 Free · online · 15 min
CT Quick Scan

An indication of the value that stays untapped, and suggested first steps to capture it.

2 6 weeks · 4 on site
CT Diagnostic

Evidence-based insight into the value that stays untapped, and a plan to capture it.

3 9 months · hybrid
CT Program

Your product area works with a set-up that creates maximum value, made visible to the business and beyond. You pay part of our fee only when we meet the objectives we set together.

4 Optional · monthly
CT Aftercare

The change anchored for the long term, so your product area keeps creating maximum value.

The first four clients get the CT Diagnostic at an introductory price.

Take the free Quick Scan Book an introduction call

See how it works