When I joined Vitrifi, I was the first person with a Product or Project Management background. The company was a purely engineer-led organisation with fast-growing teams but no Product discipline, minimal structure, and no standardised way of working.

The question was simple but challenging: How do you build an entire Product function from scratch in an engineering-first organisation?

Step 1 - Working Solo

Partnered with team leads to unify and document the SDLC.

Introduced fundamental Product processes: PRDs, user story breakdowns.

Advocated for better communication → launched Mattermost for async collaboration.

Adapted GitLab task tracking to support the new SDLC.

Drafted an operational model for a future Product team.

Prioritised one critical team (GUI & API) while supporting others at a structural level.

Active async communication culture — channels were alive and organised.

Documented SDLC with clear stages and full work traceability.

A foundation for scaling Product work across the organisation.

Step 2 - Building the Team

Hired and onboarded the first Product Managers.

Expanded processes to cover multiple domains as new teams formed.

Built the Product team’s culture and operating model.

Introduced a Roadmap system in Notion that became a company-wide reference.

Established working relationships and boundaries with new departments (Commercial, PMO, Marketing).

Created a Product Directory to process and prioritise new ideas.

Set up structured insight systems: Customer DB and Competitor DB.

In two years, Vitrifi transformed from an engineer-driven, process-light organisation into a company with:

A functional Product organisation supporting multiple domains.

Clear processes for strategy, execution, and communication.

A scalable way of working that supported both rapid growth and cross-department alignment.

💡 Key takeaway: Building a Product function from scratch requires starting small (solo impact and foundational processes), then scaling through structure, hiring, and cross-company collaboration.