At the 2024 Product Excellence Summit, Autodesk’s Shelly La Rock (Head of Product Operations and Delivery Excellence) discussed how Autodesk optimized their Product Operations function to drive consistent execution.

A well-known player in design and make technology—including engineering, architecture, and media and entertainment, among others—Autodesk faced the challenge of scaling its Product Ops to support its expansive portfolio and ambitious growth trajectory. Under the guidance of Shelly, Autodesk embraced Productboard as a central hub for product management, transforming disjointed processes into a cohesive, data-driven ecosystem.

Through Productboard, Autodesk centralized intake processes, bridged departmental silos, and aligned cross-functional teams on strategic objectives—saving significant time and enhancing trust across the organization.

From Disjointed Processes and Data Silos…

At its foundation, Product Ops teams encourage continuous improvement. They identify areas of opportunity within the product development process and implement changes to enhance employee productivity and product quality. The Product Operations function acts as a center of excellence, freeing product managers from operational burdens so they can focus on delivering value to customers. To do so, they must continuously optimize workflows, select and maintain the right tools, centralize data for decision-making, and foster collaboration across teams. 

Before Productboard, Autodesk struggled with fragmented Product Ops processes. 

Requests and feedback flowed through disparate channels like Salesforce, email, and other tools, leaving product managers burdened with manual sorting, prioritization, and communication. “We were managing things in Excel spreadsheets. Roadmaps were in PowerPoint decks. Planning was in spreadsheets and other documents like Word,” Shelly summarized. “We needed to centralize our intake. It was the only way we were going to be able to scale our product management efforts, connect to our delivery frameworks, and enable our go-to-market teams.”

These inefficiencies became increasingly problematic as Autodesk’s work shifted from a single-domain to cross-domain projects, with over 80% of initiatives now requiring collaboration across multiple teams.

…To Productboard as a Single Source of Truth

Autodesk implemented Productboard as its central product management platform. The solution streamlined intake processes, unified feedback, and provided visibility into priorities across teams.

"Productboard became our single front door. Everything comes into Productboard, and we’ve automated communications back to teams in the channel of their choice. It’s been a huge time saver and has built trust with our stakeholders. They know where to go for information and they know where to get a status update.”

Autodesk also leveraged Productboard’s integrations with tools like Salesforce and Jira, enabling seamless data flows. For example:

• Salesforce users could submit requests directly through embedded Productboard portals.
• Jira integrations ensured that developer updates were synced with Productboard, giving product teams real-time visibility into progress. 

“We’ve embedded Productboard work items in SharePoint and Confluence,” Shelly added. “This allows us to deliver information where our users need it without having to train thousands of people on Productboard.”

Streamlined Product Ops: Meeting People Where They’re At

By centralizing data and processes in Productboard, Autodesk transformed their Product Operations in a number of ways.

1. Time Savings & Trust Building: Automation eliminated manual request sorting and assignment. Every incoming request is now instantly routed to the appropriate product team using AI-driven intake forms. Stakeholders receive real-time updates, fostering transparency and trust. According to Shelly, “We’ve delighted our customers and other Autodeskers by eliminating the black hole where requests used to disappear. Communication has always been 75% of my job, and Productboard has helped us immensely in enabling better communication.”
2. Actionable Product Roadmaps: Productboard’s prioritization frameworks allowed Autodesk to create roadmaps that align with strategic objectives. This included high-level objective-based roadmaps for leadership and detailed plans for individual teams. “We used to have six-month roadmaps that were best guesses. Now, we have 2.5-year roadmaps tied to strategic plans, with every request feeding into corporate objectives and OKRs,” explained Shelly.
3. Cross-Functional Collaboration: As cross-domain projects surged, Productboard enabled better collaboration across teams, including engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success. Stakeholders could align on priorities using data-driven insights, reducing internal competition for resources. “It used to be that people were duking it out to say, ‘We think this is more important.’ Now, we can actually say, ‘We know this is more important,’ based on the data,” said Shelly.

Building a Stronger Foundation for Strategic Growth

Productboard continues to be a cornerstone of Autodesk’s Product Operations strategy, with the platform now standard across its product teams. Nested objectives have further streamlined strategic alignment by connecting work at all levels to overarching corporate goals.

“We tried to approach everything tool agnostic. Honestly, we were always focused on what problem do we need to solve, and Productboard continues to come back. This is the third company I've worked with in the last 10 years that we've onboarded Productboard to solve the same problems.” 

With Productboard, Autodesk has transformed its Product Operations from a fragmented system into a streamlined, data-driven center of excellence. The result is a more agile, aligned organization that delivers better products while saving time and resources. For Product Ops leaders looking to scale their teams and align their strategies, Autodesk’s success story showcases the power of a single source of truth—and the impact it can have on an organization.

Interested in learning more about how seasoned product leaders like Shelly are standardizing processes to ensure consistent, efficient execution? Access the Product Excellence Summit Replay here.