Product and Org Consultant

Your product and tech investment should return more than it is.

If you’ve invested heavily in your product and tech organization but still aren’t seeing the results you need, I can help. Most organizations I work with have already tried the obvious fixes: new roles, new processes, new frameworks, some have even tried AI-driven organizational initiatives, and many have completed multiple change programs stacked on top of each other. The investment is significant but the results aren’t there, delivery is slower than it should be, coordination is eating margin, and leadership has quietly lost confidence in what they’re building. I come in, find what’s actually broken, and fix it.

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Viktor Cessan
8,500+
Hours Active Coaching Agile
85+
Teams Coached
5
Enterprise Transformations
25
Years in the Field
Trusted by leaders at
Spotify King Avanza Slack Viaplay
How I Work

Methodology-agnostic for complex organizations

Most engagements start the same way. I look at where capital and capacity are being consumed versus where value is actually being created, and I find the structural reasons they’ve drifted apart. It’s usually some combination of dependency architecture quietly strangling flow, an investment thesis that no longer matches how the organization is wired, and incentive structures nobody has revisited since the last reorg.

What comes next depends entirely on what the analysis reveals. Sometimes the right move is portfolio reallocation. Sometimes it’s restructuring how teams are organized around value streams. Sometimes it’s sitting with leadership through a decision they’ve been circling for the better part of a year and helping them finally make it.

I don’t prescribe scale or methodology in advance. The situation dictates both.

Metrics I Focus On

Cost of operation
Cost of value creation
Speed of iteration
Investment quality
Leadership capability
What I Do

Strategic Investment Advising

When you’re not sure your technology investments are buying you what you think they are. I assess your portfolio against actual value creation and help leadership make the calls: what to scale, what to reposition, what to harvest, and what to kill. Investment thesis review, market analysis, financial assessment, reallocation. Not a framework. A clear point of view on where the money should go.

Enterprise Transformation

When the organization itself is the bottleneck. I coach leadership through the full shift: from component teams to product teams, from project-driven to product-driven, from slow and coupled to fast and autonomous. I stay until the change is self-sustaining. Five transformations completed across organizations of 50 to 500 people.

Organizational Assessment

If you know something’s off but can’t pinpoint what, I help you understand why. I run structured research combining interviews, data analysis, value stream mapping, and participatory observation to surface the systemic patterns your organization can’t see from the inside. Dependencies, decision bottlenecks, cultural dynamics, structural misalignment. You leave with a clear picture of what’s broken and why.

Leadership & Team Coaching

Coaching for CPOs, CTOs, Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and their teams. Not process coaching where I ask how you feel about it. I engage with the actual content of your challenges and work with you on the substance: strategy, org design, delivery, team dynamics, decision-making. You bring the topics, we work through them, you leave with actions.

Product Management Training

Tailored programs built around your people and their real context. I've designed and run multi-cohort programs in product management, Team Topologies, systems thinking, and leadership development. Not slides from a shelf. Participants work on their actual challenges during the training, so value starts before the program ends.

Selected Engagements

Results that moved the needle

Viafree
Facilitated remote self-selection process to transition disbanded Viafree teams into Viaplay during COVID-19 lockdowns. Developed partial self-selection approach to minimize disruption while ensuring alignment between skills, motivations, and team needs.
1 session
Fully remote Self-selection
Undisclosed Org
Applied Estuarine Mapping to tackle enterprise architecture adoption challenges after conventional wisdom failed. Navigated complex political landscape and surfaced hidden resistance patterns preventing progress.
6 months
From map to action
Viaplay
Designed tailored peer feedback process for newly re-missioned team to deepen trust and improve collaboration. Team created their own feedback template aligned with values, resulting in sustained open communication.
60 sessions
Peer feedback in 8 weeks
Undisclosed Org
Organizational study revealing why Engineering Managers were overwhelmed following reorganization. Mapped activities, identified role complexity, and facilitated discussions on redistributing work across product teams.
26 Managers
Root causes identified
Avanza Bank
Led transformation from component teams to fifteen product teams organized around customer value. Identified systemic patterns, redesigned team structure to minimize dependencies, and built leadership close to teams.
5.9 → 1.2
Team dependencies
Spotify Network Team
Reduced data center maintenance cycle time by measuring workflow states and identifying hardware inventory as bottleneck. Visualized value-adding vs. waste activities, leading to inventory optimization.
32 → 5 days
Cycle time
Read detailed case studies on the blog →
What Leaders Say
"Viktor has been key in Viaplay's transformation toward Product Teams. His approach enables organizations to recognize where they need to change. What impressed me most is his ability to carefully listen, capture, and understand team dynamics, and then present patterns back to them."
Ali Myftiu
Product Manager, Viaplay
"Viktor exemplifies a rare combination of technical expertise and empathetic leadership. He brought his unique style of humility, deep agile knowledge, insightful observations around human dynamics, and patient coaching to every interaction."
Shawn Carney
VP of Engineering
"Viktor helped us during our organizational transformation to product and customer journey teams, and he was a crucial part of its success. He helped us analyze the root cause of our challenges and worked closely with our management team throughout."
Johanna Belfrage
Head of Engineering
About

Built on practice and research, not trends

I've spent fifteen years embedded in organizations, working alongside teams and leadership in the day to day. I've coached transformations at Spotify during hypergrowth, restructured product organizations at Viaplay and Avanza, and designed operating models and leadership programs at IKEA. At any given time I typically run multiple complex engagements in parallel.

I anchor my work in academic research and proven models, not industry trends. I also build my own products, including MittBlod.se and Napkin-Ops.com. Building real products sharpens how I coach: I think in terms of cost of operations, cost of value creation, and return on investment because I live with those same constraints myself.

I co-host the systems coaching podcast The Law of Jam, write The Agile Coach's Guide to the Galaxy, and contribute open tools and frameworks to the agile community.

Learning Lineage

Trained with

Dave Snowden (Cynefin & Estuarine Mapping) · Amy Edmondson (Teaming) · Ruth Malan (Technical Leadership) · Jerry Weinberg & Esther Derby (Problem Solving Leadership) · Virginia Satir Clinical Program · ICF ACC Coaching

Frameworks & Tools

Wardley Mapping · Cynefin · Team Topologies · Value Stream Mapping · BAPO · Six Team Conditions · Systems Coaching · Estuarine Mapping

Contributions

Co-host of The Law of Jam podcast · Author of The Agile Coach's Guide to the Galaxy · Creator of Napkin-Ops, Value Cards, and organizational simulators run thousands of times worldwide

Also

Founded a startup and a consulting company. Former Team Lead and Product Manager. I've sat in the seats I now coach.

Career Timeline

Nineteen years of building, coaching, and transforming

From hands-on product and engineering roles to enterprise-scale organizational coaching.

Independent Coach & Consultant — 2017–Present
2024 – ongoing

ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions

Enterprise Agile Coach
Product coaching and BAPO coaching helping the organization establish a product vision, define architecture and organizational structure. Using Team Topologies framework to align teams with business and architectural needs.
Product strategy Product coaching Architecture alignment Team Topologies BAPO
2023 – ongoing

Husqvarna Group

Agile Coach
Leadership training and product coaching for product teams. Developing leadership capabilities and product management practices to improve team effectiveness and delivery outcomes.
Leadership development Product coaching Team Topologies
2021 – ongoing

INGKA / IKEA Case Study

Agile Coach
Coaching core digital infrastructure department and five service areas. Transformed the department through strategy and Team Topologies training. Revealed hidden team dependencies and engineering management patterns resulting in org changes. Trained seven cohorts in Team Topologies, four in strategy, one in systemic thinking. Coached seven management teams.
Scale: 300 members across three departments
Enterprise transformation Team Topologies Engineering financials Product operating model Agile Coach mentoring Complex facilitation
2019 – 2021

Viaplay Case Study

Enterprise Agile Coach
Coached full agile transformation from project and component teams to product teams. Ran five qualitative studies surfacing systemic patterns in engineering culture, product strategy, and org design. Facilitated new product strategy definition, self-selection events, and a six-month PM training program. Formed and coached Product Operations and Engineering Operations teams. eNPS increased 43 points.
Scale: 180 members across seventeen teams
Enterprise transformation Product strategy Self-selection Product Management training Product operations
2018 – 2019

King Games

Agile Coach
Identified systemic patterns in King's innovation studio (New Games) influencing new game success rates. Built dynamic re-teaming structures enabling a team of 25 to self-organize into small fluid teams weekly with minimal management.
Scale: ~40 members across two teams
New Game process analysis Dynamic re-teaming Agile Coach mentoring Team autonomy coaching
2017 – 2019

Avanza Bank Case Study

Enterprise Agile Coach
Coached transformation from project and component teams to fifteen empowered product teams. Identified four systemic dysfunctions at the center of their challenges. Facilitated self-selection events, created local leadership triads reducing escalations to senior management by over 90%. Team dependencies reduced from 5.9 to 1.2.
Scale: 150 members across fifteen teams
Enterprise transformation Team Dependencies Self-selection Management Coaching Product Portfolio Strategy
Spotify — 2013–2017
2013 – 2017

Spotify Case Study

Agile Coach
Four years coaching Infrastructure Operations and Internal Business Systems tribes during hypergrowth. Transformed two dysfunctional management teams. Coached eleven teams across big data, infrastructure, internal IT, and management. Co-created competence development framework for product owners. Simplified strategy deployment (OKRs). Experimented with 1-day scrum, manager-less tribes, peer feedback processes, and radical transparency.
Scale: Two tribes, 50 resp. 150 members, across 22 teams
Hypergrowth Coaching Team Coaching OKR Coaching Product Owner Training Lead Time Reduction Organizational Bootstrapping
Earlier Career — 2006–2013
2012 – 2013

H&M

Team Lead — hm.com (via Connecta)
2011 – 2012

Telenor

Project Manager & Agile Coach (via Connecta)
2010 – 2011

Tarento AB

Product Owner & Agile Coach (via Connecta)
2009 – 2010

The Absolut Company

Service Manager (via Connecta)
2006 – 2009

Sony Ericsson

Product Owner & Service Manager (via Cybercom)
Selected Training & Certifications
Estuarine Mapping Masterclass — Dave Snowden 2023
ICF ACC Coaching Program 2016
Technical Leadership — Ruth Malan 2022
Changemakers — Leading Change 2016
Wardley Mapping — Ben Mosier 2021
Training from the Back of the Room 2015
Cynefin Masterclass — Dave Snowden 2021
Coaching Beyond the Team — Dave Gray & Esther Derby 2014, 2018
Teaming Masterclass — Amy Edmondson 2021
Problem Solving Leadership — Weinberg, Rothman, Derby 2014
Neuroleadership — Organizing with the Brain in Mind 2020
The Human Element (FIRO) 2012
Neuroleadership SCARF 2019
Certified Scrum Master & Product Owner 2011
Virginia Satir Clinical Program 2016
UGL (IMGD) 2009
Free Tools & Resources

Used by thousands of leaders worldwide

Interactive Tool

Napkin-Ops

Back-of-napkin analysis for organizational scenarios — scaling teams, build vs buy, dependency reduction.

Visit
Simulator

Org Simulators

Interactive visualizations showing costs of dependencies, or why adding "just one more" process creates exponential chaos.

Simulate
Physical & Digital

Value Cards

A tool for teams, coaches, and individuals to understand their values and the behaviors they drive.

Buy
Guides

Leadership Book Club Guides

Discussion guides for the most impactful books on product leadership and organizational design.

Use
Podcast

The Law of Jam

Systems coaching conversations exploring organizational dynamics, complexity, and change.

Listen
Visual

Infographics

Visual frameworks and models for organizational design, team dynamics, and product thinking.

See
Get in Touch

Let's discuss your situation

Currently accepting a limited number of new engagements. If your organization is facing challenges that standard approaches haven't solved, let's talk.

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