WHO-WHAT-HOW : a product operating model for agile, technology-enabled digital transformation

Organizations face rising market volatility, while legacy, plan-driven structures struggle to translate strategy into adaptive execution. Prior studies discuss product-centric operating models, yet typically treat decision rights, product definition, and technology-enabled execution separately. This paper introduces the WHO-WHAT-HOW framework, an authorial synthesis that links decision boundaries (WHO), product scope and value hypotheses (WHAT), and workflow and technology routines (HOW) into a single, operational model. A triangulated design is employed, comprising a systematic document analysis of 62 sources published between 2018 and 2024, illustrative case studies of Amazon and Spotify, and a scenario-based organizational illustration that contrasts a baseline hierarchy with a WHO-WHAT-HOW configuration. Rather than constituting empirical validation, these elements serve as illustrative demonstrations of conceptual plausibility. Indicative composite indices, synthetically constructed from document-coded constructs and simulated rules, suggest improvements in decision speed, cycle time, and coordination; these indices are heuristic and non-inferential. The contribution is threefold: First, it provides a pragmatic five-step implementation roadmap. Then, we make the mechanisms concrete via a construct-to-rule mapping and three rule-based vignettes (incident pathway, value-hypothesis experiment, cross-team dependency), showing how WHO-WHAT-HOW compresses decision time, cycle time, and coordination without introducing new measurement programs. Finally, the composite indices remain heuristic and non-inferential. Limitations include reliance on secondary evidence and a scenario-based, non-empirical illustration; robust validation requires longitudinal, multi-sector primary data and testing in regulated or low-automation settings.