HR as a Product — How to transform HR into a product.

Imagine: a pleasant lunch with colleagues, then sauntering back to work.

There, you discover a fire. Not a fire drill, not an urgent situation you have to deal with, or a dramatic customer escalation. The real thing. An honest-to-goodness, smoke, flames, fire.

This, so the story goes, is part of the legacy of John H. Patterson. Frustrated with the lack of urgency and discipline among his top executives, Patterson sought to send a message. He felt they were too complacent, too bureaucratic, too comfortable in their positions, and not pushing as aggressively as he expected.

In Patterson’s mind, drastic action was needed. A symbol of change.

He ordered their desks removed from their offices and set on the lawn in front. Then, in a dramatic and symbolic gesture, Patterson set the desks alight in front of everyone. A statement. The executives, literally and figuratively, were fired.

That happened in about 1900. The company, NCR—National Cash Register. Patterson was the Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk of his day. A tech mogul who had started a company, radically innovated through technology, re-invented business models, and disrupted industries.

Here’s the irony: the man who ignited radical change also laid the groundwork for one of the most bureaucratic functions we know today: Human Resources.

The man who railed against bureaucracy, lack of urgency, and complacency created the function commonly regarded as “the pits of bureaucracy.” Studies show that HR has increasingly lost the trust of employees. A paradox where the department that preaches psychological safety has reached a point where “they (employees) would rather reach out to most anyone before turning to someone in HR.”

Not surprising, then, that personnel rebranded as HR, CHROs are rebranding as Chief People Officers, and HR departments are being reimagined as centers of employee experience.

According to Amy Hanlon-Rodemich, former Chief People Officer of Nokia and GlobalLogic, a “radical overhaul of the profession is sorely needed.”

HR as a product.

This radical overhaul of HR will not happen by simply swapping out infrastructure: Peoplesoft for Workday or Workday for Rippling—it comes from running HR like a business and thinking of HR as a product.

This is a tectonic shift in HR. Moving radically away from staid bureaucracy to agile operations. This is the vision of Bob Toohey, former Chief HR Officer of insurer Allstate and incoming CHRO of fintech giant FIS.

“I run HR like a business and think of HR as a product.”

Toohey continues. “You always have to ask yourself: Is your customer going to buy it? HR loves to roll things out that people don’t necessarily need. So how do you roll things out that they want to ‘buy?’  Are these products that will help their business?”

For Toohey and his team, this is a mission. To take a leaf out of Patterson’s book. To leapfrog. To shift to the next evolution of HR.

From policy to product.

In large part, HR is rooted in policy.

Policy implies compliance. Consistency is a virtue. One hundred percent adoption is a goal. Great if your policy is to pay people accurately and on time every week. But mandates and policy only go so far in shaping culture, creating engagement in the workforce, excitement around learning and capability building in the company.

For that, a product mindset—and a product manager function— is required. This is fundamentally different from a policy mindset. Rather than a policy of compliance, you build products for adoption. Instead of consistency as a virtue, innovation is a virtue. HR is the product, and everything communicates. Continuous improvement is woven into the work—it’s never good enough, never finished.

Toohey lays out the challenge ahead. “It’s a huge shift. I’m lucky—I’ve worked in product roles, in operational roles. But if you haven’t, getting to HR as a product is not an easy journey.” Making that trip—from a policy-led organization to a product one- requires six essential moves.

#1. Lay a foundation to work from.

#2. Build a product-first culture.

#3. Establish a product management framework.

#4. Nurture product management talent.

#5. Curate artifacts.

#6. Run around data.

#1. Lay a foundation to work from.

“It’s difficult to run the trains on time if the tracks need a lot of work.” HR as a product needs a modern HR infrastructure to run on. This is a core premise of HR as a product. A lot of the “old” work of HR can be automated. “If you start with the customer in mind, you can build a seamless digital experience around that.” Modern HRIS systems, if well architected, can, according to Toohey, “elevate the employee experience and add value where it matters most, with our people—our customers.”

Technology should allow the backstage—the back office function of HR to fade into the background, creating a simple, no-fuss, no-effort experience that puts useful HR products and services at their fingertips—one that automates or eliminates non-value-added work.

#2. Build a product-first culture.

Culture in an organization or function is “how we do things around here.” It’s a set of collective habits that—hopefully—positively influence the work. According to Toohey, “A product-first culture comes from a customer-first mindset. It comes from understanding who your customers are, what they’re in business to do, and what the business is driving at.”

Building a product-first culture isn’t just about changing processes—it’s about reprogramming how the organization thinks about value and innovation. Toohey continues, “Shifting this culture starts with an awareness of where we are.” In most HR organizations, this involves working through a continuum from policy-driven, and developing habits around consistent processes, a focus on employees, and the development and use of data.

#3. Establish a product management framework.

You don’t have to look far in most organizations to find product management frameworks. They usually exist in engineering, technology, or product development themselves.

Good product management takes lessons from project management, agile development, and design thinking. Whichever framework you use, it should cover two things: How you organize your work for smooth execution and how it connects with your customer to meet their needs and add value.

For HR as a product, Toohey talks about a flywheel: “It’s three parts, how we build, how we sell, and how we service. Simple.” Each step has phases and gates, covering everything from concept through design, adoption, and support. What makes the flywheel spin is the release windows. Setting a product roadmap with defined product launch dates that fit the cadence and appetite of the business and timeboxing work within that.

#4. Nurture product management talent.

For Toohey, getting the right people on the team makes HR as a product work. “You need the right team to get you there. And that team has to engage in the art of possibility. They have to be able to see beyond the usual constraints and ask, ‘What could we create if we weren’t limited by how things have always been done?’”

Upskilling talent should be second nature to HR and runs the gamut from training and development to creating cross-functional collaborative teams and fostering a growth mindset. Basic product management skills come to the fore; data analysis, visualization, storytelling, customer-centric thinking, UX design, and agile methods.

#5. Curate artifacts.

“Think of artifacts like building blocks for HR as a product. They allow you to standardize the way you solve problems but also provide flexibility for innovation.” Says Toohey. “Get the artifacts right—concept cards, demos, user stories—and you have a springboard for the art of possibility. Something teams can collaborate around.”

Artifacts provide something tangible for teams as they navigate from an abstract idea to a concrete reality. More than that, a collection of successful product iterations serves as a library of best practices. They underpin clear documentation that serves to communicate ideas and facilitate rapid feedback.

#6. Run around data.

Toohey believes in data. “In HR, we’ve been too reliant on gut feelings or tradition when making decisions. That has to change. When you treat HR like a product, every decision should be backed by data. Whether it's employee engagement metrics, adoption rates for new tools, or the impact of development programs, data should guide every step. You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

A successful HR as a product program means using OKRs to drive strategy and execution. Tracking key metrics allows the team to understand where they're succeeding and where adjustments are needed. Dashboards inform daily decisions with real-time data. A collection of metrics—reactive and predictive—on employee engagement, adoption rates, and performance to continuously refine HR as a product.

Just like Patterson's fire shook up his team, HR needs to spark its own change. The future isn't about managing policies—it's about creating products that employees actually want and help drive the business forward.

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