When I heard Gin Atkins speak about product architecture at Product Camp 2025, it resonated because it formalised something I’ve done many times, which is to break down a complex product into a simple, structured view.
Competing product stories between sales, product and marketing aren’t uncommon in scaling scenarios where the product has evolved rapidly.
My role as a fractional CMO is to create alignment quickly and that starts with understanding the product.
Gin’s framework for product architecture is helpful because it maps a product’s capabilities in customer language, showing what the product is designed to do at present. For someone stepping into a new business, it shortens the orientation process and provides a reference point when working with sales and product leaders.
Where it helps is immediate. At a recent tech scale-up, mapping capabilities this way would have surfaced much earlier which parts of the platform mattered most to their different customer types speeding up segmentation and campaign design. I can also see how it could be applied to pricing debates and decisions about market expansion.
It’s definitely a tool I’ll be testing in upcoming projects and I’ll share what I learn. As I put it into practice I’m also looking forward to bouncing ideas with Gin.
Thanks again to Gin Atkins for sharing her insight- I’m always interested in agile ways of understanding products and I like the strategic thinking and practical application of this framework.
You can read Gin Atkin’s original article here.
