Case study 01 · Aviation product

Reframing a mission-critical baggage platform.

Discovery, MVP scoping and roadmap definition for the rebuild of a Baggage Reconciliation System supporting operations at Dubai International Airport.

RoleTechnical Product Owner
EnvironmentEnterprise aviation operations
Scale82M+ bags annually at DXB
Delivery2 Scrum teams
Context

A critical operational system with a long horizon.

The Baggage Reconciliation System sits inside airport operations where product decisions have operational consequences, dependencies across multiple teams and limited tolerance for ambiguity. My role was to translate operating needs into a structured product direction while coordinating delivery across two Scrum teams.

Problem framing

Do not start with a backlog. Start with the operating model.

A rebuild at this scale cannot be treated as a list of feature requests. The useful work was to establish which operational capabilities belonged in the MVP, how the future-state platform should evolve, and how requirements could be made precise enough for engineering and testing.

The product challenge was less “what features do people want?” and more “which capabilities keep the operation safe, scalable and evolvable?”
Approach

Translate operations into product structure.

Discovery

Map operating needs

Partnered with operational and business stakeholders to understand workflows, constraints and the outcomes the rebuilt system needed to support.

Product definition

Make scope explicit

Authored features, business logic, functional requirements and acceptance criteria so scope could be challenged before it reached development.

Prioritisation

Separate MVP from horizon

Led MVP scoping while defining a five-year roadmap, separating immediate operational necessity from longer-term product evolution.

Delivery

Keep business and engineering aligned

Managed Agile execution across two Scrum teams, PI planning and backlog prioritisation while using delivery metrics to surface bottlenecks.

Evidence

Outputs that made the programme legible.

75 product features authored
MVP scoped
5-year roadmap
2 Scrum teams
82M+ bags / year operating scale

The 82M+ figure describes the operating environment. The product outputs are the discovery, feature definition, MVP scope and roadmap.

Ownership

What I owned — and what I did not.

I owned / led

  • Product discovery and MVP scoping
  • Feature definition and backlog prioritisation
  • Business logic, requirements and acceptance criteria
  • Roadmap definition
  • Agile execution across two Scrum teams

I partnered / influenced

  • Engineering implementation
  • Testing and release readiness
  • Operational stakeholder decisions
  • Vendor selection and budget alignment
Independent public context

The operating environment is independently visible.

Public sources establish the scale and continued role of baggage reconciliation at DXB.

Reflection

The useful PM artifact is shared clarity.

Large enterprise rebuilds create pressure to equate progress with feature volume. The work I value most from this programme was creating a structure where operations, engineering and delivery teams could discuss the same future state with fewer hidden assumptions.