Built for the veteran: A case study and playbook

A practical application of the product operating model at scale to build trust and improve state capacity across government at every level.

Purpose

Use lessons learned from VA’s decade of transformation from January 2015 to January 2025 to develop a practical model for improving state capacity and delivering better services across government; leveraging the product operating model to turn policy promises into delivery at scale and increased trust.

 Methodology and outcome

• Explore lived experience: Gather data from VA leaders who led VA’s transformation and the veterans it impacted to understand both successes and lessons learned that can be applied to other agencies.
• Analyze and design: Analyze the findings from the interviews alongside primary data sources from VA to develop a replicable model for product at scale and building trust in an organization.
• Convene, collaborate, iterate: Stand up a community of practice to support product operating model implementation at state and federal agencies and improve the playbook with new lessons learned.

Why this work matters now

Based on this research, VA may be the strongest federal example of a product operating model implemented at organization scale. Many agencies have built strong digital products, stood up modern teams, created innovation offices, or improved specific service lines. VA did something broader. It moved product thinking from individual products and specialist teams toward an operating model inside OIT, and then into the way VA’s mission organizations increasingly understood service delivery. As government is increasingly required to do more with less, efficiency and effectiveness matter more than ever. VA’s journey is a case for increasing government capacity, the approach is instructive and replicable, and its outcomes achievable.