Setting the North Star for AI in industrial software
Case Studies / Strategic Direction
Where heavy industry meets AI.
At IFS, a PE-backed unicorn delivering AI to industrial customers across Service, Manufacturing, Aerospace and Telecoms, I led product strategy for an AI transformation programme. Real-world risk, regulated environments, complex customers - and a one-year clock.
The Challenge
Industrial software is conservative for good reason - customers operate in regulated, risk-averse environments where downtime is measured in millions. Translating "AI is happening" into a product direction that leadership, engineers and customers could all commit to was as much an alignment and trust problem as it was a technology one.
The
Process
- 1
Industry-depth research
- – Designed and led a market-wide research programme on customer expectations of ERP over the next five years.
- – Forty-plus customer interviews across multiple industrial sectors, supported by external consultants.
- – Synthesised technology direction, commercial signals and customer voice into a single forward view.
- 2
Set the North Star
- – Built a customer-centric, outcomes-focused narrative the leadership team could commit to publicly.
- – Framed direction in language that translated cleanly across executives, engineers and customers.
- – Secured leadership sign-off.
- 3
Activation across a global engineering organisation
- – Designed the strategy and activation plan to align engineers behind the direction.
- – Worked cross-functionally with design, research, product and delivery to translate strategy into roadmap.
- – Built the bridge between top-down narrative and bottom-up delivery.
- 4
Company-wide launch and continuous discovery
- – Co-launched the programme in front of the company alongside technical leadership.
- – Piloted continuous discovery practices with AI in the loop, evolved through cross-functional pilot teams.
- – Embedded new ways of working that bridged delivery, design, product, research and customers.
The
Outcome
A direction the business committed to, and a global engineering organisation aligned behind it.
North Star adopted
Leadership sign-off secured. The narrative became the foundation for the programme that followed.
Engineering aligned at scale
Activation plan engaged a global engineering organisation behind a single direction, end to end.
AI discovery embedded
Continuous discovery practices with AI in the loop, piloted across cross-functional teams.
"Simon has a calm, structured way of navigating complexity. He cuts through noise, aligns people, drives well-reasoned decisions, and turns ambiguity into momentum."
Key takeaways
Aligning a global engineering organisation behind a product direction is a communications challenge as much as a strategy one. A North Star only works if the customer voice is in the room, leadership commits in public, and the discovery loop is set up to keep the direction honest as the organisation ships against it.
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