We’re ten weeks in.
Ten weeks of rethinking IT not as a cost center, but as a strategic driver. We’ve tackled topics such as incident agility, modern change enablement, measuring value, and the power of principles in fast-paced environments. Each week, we have peeled back a layer of what it means to run IT like a business.
This week, we hit a turning point: defining, marketing, and managing IT services like products.
Because here’s the truth, if you’re still describing your team as “support,” you’re selling yourself short. The business doesn’t just need tech fixes. It needs services that solve problems, drive outcomes, and evolve over time.
We’re diving into the heart of service portfolios: how to make IT’s value visible, how to speak the language of your stakeholders, and how to stop being seen as the team that waits for a ticket and start being recognized as the team that builds and delivers real solutions.
This one’s not about what you could do. It’s about what you’re already doing and how to ensure everyone else sees it, values it, and invests in it.
Let’s go.
IT Services Often Lack Definition
In many organizations, “IT support” is a catch-all phrase—broad, vague, and dangerously underspecified.
The result? Chaos in disguise.
- End users don’t know what’s offered, how to ask for it, or what to expect in return.
- Business leaders can’t quantify the value of IT because they don’t see defined deliverables or outcomes.
- IT teams are trapped in a cycle of reactive support, constantly firefighting instead of building forward.
We’ve talked about this before: when services aren’t defined, everything looks like an exception, and your team becomes a permanent stopgap.
From an ITIL perspective, this violates the very foundation of service management. A service is meant to be a defined means of delivering value, not a menu-less restaurant where the kitchen makes whatever people shout for the loudest.
When services aren’t articulated, documented, and managed, there’s no real accountability, no measurement, and no path to improvement. You can’t apply SLAs, track demand, optimize cost, or demonstrate value… because there’s no “there” there.
This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a productization problem.
When you start viewing services the same way product teams view features and capabilities — defining, documenting, versioning, and sunsetting — everything begins to shift for the better. You’ll notice increased visibility, greater confidence, and improved alignment across the board.
But it all starts with a simple shift: stop calling it “support.” Start treating it like a product.
Why Every IT Department Needs a Service Portfolio
A service portfolio isn’t a nice-to-have document. It’s a foundational pillar of a modern IT organization. Done right, it becomes the source of truth for what IT does, why it exists, and how it delivers value.
Here’s what it enables and how to start building it.
✅ Clarify What IT Offers to the Business
Why: When business units don’t understand what IT provides, they either underutilize services or expect things you don’t offer. This creates friction, missed expectations, and scope creep.
How to Implement:
- Inventory current work by auditing tickets, recurring tasks, and project deliverables.
- Group these into logical services: think Email & Collaboration, Identity & Access, Store POS Support, etc.
- For each service, define: what it does, who it’s for, how it’s accessed, and where it’s documented.
How to Communicate:
Frame the conversation around enablement:
“Here’s a list of the services we offer to help your team move faster, work securely, and stay supported.”
✅ Align Resources to What Matters
Why: Without a portfolio, IT teams often waste time supporting outdated systems or edge-case requests that add little value. A defined portfolio helps prioritize resources based on demand and business impact.
How to Implement:
- Map services to business outcomes: which services enable revenue, compliance, customer satisfaction, or risk reduction?
- Use usage data (ticket volumes, system metrics, satisfaction surveys) to assess actual demand.
- Reallocate budget and talent toward high-value, high-impact services.
How to Communicate:
Use the language of business:
“We’ve realigned our capacity to better support services that directly drive revenue and customer experience.”
✅ Set Expectations on Delivery, SLAs, and Ownership
Why: Undefined services lead to undefined expectations. Teams don’t know how fast IT will respond, who to escalate to, or even what constitutes a valid request.
How to Implement:
- Define SLAs for each service: response times, resolution times, support hours.
- Assign service owners who are accountable for performance, roadmap, and communication.
- Publish escalation paths and service limitations up front.
How to Communicate:
Treat this like setting boundaries in a healthy relationship:
“Here’s how and when we support this service, and who’s responsible for ensuring it meets your needs.”
✅ Track Demand and Improve Efficiency
Why: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. A portfolio enables service-level reporting, cost analysis, and performance tracking.
How to Implement:
- Integrate your service catalog with your ITSM tooling (e.g., ServiceNow, Freshservice) to track usage.
- Build dashboards that show demand trends, satisfaction scores, and ticket types by service.
- Use this data to inform hiring, automation, and investment decisions.
How to Communicate:
Lead with data-backed storytelling:
“Over the last quarter, our ‘User Access Management’ service handled 900 requests with a 98% SLA compliance rate showing both the demand and the effectiveness of this offering.”
✅ Market IT’s Value Internally
Why: If you don’t tell your story, no one else will. The service portfolio gives you the foundation to shift perception from a cost center to a strategic partner.
How to Implement:
- Design a visually appealing service catalog, one that speaks to business users in plain language.
- Create internal campaigns or lunch-and-learns that showcase key services and their outcomes.
- Include testimonials or success metrics tied to each service.
How to Communicate:
This is internal brand-building:
“Think of this as your user guide to everything IT offers, designed to help you move faster, stay protected, and focus on your goals.”
From Concept to Practice: A Step-by-Step Guide to Service Productization
Building a service portfolio is one thing. Running it like a product portfolio, that’s where the fundamental transformation begins. This is how IT becomes customer-focused, value-driven, and built to evolve.
Step 1: Define Services Like a Product Team
Why it matters: If you don’t define it, you can’t improve it. If users can’t describe it, they won’t value it. Product thinking brings clarity, consistency, and ownership.
How to do it: Start by identifying recurring support patterns and customer needs. Group them into logical service areas—such as Email, Identity, Collaboration, Store Technology, etc.
For each service, define:
- What the service is
- Who it’s for
- How it’s delivered
- When and where it’s supported
- SLAs and escalation paths
- Estimated cost (even if not billed)
Assign a clear service owner for each, someone who understands both technical delivery and stakeholder needs.
How to communicate it:
“We’re defining our services so every stakeholder knows what to expect, and so we can manage those expectations with confidence.”
Step 2: Market Internally Like It’s External
Why it matters: Even the best services fall flat if no one knows they exist or understands their value. Marketing isn’t fluff… It’s how you turn services into recognized solutions.
How to do it: Build a human-friendly service catalog. Avoid jargon. Use plain, business-friendly language.
Name services in a way that’s clear and memorable. A service called “New Hire Tech Setup” says more than “Provisioning Services.”
Tell the story behind each service. Why it exists. What problem it solves. What business outcome does it enable?
Highlight value, not just uptime or ticket volume. Talk about time saved, risks reduced, and teams empowered.
Use multiple formats: PDFs, intranet pages, internal webinars, or quick walkthrough videos.
How to communicate it:
“We’re not just publishing a catalog—we’re showing how IT powers outcomes across the business.”
Step 3: Manage Services Like Living Products
Why it matters: A static portfolio becomes stale and overloaded. Excellent services evolve with the business, but only if someone is actively managing that change.
How to do it: Review each service regularly, quarterly, or biannually. Look at performance, demand, satisfaction, and cost.
Sunset or consolidate services that no longer deliver value. Add services that meet new needs.
Maintain roadmaps for your key services. Show where they’re headed and why.
Collect feedback often. Use surveys, interviews, and usage data to stay aligned with what users actually need.
Organize services into lifecycle stages: Introduction, Active, Maintenance, and Retirement.
How to communicate it:
“Just like our business products, our IT services evolve. We’re managing them proactively to ensure they continue to deliver what matters.”
Practical Takeaways
- List your current IT activities and group them into customer-facing services
- Assign owners to manage service lifecycle and stakeholder relationships
- Publish a service catalog that business users can actually understand
- Brand your services with clarity and purpose
- Regularly assess demand, cost, and satisfaction to evolve your portfolio
Actionable Questions
- Which of your current IT “tasks” could be redefined as services?
- Does your business know what services IT provides—and how to access them?
- Who owns the roadmap and success of each major service?
- How often do you review or retire old services?
- What would it look like to market IT’s capabilities internally?
Coming Up Next: Continual Improvement That Sticks: Driving performance with tangible, measurable outcomes
You’ve defined your services. You’ve built the portfolio. You’ve started thinking like a product team.
Now what?
Next week, we focus on maintaining that momentum, not through vague promises of “optimization,” but with real, measurable improvements that compound over time.
In Week 11: Continual Improvement That Sticks, we’ll explore how to embed a culture of iteration inside IT, align improvements to business value, and avoid the trap of performative KPIs.
Because improvement only matters if it makes a difference.
Final Thought
Your team is already delivering value every day, with every ticket and every late-night fix. But if no one can see it, define it, or ask for it by name, it gets lost in the noise.
A service portfolio makes that value visible. It gives your work structure. It provides your business clarity. And it gives your team the power to stop reacting and start leading.
This isn’t about process for the sake of process. It’s about transforming IT from “the folks who fix things” into a trusted partner that builds, enables, and evolves alongside the business.
Start simple. Name your services. Assign owners. Tell your story. Then keep going.
The future of IT isn’t hidden behind the help desk. It’s right there in the portfolio. Clear, intentional, and ready to scale.
