Ramp's operating model: single-threaded teams, fast release cycles, automated feedback, and OKRs, shared by its head of product
Geoff Charles · Ramp
Published September 1, 2022Geoff Charles, Head of Product at Ramp, shares the 3 keys to optimizing product development:
- Build Autonomous Product Driven Teams
- Automating feedback
- Our OKR’s at Ramp
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Geoff Charles explains Ramp’s product-development operating model: start with a clear founder vision, empower single-threaded teams, create disciplined release and feedback systems, and solve the customer’s underlying workflow rather than simply fulfilling feature requests.
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“is really important it's the word you you means that you have decided to do something and what empowerment means is not telling someone what to do but making that person believe that they have made that choice that it's their idea the way to empower product teams is as founders to start with a vision right this is why you started your company you have a perceived vision of where you”
“and that's another fundamental shift the tasks assigned to these teams are actually set by the teams themselves they define what they need to do and managers become coaches that coach the team that provide feedback that figure out the development process the career tracks as well as the resources that they need so here's an example of how we donate a ramp we have six single threaded teams we have a growth team they're accountable for revenue that growth team reports to me we have a spend management team we have a bill pay team”
“moving fast so we implemented just like a marathon or training program we implemented a track a machine mechanical way of releasing products quickly we have a tiering system that we align on tier one tier two tier three in terms of product releases we have a marketing team that grinds they're here today product hearing landing pages sales collateral press releases lifecycle marketing newsletters social media paid ads whatever they own all that and they constantly”
“have daily scrums scrum is you know what did you do yesterday what are you doing today what are you blocked on what do you need help on i'll get a little bit into that and then results constant monitoring with clear dashboards that are tied to the chaos and you keep going okay ours this is a screenshot of our first okrs back in 2020 um objective key result owner ideas”
“down my entire organization there's an account in here sorry ask why why do you want this button why do you want this drop down oh actually it's because like at the end of the month i i downloaded this sheet why do you do it on this why do you download this sheet well it's because i need to reconcile this with this system okay what is the system let me let me reconcile it for you right so build what they need not what they want and that requires guts it requires deeply understanding your customer it requires sitting down with”
“March 2022 | Geoff Charles, Head of Product at Ramp”
“Build Autonomous Product Driven Teams”
“For each single threaded team”
“3) Project Execution”
“Nathan convinced us to set up special offer:”
Video
Ramp Product OKRs (Slide 25)
How Ramp Raised $800m in 18 Months - Slide Deck
Geoff Charles is the VP of Product at Ramp, leading the product management, operations, and support teams. He has been working in financial services for over a decade across B2B and B2C. Prior to Ramp, Geoff helped spin off Mission Lane and scaled credit products to millions of consumers. He started his career advising Fortune 100 financial services companies and is now focused on building better software to disrupt them.
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Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
38 passages
The opening card promotes a Founderpath mastermind where financed SaaS businesses can meet industry experts. It invites attendees to visit the Founderpath booth.
Founderpath CEO Private Mastermind When Founderpath finances your SaaS business, you get exclusive access to industry experts. Get your offer at Founderpath.com
March 2022 March 2022 | Geoff Charles, Head of Product at Ramp Geoff Charles Head of Product of Ramp How Ramp Optimizes Product Development Scaling to 5000+ clients
The marathon finish image frames company growth as a long effort made through successive sprints. The comparison emphasizes sustaining pace over time.
Win the Marathon, Sprint by Sprint
Ramp’s customer and employee base, product count, and feature set expand across successive half-year periods. The curve steepens as the company adds products and capabilities.
Ramp’s Product Velocity H1 2020 H2 2020 H1 2021 H2 2021 100 customers50 employees 1 product Corporate Cards Accounting Card Controls Savings Insights 600 customers80 employees2 products Reimbursements Slack Integration Vendor Mgmt Ramp API 1700 customers150 employees2 products Submission Policy Approval Flows Card Programs Vendor Control 4000 customers250 employees 4 products Bill Pay Procurement Contract Mgmt HRIS Integration ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ Today 4500 customers300 employees 5 products Travel International payments Reporting ✅
The talk groups product development around empowered teams, feedback, and fast cadence. The listed practices connect each theme to concrete ways of working.
3 keys to optimizing product development Empowered Product Teams … how we do it at Ramp Single Threaded Teams Travel Example Locking Cadence Be Ruthless Automate Feedback High Velocity Process Ask Why Work Backwards EMPOWERED TEAMS FEEDBACK FAST CADENCE 💪 🧵 ✈️ 🔗 🎯 ⚡️ ⚙️ 🤔 ⏮
This section focuses on giving product teams the structure and authority to move work forward.
Empowered Product Teams
A quote about following through once a decision has been made reinforces ownership and decisive action.
“Don’t make excuses. When you have decided to do something, do it. No excuses.”
The alignment funnel begins with vision, then narrows through goals, metrics, hypotheses, projects, and results. Company alignment flows downward from the broad direction to specific outcomes.
Start with the vision Empowered Product Teams Metrics Hypothesis Projects Results Goals Order of company alignment Vision
The diagram distinguishes product management, which connects work to the broader vision and goals, from project management, which moves individual projects toward results.
Product Management Metrics Hypothesis Projects Results Goals Vision Project Management vs.
Product management, engineering, and design form the core team, supported by specialist partners. Marketing, operations, analytics, data science, partnerships, and counsel each contribute a defined capability.
Single Threaded Teams Build Autonomous Product Driven Teams Why it matters. Product Marketing + Brand - responsible for GTM motions and our market launch plans / positioning / enablement Product Operations - responsible for the operations of our product and launch process (the right hand person) Product Analytics - responsible for data analysis & reporting to track how our product is performing / how we can improve Product Data Science - responsible for predictive modeling / how data can be leveraged to maximize product performance Product Partnerships - responsible for leveraging partners to accelerate development and growth Product Counsel - responsible for defining what is possible within the law and owns contracts Design Engineering Product Mgmt How it’s built. How it works.
A strategy matrix assigns business objectives, user experience, system capabilities, and roadmaps across growth, product teams, and a shared platform. Product strategy ties these responsibilities together.
Single Threaded Teams Hold Teams Accountable Growth Product A: Spend Product B: Bill Pay Product C: Accounting Platform: Risk & Payments Business Objective User Experience System Capabilities Roadmap Product Strategy Increase revenue Website & onboarding LIfecycle marketing
The example begins with saving companies time and money, then defines a one-stop travel goal and measures travel spend on Ramp cards and time spent on expense reports. A travel booking interface illustrates the use case.
Travel Example 🤯 Vision: Help companies save time and money 🎯 Goals: Be the one stop shop for all travel purchases 📊 Metrics: % of travel spend on Ramp cards & % of time spent on expense reports Empowerment line
The travel example links a visibility-and-control hypothesis to itinerary integrations and automatic policy enforcement. Its stated outcomes are 95% of travel spend on Ramp cards and 90% automation of expense reports.
Travel Example 🤯 Vision: Help companies save time and money 🎯 Goals: Be the one stop shop for all travel purchases 📊 Metrics: % of travel spend on Ramp cards & % of time spent on expense reports 🤔 Hypothesis: Finance teams want visibility and control on travel spend ⚙️ Projects: Itinerary integrations & automatic enforcement of policies 🚀 Results: 95% travel spend on Ramp cards, 90% automation of expense reports
This section turns from team structure to feedback flowing between product teams and the people they serve.
Bi-directional feedback
A running-team quote argues that individual effort cannot match the contribution of a coordinated group. The runners reinforce the point about collective performance.
“You cannot train alone and expect a faster time. 100% of myself is nothing compared to 1% of the whole team.”
The diagram contrasts the ease of launching features with the harder ongoing work of aligning metrics, releasing continuously, and exchanging feedback and analytics with customers.
Launching products = easy Feature A Feature B Feature C Ongoing releases Real time feedback & analytics Product Teams Customer A Customer B Customer C Customers Align on metrics
Product launches need coordinated work across product, marketing, and customer-facing teams. Tiered features, shared calendars, enablement, and two-way feedback help each group prepare and support a release.
Amplifying Products = Hard Feature A (Tier 1) Feature B (Tier 1) Feature C (Tier 2) Product Teams Build something people want Customer Facing TeamsSell & make customers successful Product Tiering Landing pages Sales Collateral Press Release Lifecycle marketing Newsletters Social media Paid advertising Content & SEO Knowledge management Training & Enablement Help Center … Marketing TeamsGet loud & enable Sales Customer Success Support Partnerships Feedback Enablement Products Feedback Marketing Calendar Product Calendar Sales Calendar 🔗 🔗 Set the release cadence
Support, sales, account management, research, and customer feedback feed a single prioritized roadmap for each focused product team. The central goal is to keep the voice of the customer connected to planning.
Customer Feedback Manage the chaos Product Teams Support Teams Sales Teams Account Management Teams User Research Customer Feedback Single Prioritized Roadmap Customer Teams For each single threaded team Voice of the Customer
The prioritization checklist asks whether work aligns with the vision, serves the target customer, advances goals, and addresses real pain. Ideas that fail these tests should not enter the roadmap.
Be Ruthless Be ruthless Product Teams Support Teams Sales Teams Account Management Teams User Research Customer Feedback Single Prioritized Roadmap Customer Teams For each single threaded team Aligned with vision? Target customer segment? Drives our goals? Real pain?
Customer-facing tools feed product teams through shared data systems. The chart categorizes requests by product area and urgency, making recurring feedback easier to prioritize.
Automate Feedback Product Teams Customer Teams Use Technology
The stacked bars rank product categories by request volume and distinguish requests that are desirable, non-urgent, or blockers. A few categories have much taller totals, helping teams see where demand is concentrated.
Automate Feedback Rank product category by requests
This section introduces the operating rhythm used to move product work through planning, execution, and measurement.
High Velocity Operational Cadence
A quote about preparation over winning introduces the need for disciplined planning. The image of runners training supports the emphasis on readiness.
“To win is not important. To be successful is not even important. How to plan and prepare is crucial.”
The operating principles move from learning customer needs, through building a smooth process and working back to an MVP, to launching early and tracking results. Each stage pairs a behavior with a practical action.
Ask why Focus on the problem Operating Principles Guides to building quickly Design Thinking Use mockups & ideate Pull team early Everyone talks to customers Smooth Process Build the tracks Small teams 2 pizza rule Launch early Optimize for feedback Track metrics Everything is tracked Package releases Go to market once ready Learn Build Launch 🤔 👩🎨 🍕 🚄 🚐 🚀 📊 🎁 Work back to MVP Start small, but think big ⏮
The process loops from quarterly planning and OKRs through brainstorming, project execution, and results, then back to constant monitoring. Sprint planning and daily scrums provide recurring checkpoints along the way.
Our Process OKRS Project Execution Brainstorming Results Quarterly Planning Bi-weekly Sprint Planning Daily Scrums Constant Monitoring
The OKR example pairs company objectives with measurable key results, owners, and project ideas. The table shows how outcomes and supporting work can be assigned across teams.
OKRS Our OKR’s Objective, key result, and owners must be established
The prioritization table links proposed features to lagging key results, estimates their value and effort, and assigns scores. This makes brainstorming a structured way to choose high-impact work.
2) Brainstorming
A project board organizes active work into cards with owners, progress indicators, statuses, and target dates. It gives the team a shared view of work in flight.
3) Project Execution
A set of dashboards tracks product usage, engagement, adoption, and other business signals over time. The varied charts support continuous monitoring rather than relying on a single metric.
4) Key Results Constant monitoring
The process diagram shows a repeating cycle from quarterly planning to OKRs, brainstorming, project execution, results, and monitoring. Sprint planning and daily scrums keep the cycle active.
Smooth Process OKRS Project Execution Brainstorming Results Quarterly Planning Bi-weekly Sprint Planning Daily Scrums Constant Monitoring
Discovery covers research, ideation, and prototyping while delivery covers building, releasing, and monitoring. The feedback loop keeps both tracks moving alongside constant production.
Dual Track Delivery Discovery Research, Ideation, Prototyping Delivery Build, Release, Monitor Constant production
The comparison crosses out a cumbersome invoice workflow and highlights a simpler travel-management interface. The example supports asking why a request exists and solving the need behind it.
Ask Why Build what they need, not what they want
The roadmap breaks expense-report automation into three horizons, from near-term receipt capture and ride integrations to broader email, itinerary, payment-data, and categorization capabilities. Each horizon aims to make the experience progressively easier.
Work Backwards Think big but start small Horizon 1 This Month Automate Expense Reports Receipt OCR Get data from Visa Horizon 2 This year Horizon 3 This company Integrate with gmail Uber/Lyft integration Parse Itinerary Information ML on categorization Make it 2x easier Make it 5x easier Make it 10x easier
This brief transition signals a recap before the closing product-velocity summary.
Remember
A quote connects happiness and mindset with how effort feels. The runner image reinforces the talk's recurring theme of endurance.
“When you smile and you’re happy, you can trigger the mind to not feel your legs.”
The closing summary returns to empowered teams, feedback, and fast cadence as the three levers for product velocity. Each column recalls the practices discussed in the talk.
Speed is everything Keys to increase product velocity Empowered Product Teams Single Threaded Teams Travel Example Locking Cadence Be Ruthless Automate Feedback High Velocity Process Ask Why Work Backwards EMPOWERED TEAMS FEEDBACK FAST CADENCE 💪 🧵 ✈️ 🔗 🎯 ⚡️ ⚙️ 🤔 ⏮
The closing invitation offers attendees a chance to see how the speaker uses Ramp at Founderpath. The adjacent event map points toward the main stage and nearby areas.
Nathan convinced us to set up special offer: Come by our booth to see how he uses Ramp at Founderpath
Geoff Charles closes the talk with a thank-you and his role at Ramp.
March 2022 | Geoff Charles, Head of Product Geoff Charles Head of Product of Ramp
