STORY
Steven Granese
Founder and Partner
Creator of the Compass Product Operating Model
25+ years in software development and product. Former Managing Director of Transformation at AgileThought. Author of Build What Matters. I work with Product Managers, product teams, and executives on the work most consulting decks don’t actually touch: discovery, strategy, and the operating model that connects them to delivery.
Tampa Bay, FL
THE ARC
Twenty-five years of product. One operating model.
I started in software in the late 1990s, back when the question on every team was “can we ship this at all?” The hard part was building the thing. The market would tell you later whether you got it right.​
Two decades in, the question flipped. We got very good at shipping. Cycles compressed. The hard part wasn’t building anymore. The hard part was choosing what to build. And most of the Product Managers I worked with had never been formally trained to do that part.​
As Managing Director of Transformation at AgileThought, I spent years inside enterprise software organizations watching the same pattern repeat. Strong delivery. Weak discovery. Strategy decks that didn’t survive the first quarter. Talented Product Managers who parrot the needs of stakeholders instead of advocating for customers.​
The Compass Product Operating Model is the system I wish those Product Managers had. It was built from the ground up, not borrowed from repackaged agile frameworks. Principles, Strategy, Discovery, Delivery - the four pillars of how modern product work actually has to be done.​
I wrote Build What Matters to put the whole model in one place. I coach individual Product Managers, run workshops for product teams, and work fractionally with executive leaders. The work is the same in all three settings: reduce the distance between how fast a team can ship and how confident they should be that it’s worth shipping at all.
TRACK RECORD
The facts.
No hedging or "thought leader" copy. Here’s the verifiable record:
25+
years in software, agile & product
15
enterprise clients served
5
years building the operating model
4
pillars to build better products
EXPERIENCE
2022 - Present
Founder
Compass Productivity · Tampa, FL
Founded Compass Productivity to solve the fundamental disconnect between fast delivery and real customer discovery. Coaching, workshops, fractional CPO engagements, and the Compass Product Operating Model behind them all.
2016 - 2022
Managing Director, Product & Innovation Transformation
AgileThought · Tampa, FL
Led enterprise transformation engagements for Fortune 50 and Fortune 1000 software organizations. AgileThought was a full-service custom software consulting firm staffed by the best professionals in the business. The practice became the foundation of the Compass Product Operating Model.
2015 - 2016
Director of Product Innovation
Conceto Cloud · Tampa, FL
A business division of Tribridge focused on cloud enablement. Led product innovation across the combined cloud portfolio.
2010 - 2015
Senior Manager, Custom Software Development
Tribridge · Tampa, FL
Tribridge was a technology services firm specializing in business applications and cloud solutions, known for its expertise in the Microsoft Dynamics suite.
2007 - 2010
Director of Product Development
SOE Software · Tampa, FL
SOE Software was the leading provider of election management and online voting solutions, serving election administrators through every phase of the election lifecycle.
EDUCATION
Carnegie Mellon University
Master of Science · Tepper School of Business · Business & Computer Science
The Electronic Commerce (MSEC) program prepares students for mission-critical roles across the internet-pervading business landscape.
Georgetown University
Master of Arts · Communication, Culture & Technology
Studying the evolution of digital communication to understand the impact of technology on society and society on technology.
Wake Forest University
Bachelor of Arts · Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Cum Laude Distinction.
Four-year varsity baseball letterman.
WORK & PUBLICATION
2026
Author, Build What Matters
A Product Manager’s Guide to the Compass Product Operating Model. Available as a PDF download.
2025 - present
Editor, The Product Compass Newsletter
A weekly newsletter on LinkedIn for Product Managers closing the discovery gap in the AI era.
2024
Creator, Compass Product Operating Model
A proprietary four-pillar operating model (Principles, Strategy, Discovery, Delivery) built from 25+ years of product development software practice.
2024
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a proven framework used by some of the world's most successful companies. This comprehensive guide unveils the secrets behind crafting motivating objectives, measuring key results, and executing with focus.
THE BACKSTORY
How Compass Productivity was founded.
I led one of the most innovative agile consulting firms in the country.​
I was traveling the globe and coaching Fortune 50 clients.​
My team had the sharpest minds in the industry.
​
Then, in a moment, it was gone.
​
We had been meeting with investors to raise capital. We wanted to grow our sales team and improve operations. Things changed fast and the company was sold.
Six months later, COVID hit.
12 months later, we had gone public.
​18 months later, the company declared bankruptcy.
I walked away with nothing to show for it.
​
The self-doubt hit hard. The tech world had gone remote overnight. No more in-person workshops. No more coaching rooms full of energy. Just Zoom meetings and the quiet question I kept asking myself.
Was any of this worth fighting for?
The market indicated it wasn’t. Failed agile implementations were everywhere. Consultants were selling frameworks instead of solving problems. The word “agile” was losing its meaning.
​
Then a former client asked me to coffee. He told me our engagement was the best consulting work he had ever experienced. That conversation stopped the spiral.
​
It reminded me what the work was actually about. It wasn't about selling training courses or installing frameworks.
The moment a Product Manager figures out what a customer actually needs and builds something that real people love.
That was the work I lived for.
So I went deep. I studied the experts. I had honest conversations with CTOs and former clients about what the market actually needed. Those conversations led me to build something new.
​
​The Compass Product Operating Model connects strategy, discovery, and delivery into one integrated system that actually works together. I started Compass Productivity to help software companies implement it.
Fifteen enterprise clients later, the mission is clear:
​
AI is giving Product Managers more speed than they have ever known. Product Discovery is needed to point that speed in the right direction and to build the right products that the market needs.