Maintain decentralized governance
Preserves autonomy and speed; duplication persists and capital allocation stays opaque.
500–700initiatives brought under one governance view
6xcompany growth in three years
1stenterprise portfolio baseline
Bi-weeklycross-department governance cadence
The operating problem
What leadership was facing.
Avalara had grown roughly sixfold in three years through acquisitions and rapid market expansion. IT investment spanned BI, platform services, Salesforce, security, engineering, and product development, with 500–700 initiatives active or proposed at any time. Delivery velocity existed; investment governance did not yet have a shared enterprise view. Departments prioritized locally, capital allocation lacked a common comparison model, and executive leadership needed financial accountability without slowing growth.
Options on the table
The decision, framed honestly.
Mandate a centralized overhaul
Immediate standardization, but likely cultural resistance and slower delivery during hypergrowth.
Hybrid governance overlay
CIO/CFO-sponsored portfolio governance with standardized qualification — while preserving team-level execution autonomy.
What I put in place
The structure behind the outcome.
- Helped establish a CIO/CFO-sponsored IT governance council and formal project portfolio management office as the steering committee for enterprise investment decisions
- Consolidated initiative data into enterprise dashboards governing 500–700 initiatives per quarter
- Standardized qualification criteria and required explicit executive sponsorship before initiation
- Instituted bi-weekly governance forums across departments and a durable decision log capturing tradeoffs and sequencing rationale
- Supported cross-functional delivery teams of up to 24 contributors inside the new model
What changed
The operating difference.
Duplicate and low-value work was pruned and capacity realigned to realistic commitments. Executive conversations moved from anecdotal updates to structured capital sequencing, projects entered delivery with named sponsors and explicit value alignment, and the company gained its first enterprise portfolio baseline ahead of IPO-readiness work.
Why it mattered
The executive read.
Hypergrowth requires governance that scales without strangling innovation. The PPMO enabled disciplined integration of acquired products, protected financial controls during expansion, and gave leaders a steering mechanism for investment tradeoffs under hypergrowth conditions.
Related operating proof:
Executive role fit
PPMO formation proof
Supporting references
Avalara colleagues described the governance layer taking hold.
Excerpts from LinkedIn recommendations tied to the Avalara Platform Services, PPMO, and cross-functional governance work.
Avalara
The tremendous work and discipline he has brought to the Platform Services Team … helped us establish content on our PPMO of the CIO and Platform Services portals.
Within a very short period he helped us create processes that were easy to implement, repeatable and significantly improved our communications between cross functional software development teams.
He has the uncanny ability to remove roadblocks and get things done.
Continue