Key insights from the Highberg Portfolio Management Round Table

On June 24, 2025, Highberg hosted a successful portfolio management round table, bringing together 25 portfolio managers from public and private sectors. The event provided a valuable forum for exchanging insights on the challenges and best practices of implementing and operating portfolio management.

As organizations navigate increasing complexity, driven by rapid technological change, shifting regulation and markets, agile delivery has become the standard. Yet, many still struggle to embed more agile governance and decision-making practices.

Discussions centered around key themes shaping modern portfolio management: stakeholder management & governance, capacity management, lean budgets & realistic planning, benefit tracking, performance metrics & value delivery, and prioritizing for strategic value.

Establish governance that drives results requires clarity, collaboration, and accountability.

Effective governance begins with clearly defined roles and logically structured responsibilities to ensure accountability for results. A strong governance model also hinges on the partnership between portfolio management and experience architecture, who together bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Equally important is fostering empathy across roles. When individuals take the time to understand each other’s perspectives, it helps break down silos and cultivates a culture of collaboration.

Governance should be intentionally designed to support decision-making and adaptability. This includes creating healthy tension that encourages constructive friction, challenging assumptions to avoid complacency, and improve outcomes. It also requires balancing the big picture view with short-term focus. Streamlining processes such as the Annual Business Review (ABR), Quarterly Business Review (QBR), and Planning Intervals (PI) ensures transparency and continuous feedback. Adopting shorter planning horizons allows organizations to remain agile and responsive to change.

Empowering teams through decentralized problem-solving is another cornerstone of effective governance. When decision-making is pushed closer to the point of action, teams can respond more quickly and avoid bottlenecks. At the same time, strong stakeholder management is essential. Engaging stakeholders early and often builds trust, ensures alignment, and fosters win-win outcomes that strengthen collaboration across the organization.

To build governance that delivers real value, organizations must move beyond rigid structures. Organizations should move beyond rigid frameworks and instead invest in role clarity, cross-functional empathy, and other mechanisms that support transparency and accountability. Portfolio managers should champion transparency, encourage decentralized decision-making, and ensure that stakeholder voices are heard early and often. Ultimately, governance must be both structured and adaptive. It must be anchored in accountability, but also flexible enough to respond to change. When governance is done well, it becomes more than a control mechanism; it becomes a strategic enabler that drives meaningful, measurable value.

During the discussions, portfolio managers explored the gap between the theory and practice of lean budgeting. One of the core insights shared was that the flexibility that lean budgeting implies is often constrained by the realities of workforce composition and capabilities. People are not as easily interchangeable as theoretical models suggest. While relying heavily on external workers to maintain agility may provide short-term flexibility, it also often leads to knowledge loss when those individuals leave. An example was shared where work was pulled forward simply to keep people occupied, instead of it being strategically necessary. This illustrated how a lack of true flexibility can lead to suboptimal decisions.

Realistic planning remains a persistent challenge. Portfolio managers often find themselves overpromising and underdelivering, particularly in organizations that lack mature planning and delivery systems. To make lean budgeting effective, organizations must invest in robust planning systems and a culture of transparency and expectation management. Clear communication about uncertainty becomes even more critical when accurate forecasting is difficult.

In response to capacity constraints within the (internal and external) supply chain, a hybrid approach to portfolio management could prove effective. By combining elements of Lean Portfolio Management with more traditional methods, organizations can ensure long-term planning stability while maintaining short-term agility.

For portfolio managers, the takeaway is clear: lean budgeting is not a shortcut to agility. It requires disciplined planning, strong delivery foundations, and a willingness to adapt the model to fit the organization’s real-world constraints.

The round table revealed that many organizations struggle with making value truly measurable. While product teams often know how to measure, extending this measurement across the entire chain, especially towards the business, remains difficult. The lack of consistent and clear KPIs, combined with long delays between delivery and impact, makes tracking challenging. Additionally, the volume of “must-do” work, initiatives that consume resources without obvious value, drains capacity.​

A critical insight: how you're organized matters. Teams embedded within the product tend to measure value more effectively. Your product type also influences how easily value can be tracked—digital services offer more direct insights than complex physical systems.​ The most important takeaway: define KPIs early. Agree on what value means, how you'll recognize it, and how it connects to strategy. Without this foundation, benefit tracking becomes tougher.​

Best practices include anchoring KPIs early, structuring teams to support measurement, and, sometimes, just doing it. Don’t overcomplicate things, talk to customers, visit stores, and ask questions. Even a quick conversation can reveal real value.​ Finally, remember that value isn’t just financial. Include customer value, societal impact, and team outcomes in your tracking to get a fuller picture of impact.

During the round table, prioritizing for strategic value was discussed as a critical factor for aligning initiatives with organizational goals. A well-defined strategy is essential for focused decision-making, helping teams quickly assess which initiatives contribute most to long-term objectives. When the strategy is clear, decision-making becomes more agile, reducing the need for detailed business cases and allowing more flexibility in early-stage initiatives.

Transparent and collective prioritization emerged as another key point. Involving stakeholders in the prioritization process ensures shared commitment and accountability, reducing the risk of misalignment and political interference. This collaborative approach fosters alignment across teams and mitigates the impact of siloed decision-making.

Additionally, introducing controlled flexibility, such as leadership 'golden tickets', supports responsiveness without disrupting strategic focus. This mechanism allows for addressing urgent or politically sensitive initiatives but should be used sparingly to maintain alignment with the broader strategy. Prioritizing based on relative value rather than urgency ensures that resources are directed to initiatives that most effectively contribute to strategic outcomes.

The discussion highlighted the gap between theory and practice. While a clear strategy should guide prioritization, many organizations struggle with translating that strategy into actionable decisions. Balancing short-term needs with long-term goals often leads to misalignment. Furthermore, stakeholder pressures can create competing priorities that divert attention from strategic objectives.

Portfolio managers should focus on creating strategic clarity and ensuring that all initiatives are aligned with measurable goals. A transparent, collaborative prioritization process helps maintain alignment across stakeholders. Controlled flexibility and relative prioritization ensure that resources are focused on what matters most, while keeping the broader strategy intact.

The round table was a valuable opportunity for portfolio managers to reflect on their current practices and learn from each other. As participants move forward, they will build upon the best practices shared during the session. The enthusiasm of the attendees was reflected in their desire to make this gathering a recurring event every six months. Please follow our LinkedIn page to stay informed about upcoming opportunities to attend. At Highberg, we are excited about the future of portfolio management and will continue to be a trusted partner in helping organizations evolve their practices to meet new challenges.