Circle K eMobility Journey Towards Effective Cross-functional Value Streams (FastFlowConf 2025)

In this presentation, we will discuss the multi-year journey of Circle K's eMobility organization as it scales to support growth from Norway to European and global markets.

The eMobility organization began as a small team focused on validating the electric vehicle (EV) charging business in Norway. However, due to its success, it quickly had to shift from "validating to scaling" and expand to various countries and multiple products in an industry that is still in development.

Throughout the talk, we will share valuable "mistakes", lessons learned, experiments, methods, and practices we have employed during this journey. We will particularly emphasize the importance of breaking down functional silos within the organization as a means to support sustainable scaling. Initially, we focused on overcoming the Product and Technology silos. Still, over time, we further developed truly cross-functional value streams, involving and continuously engaging with marketing, sales, operations, and other disciplines to define the best ways to support activities necessary for rapid and sustainable business growth.

We have employed various ideas and techniques, including Domain-Driven Design, Team Topologies, Wardley Mapping, and others. However, you will see that there are no silver bullets. The secret lies in embracing this as a continuous improvement process, one that involves people with knowledge and expertise, maximizes learning, and empowers value streams and their teams to drive the necessary design and decision-making with a clear long-term vision.

Transcript

1. Circle K eMobility Journey Towards Effective Cross-functional Value Streams Eduardo da Silva, PhD Independent Consultant on Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership (esilva.net consulting | eduardo@esilva.net) Jan Solhøy CircleK eMobility Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) (JanHansteen.Solhoy@circlekeurope.com)
3. 3 now 2018 2020/2021 2022/2023 … and adding 2024/2025 NORWAY LAB EXPAND OUTSIDE NORWAY ENTER PRODUCT ENGINEERING ENABLE SPEED AND SCALE FROM START-UP TO GLOBAL SCALE + ESTABLISH FOUNDATION IN NA (US/CA)
4. Startup Phase [2018 - 2022] 4
5. 5 2018 now ⚡EV start to become more widely available ⚡Scent of disruption is in the air ⚡National incentives attractive - boost adoption ⚡Norway as a Lab (project) - Start the experimentation NORWAY AS A LAB
7. 7 2021 now ⚡Initial experimentation showed potential ⚡Rigging the Competence Center ⚡Scandinavian expansion was natural next step - 500 CP deployed ⚡Operational hardening is a key focus EXPANSION - OUTSIDE NORWAY ⚡Launch of a full digital charging offer (albeit white label)
8. “Looking back, we built a strong foundation — competence, team, and a right to win — preparing us for the next phase. Early trials in Norway and Scandinavia have been invaluable for sustainable scaling.” 8 Håkon Stiksrud Head of Global eMobility
9. 9 🟠 …however, few years in the journey, the landscape continued to change, and new challenges emerged
11. 11 💡these “signals & blockers” informed the needed next steps of evolution
13. 13 ✅ Product Thinking (Product & Engineering capability) to support the needed customization ✅ New Core Charging Platform, which allowed to support new features for new needed products
14. 14 ⚠ …however, after a year or so, there were again some growth challenges
16. 16 ⚠ Engineering teams kept implementing changes organically (as per request) without a clear vision ⚠ Product and Technology teams were not aligned (two silos), and kept organically collaborating
17. 17 ⚠ Extensive in-house development to compensate for missing (and not extendable) core capabilities in platforms
18. 18 ⚠ “Big Ball of Mud” (BBoM): capabilities, ways of working and teams organization entangled ⚠ Burning Platform: BBoM and unfit external platforms were hindering the journey of exponential growth
19. Scaling Up Sustainably [2022 - 2024] 19
20. 20 Stage 1: design for Speed, Scale and Adaptability Clarify what are the domains and product capabilities Define sourcing strategy for each of the capabilities Define operating model to work effectively Culture and work style - define traits and behavior 💡 💡 💡 💡 OBJECTIVES now 2018 2020/2021 2023
21. The platform strategy - the anchors eMobility Core: the Systems eMobility Core: the People Supporting Platform Capabilities Develop Co-Develop Buy Partner 💡Understand + Assess our role the landscape the value chains the core issues
22. 22 🗺 to start this journey, we began exploring our landscape to understand our important capabilities
23. 23 Understanding our capabilities >> Value Stream Mapping • Value Stream Mapping with cross-functional teams and leadership to anchor the process. • Identified 12 core capabilities as candidate domain boundaries. • Applied Independent Service Heuristics (ISH) to test and validate the boundaries. • Used the process to secure leadership alignment and buy-in for the modernization ahead. ISH exercise outcomes
24. 24 💡 these initial steps provided awareness of the existing “domains of capabilities” and some ideas where to focus on next
25. 25 💡…furthermore, it also validated we missed “skill and knowledge” to effectively execute the modernization journey
26. 26 ARCHITECTURE MODERNIZATION (from CK eMobility internal presentation)
27. 27 Kickstarting Modernization
28. 28 Kickstarting Modernization: ✅ Where to start? Core domain to position the fundamental platform capabilities for eMobility
29. 29 Kickstarting Modernization: ✅ Where to start? ✅ Understand situation & all of the different involved perspectives (Product, Technology, Operations, Network, Sales, etc.) 15+ “listening sessions” with people from all of the functions involved
30. 30 Kickstarting Modernization: ✅ Where to start? ✅ Understand situation & all of the different involved perspectives (Product, Technology, Operations, Network, Sales, etc.) ✅ Who are the strategic leaders and experts that can “pair” with Eduardo & Nick (in the Modernization Enabling Team)
31. 31 (from CK eMobility internal presentation) 💡Learn more about AMET (Architecture Modernization Enabling Team) here: https://esilva.net/amet
32. 32 Kickstarting - first EventStorming
33. 33 First domain mapped
34. 34 Are they ready for this?? This is going to be a journey for the resilient…
35. 35 Long-story short: they were ready ✅ It was a long journey, with a lot of challenges, but we managed to “kickstart + execute modernization” on all of the domains
36. 36 (from CK eMobility internal presentation)
37. 37 (from CK eMobility internal presentation)
38. 38 All customer experiences (and needs) Workshop 🎯 align on all of the important “experiences”, essential usage flows and the domains and capabilities needed to support those
39. CK eMobility 39 B2B B2C Core Platform(s) External Platform(s) Domain Capabilities Alignment on the fundamental “Product Groups” and teams boundaries [current - next - later] Outcome of 3-day EventStorming Workshop
41. 41 Consistent improvement in delivery effectiveness and flow performance Speed (Cycle & Lead Time) → 35% faster cycle and lead times → Work flowing faster through the delivery pipeline Autonomy & less dependencies → +30% improvement in planned vs delivered work Throughput → Higher delivery volume, same WIP Team & Collaboration → Clearer priorities, stronger Product–Tech alignment Focus & Value Delivery → Less refactoring, more customer impact → More effort translating directly to customer impact Platform improvements → Higher uptime & improved transaction success rate
42. 42 ⚠ Although the product groups were a major step forward, we noticed there were still value flow blockers due to dependencies outside Product & Tech.
43. Towards Cross-functional Value Streams [2024 - now] 43
44. 44 now 2018 2020/2021 2022/2023 2024/2025 🟢 Product groups starting to work well together (important to address all of the refactoring needed with clear cross-team priorities) 🟠 We know we need to improve how Product and Technology works with other functions in the organization CROSS-FUNCTIONAL VALUE STREAMS
45. (from CK eMobility internal presentation)
46. (from CK eMobility internal presentation)
48. ⏪ Time to recap the highlights of our journey 48
49. 49 EARLY DAYS… Ancient tech Evolving - but fragile Concept evolution - next gen energy station Concept evolution - 2025 version SUSTAINABLE CONVERGENCE now 2018 2020/2021 2022/2023 2024/2025
50. 50 now 2018 2022/2023 2024 Change will continue …
51. Circle K eMobility Journey Towards Effective Cross-functional Value Streams Eduardo da Silva, PhD Independent Consultant on Organization Dynamics, Architecture and Leadership (esilva.net consulting | eduardo@esilva.net) Jan Solhøy CircleK eMobility Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) (JanHansteen.Solhoy@circlekeurope.com) Thank you! (reach out if you have questions) (Soon) Companion article: https://esilva.net/case-studies/ck-emobility-modernization