Truhu
TruHu is a growing startup focused on delivering digital solutions that streamline employee engagement and communication, primarily serving HR departments through broker-driven channels. Their platform helps organizations manage internal operations more efficiently by integrating tools for workforce management, mobile access, and actionable insights.
“Within just three months of Froogel Product Manager arriving, we saw a real transformation in how we operate. The Dev and Product teams went from being disconnected to feeling like a single, well-oiled unit.”
Mark Dunahoo – President and COO, TruHu
Business Outcomes
33% increase in sprint throughput
56% reduction in sprint cycle time
Backlog readiness from ~35% to ~90%
33% reduction in sprint carryover
Challenges & Solutions
The product and engineering teams struggled with inefficient workflows, inconsistent sprint execution, and delayed feature testing. This inefficiency led to unpredictable product development cycles and increased frustration among team members.
Reactive roadmap decisions affecting releases
Mid-sprint scope changes and unplanned work were regularly introduced in response to internal requests, rather than validated market signals, weakening strategic focus.
Senior Leadership Stakeholder Reviews Implemented – Customer requests were reviewed through defined prioritization gates, preserving roadmap integrity and aligning investments to validated demand.
Insufficient customer feedback loops
The product team was not spending enough time understanding how customers operated their businesses, limiting insight into true market needs and buying drivers.
4 Customer Interviews Conducted Per Month
Continuous discovery embedded into product operations – Monthly customer interviews and structured feedback loops were introduced, directly informing roadmap priorities and strategic decisions.
Inconsistent sprint execution & workflows
Development cycles varied in structure and effectiveness, undermining confidence in delivery cadence and throughput.
Sprint durations were locked. Locked the durations for sprints in order to bring consistency in delivery to the sprint process. Monitored adherence to cadence.
Lacking Good Sprint Governance
[1] “Unbaked” User stories often lacked sufficient clarity and validation, leading to misalignment on what outcomes would truly deliver value to users. [2] Sprint Governance – on User Stories acceptance and when accepted into the current sprint.
New Governance Rules Put in Place for Sprints
User stories were required to be fully defined, scoped, and designed before entering a sprint, reducing ambiguity and rework. Unbaked stories were rejected. Metrics were tracked for story point carry over and user story acceptance to monitor.
Inconsistent deployments
The absence of a consistent release schedule introduced uncertainty into go-to-market planning and coordination. Primarily due to DevOps being conducted by Dev engineers.
Added Dedicated DevOps Resource Made the suggestion to add a contract DevOps resource for the Startup for consistency and adherence to budget.
Late involvement of design
Design collaboration was introduced too late in the process, limiting early feedback and reducing the team’s ability to test usability and refine solutions before development.
Solidified External Design Resource I brought in a couple of external design resources from my network with whom I’ve worked with before. Brought them into precede their sprint cycle, with a design cycle.
Ready to Start Your Transformation?
Froogel Product Manager solves a critical operational risk for B2B software companies: the misalignment of product execution with company goals. Without systematized, leadership-driven execution, established frameworks, and experienced product leadership, these companies often struggle to innovate, prioritize customer needs, and commercialize effectively—leading to stalled growth and missed targets.
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