Is your IT/Development team a Pizza Delivery Service?

wetzel8716
Aug 28
2 min read

In too many companies, the relationship between “the business” and “IT” looks less like strategy and more like pizza delivery.

The business places an order: “I need a dashboard with these 12 fields, extra charts on top.”IT delivers: “Here’s your dashboard, hot and fresh.”And everyone wonders why adoption is low, costs are high, and problems persist.

The Pizza Delivery Model

This model is flawed because it assumes the business knows exactly what it needs—and that IT’s job is simply to deliver it quickly and correctly. But here’s the truth: just like the person ordering pizza, the business knows its hunger, not always the best way to satisfy it.

The order might be too much (“a dashboard no one reads”).
It might be missing the point (“a new app when training would solve the issue”).
It might be contradictory (“extra speed, but also extra customization”).

And IT, for all its capability, isn’t empowered to push back. They deliver the order—even if it’s not what the company actually needs.

Why This Breaks Down

The pizza model breaks down because it disconnects problems from solutions. The business frames the solution, IT executes it, and no one owns the actual outcome. It creates waste, frustration, and fragile systems.

The Product Management Shift

One of my current clients—a non-software company—has realized this. They’re creating a product management function to sit between business and development.

The PMs’ job isn’t to take orders. It’s to uncover the problem, align stakeholders, and define outcomes. Instead of saying, “What topping do you want?” they’re asking:

What problem are we solving?
Who will use this, and how?
How will we know if it worked?

That shift turns IT from a delivery service into a strategic partner.

What CEOs Should Do

As CEO, ask yourself: Is my product/IT organization delivering pizzas—or driving strategy?

If it’s the former, here’s how to fix it:

Fund product management. Create a role that connects business intent to technical execution.
Reward outcomes, not outputs. Success isn’t delivering the pizza—it’s solving the hunger.
Encourage “no.” Empower PMs and IT to push back on bad orders.