Strategy Execution with Obeya-driven Portfolio Management

Strategy Execution with Obeya-Driven Portfolio Management

Visibility is not enough. The real challenge is making strategic choices.

Many organisations have portfolio overviews, dashboards, and project reports.

Yet they still struggle to translate strategy into results.

In this article, Felice Davies, Jelger Haanstra, and Sanya Berkhout explore how Obeya can transform portfolio management from a reporting function into a strategic steering mechanism.

Drawing on their experience at KPMG and DUO (Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs), they show how organisations can reconnect strategy and execution by making priorities, trade-offs, and capacity decisions visible and actionable.

The central message is simple:

Portfolio management should not be about tracking projects. It should be about continuously deciding where the organisation invests its scarce attention and capacity.

What you’ll learn

• Why traditional portfolio management often creates visibility without focus
• How Strategic Portfolio Management differs from project control
• Why Obeya creates the context for real strategic choices
• How to connect strategy, portfolio management, and execution
• How organisations can improve prioritisation, capacity allocation, and decision-making

From control to strategic steering

Traditional portfolio management was designed for oversight.

Strategic Portfolio Management is designed for decision-making.

Instead of managing a static list of projects, organisations continuously evaluate:

• strategic priorities
• available capacity
• dependencies
• trade-offs
• value creation opportunities

The portfolio becomes a dynamic system rather than a reporting structure.

How Obeya changes the conversation

The authors argue that most portfolio overviews lack one essential ingredient:

a place where decisions can actually be made.

Obeya provides that missing link by:

• connecting strategy, portfolio, and execution
• creating shared understanding
• enabling continuous dialogue
• supporting prioritisation and reprioritisation
• making low-value work visible and easier to stop

The focus shifts from:

“What projects are running?”

to

“What creates strategic value?”

Scaling strategic alignment

The article also demonstrates how connected Obeya layers can scale strategic alignment across an organisation.

Through cascading Obeya structures:

• strategy flows downward into execution
• insights and constraints flow upward
• priorities remain aligned across portfolios, programs, and teams
• decision-making becomes continuous rather than periodic

What changes when it works

Organisations applying Obeya-driven portfolio management can:

• create integrated steering across strategy, portfolio, and execution
• make priorities and trade-offs explicit
• improve focus by stopping low-value initiatives
• increase responsiveness through continuous adjustment
• turn strategy into an ongoing dialogue rather than an annual planning exercise

One statement captures the essence of the article:

The key question is not whether Obeya works, but whether organisations are willing to use it as an integrated steering mechanism.

Download the full article and discover how Obeya-driven portfolio management helps organisations turn strategy into execution.

Felice Davies, Jelger Haanstra, and Sanya Berkhout will be speaking at the Obeya Summit on June 25–26, 2026.

Join Felice, Jelger and Sanya at the Obeya Summit 2026 and learn how Strategic Portfolio Management with Obeya helps organisations connect strategy and execution, improve prioritisation, allocate capacity effectively, and make better portfolio decisions.