Rebrand as Product Approach

Treat rebranding like product development with sprints, agile, and stakeholder feedback

Barbra Gago
Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)

Rebrand as Product Approach

"With the rebrand at Miro, it was very much rebrand as a product approach. It was very much a product development process with sprint teams and agile, coming back, and you had owners for different parts of things and all reporting back and it really required everybody in some way to be involved." - Barbra Gago

What It Is

The Rebrand as Product Approach treats a company rebrand not as a marketing project but as a product development initiative. This means applying product methodology—sprints, agile iterations, stakeholder owners, customer feedback loops, and cross-functional collaboration—to the complex task of changing a company's identity.

Barbra Gago developed this approach while leading the rebrand of RealtimeBoard to Miro. The stakes were high: they had millions of users, a hundred employees, and completed the entire rebrand—from naming through a full brand system to a three-dimensional booth at South by Southwest—in about four months.

How It Works

The framework applies product development principles to rebranding:

Sprint Structure

  • Break the rebrand into discrete phases with clear milestones
  • Run iterative cycles with regular check-ins
  • Maintain velocity while allowing for feedback

Ownership Model

  • Assign owners for different brand elements (visual, verbal, product integration)
  • Create clear accountability without bottlenecking on marketing
  • Enable parallel workstreams

Customer Involvement

  • Run case studies with existing users throughout the process
  • Get feedback on logos, designs, and brand concepts
  • Balance customer input with execution speed

Cross-Functional Integration

  • Legal for contracts and trademark issues
  • Product for in-app changes
  • Sales for deck and collateral updates
  • Engineering for URL and technical changes

How to Apply It

Phase 1: Naming (if applicable)

  1. Kick off naming exploration with clear criteria
  2. Involve key stakeholders in naming workshops
  3. Check trademark availability early
  4. Get customer feedback on top candidates

Phase 2: Visual Identity

  1. Assign sprint teams to visual system development
  2. Iterate on logos, colors, typography
  3. Preserve essence of original brand where valuable
  4. Get early customer feedback to validate direction

Phase 3: Integration

  1. Map all touchpoints that need updating
  2. Assign owners for each integration area
  3. Run parallel workstreams for website, product, collateral
  4. Coordinate dependencies across teams

Phase 4: Launch

  1. Coordinate timing across all touchpoints
  2. Have contingency plans for last-minute issues
  3. Communicate changes to customers proactively
  4. Celebrate with the team to build internal buy-in

When to Use It

Use this approach when:

  • The rebrand involves significant changes (name, visual identity, positioning)
  • Multiple teams and functions need to be involved
  • You need to move quickly without sacrificing quality
  • Maintaining stakeholder alignment is critical
  • Customer relationships are valuable and need preservation

Consider simpler approaches when:

  • Only minor brand refreshes are needed
  • The company is very small
  • Changes are purely cosmetic

Source

  • Guest: Barbra Gago
  • Episode: "Category creation and brand building | Barbra Gago (Pando, Miro, Greenhouse, Culture Amp)"
  • Key Discussion: (34:46-37:35) - Full discussion of the product approach to rebranding and lessons learned
  • YouTube: Watch on YouTube

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