A product post-merger integration checklist will help you sort out the complexities of integrating multiple business entities.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a common part of the technology world. The post-merger integration process involves aligning teams, consolidating tech, and setting new business goals. Having a structured plan in place is critical.
This is especially true for the technical, or product-focused side of M&A integration. I’m a CTO by trade, and I’ve helped various York IE clients consolidate different systems, technologies, and product roadmaps while maintaining business continuity.
Fusing together tech stacks requires difficult decisions about which platforms to keep, often leading to challenges with compatibility, data migration, and infrastructure stability. Merging teams may also have different coding practices or dev methods that must be aligned, and these technical choices can impact both internal operations and customer-facing services.
Product alignment adds another layer of complexity. The acquiring company may have a vision for integrating the new product, but this requires careful coordination to prioritize features, set new timelines, and maintain a consistent user experience.
As the economy rebounds, M&A transactions could become more common in the future. You can download our Post-M&A Integration Bundle to help align your teams and follow best practices for all sides of a merger: R&D, G&A, and GTM.
But first, let’s walk through a step-by-step product post-merger integration checklist:
Product Post-Merger Integration Checklist
Follow these eight steps for a successful post-merger integration process:
- Define goals for the integration.
- Evaluate your internal resourcing plan.
- Explore supplemental resources.
- Assign roles and responsibilities.
- Establish a schedule.
- Set up recurring check-ins.
- Hold post-mortem meetings for contingency planning.
- Close out the integration process.
1. Define goals for the integration
Achieving alignment is usually the first step in a sound post-merger integration plan.
It’s important to understand what you’re trying to accomplish before you start consolidating your tech and assigning tasks to your team. There’s a good chance the acquiring company had a vision well before completing the merger or acquisition.
Try to align on a few key goals that your team can achieve within the next 12 to 18 months. Focus on the key parts of your operations that will limit service disruptions for your existing customer base.
For example, you might prioritize deprecating a legacy tech stack so you don’t need to maintain it anymore, or launching a key feature from a platform you acquired to make it available to all of your pre-existing customers.
2. Evaluate your internal resourcing plan
Now that you’ve defined your end goals, do you have the right team in place to accomplish them? If you’re moving forward with a new coding language, do you have developers that are comfortable with that language? Or do you need to seek out training to develop these new skills?
A merger or acquisition often involves ruthless prioritization of your product roadmap. Consider where leaders and employees should be spending their time.
3. Explore supplemental resources
After honestly evaluating your internal resources, you might find that your organization is lacking in strategy or execution within some areas of the post-merger integration process. This is very common, and it’s why advisory services firms such as York IE exist.
The right partner can be a thoughtful sounding board that provides unbiased, new perspectives. They’ll often bring a breadth of experience that helps you find shorter paths and cleaner ways to get things done — and act as an additional team to improve communication between the acquiring company and the acquiree. If budget efficiency is a chief priority, consider a partner with hybrid onshore and offshore development capabilities.
4. Assign roles and responsibilities
At this point in the process, you’ve identified your internal team and onboarded any external specialists to accelerate your post-merger integration. Now it’s time to delegate tasks and start checking off the high-priority items on your integration roadmap.
It’s often helpful to dedicate leads for strategy (i.e. product strategists) and execution (product managers). Product strategists will help set the larger vision for different aspects of the integration, while product managers will oversee the more specific actions that get you there. Match your team members’ specialization to their tasks for best results.
5. Establish a schedule
Your longer-term strategic planning will likely encompass 12-18 months. From an execution standpoint, you want to narrow your focus to 3-6 month chunks.
Thoroughly plan all of your integration efforts, from architecture through user experience mockups. Be aggressive but realistic as you set your timeline.
6. Set up recurring check-ins
Establish a regular cadence of meetings between internal and external resources, as well as any other stakeholders (i.e. investors) that should be kept in the loop. We often recommend weekly check-ins with all of your team leads.
Analyze how teams are gelling. Evaluate the velocity of your process; are we moving too slowly or too quickly based on our goals? Discuss future assignments as teams continue to check off various items on the to-do list. Be adaptable and try to continuously evolve through all the moving parts.
7. Hold post-mortem meetings for contingency planning
Things will inevitably go wrong in your post-merger integration process, whether it’s a team challenge, missed date, system outage, or anything else. That’s why it’s important to build a team of complementary parts that can put their egos aside.
Beyond your weekly meetings, allocate time for ad-hoc “post-mortem” discussions. These meetings should be dedicated to a deep dive into specific issues (staffing or technical) that arise in the process. Have a plan in place for corrective action identification and root cause analysis.
8. Close out the integration process
The final step of a sound post-merger integration plan is ensuring a tidy transition.
As you approach the end of your integration, invest time to thoroughly document your systems and establish maintenance procedures. Determine which team members will be staying on for recurring maintenance and quality assurance, and which will be moving on to other projects on your roadmap.
And don’t forget to celebrate! Finishing an integration can cause a mix of emotions. Success is great, but ambiguity about what’s next may cause anxiety and fear among your teams. Driving clarity on the next business goals along with showing how the integration was a success –even though there were likely challenges – is a key to continuing the momentum.
So what are you waiting for? Grab your team, download our Post-M&A Integration Bundle, and start aligning your people, processes, and technology.
