Most product management advice assumes you are working at a company that already values product thinking. The discovery frameworks, the outcome-based roadmaps, and the empowered team models all assume a cultural foundation that simply does not exist in many established organisations. What happens when you are the product person trying to introduce these ideas into a company where the dominant culture is project management, waterfall delivery, and stakeholder-driven requirements?
At PR_D_CT DAY 2025 in Ghent, Alexandre Torreele from Elia, the Belgian electricity transmission system operator, brought a perspective that is rarely heard at product conferences. Elia is not a startup. It is a critical infrastructure company with decades of history, regulatory obligations, and a culture built around reliability and compliance. Alexandre shared the honest, sometimes painful story of introducing product culture into this environment.
For product managers working at established Belgian companies (banks, utilities, industrial firms, government agencies), this was one of the most relevant talks of the day. It validated their struggles and offered practical strategies for driving change from within.
