Finance Reports:
The Product Version

Reports should be news you can use.

If you’re leading Product, the usual Finance data can leave you feeling like there’s some deeper insight just around the corner.

The problem: what’s relevant to Finance ≠ what’s relevant to Product.

Don’t settle: Build a second scorecard yourself.

Finance’s reports have revenue, GM%, region, channel, customer. Makes sense. It's the language most leadership teams speak.

Product needs different answers:

• Platform strategy: Do your most complex platforms actually outperform your derivatives?
• Seasonal trends: Is one launch working materially better than others?
• Portfolio health: What are your growth trends by subcategory? What is happening in your long tail?
• Decision quality: What tracks above and below program review targets? Do user insights correlate with market performance?

None of those are accounting questions. Finance's reports aren't built for them. And your ERP probably won't produce that view automatically.

Do this:

• Export the data.
• Add columns.
• Tag SKUs.
• Roll up the same numbers differently.
• Once it's working, let your favorite LLM automate the tagging.

New patterns will surface. A move that overperforms, a narrative that doesn't match the one from Sales, one subcategory to build on, another to deprioritize.

Missing history? Rebuild it transparently. Get team input, document every assumption, and resist the temptation to invent precision. I've had to do this more than once. Trust matters more than perfect data.

Some organizations have already built this muscle. Most haven't. Once you do, you’ll have the confidence to double down on what's working and fix what isn't.

Pro tip: make friends in Finance while you do this. They tend to want the same clarity you do. Once you've demonstrated the model, they might just update the system.

Product questions deserve product answers.