A PIM implementation might start as a software decision, but it quickly becomes something else: a significant change in how your organisation understands, owns, and uses product data. Technology is only half the story. The other half is the team you assemble to design, challenge, and run what you need to be as well-managed a project as possible.
Why the right team matters more than the right tool
Treat PIM as “the IT department’s thing” and you’re practically guaranteeing friction: IT might provide beautiful demos, but adoption will be piecemeal at best, with nobody quite sure who owns what data. Conversely, if you treat it as much as a programme of organisational change, with clear team roles, you’ll get better decisions, cleaner data, and a system which your people will actually want to use.
In most organisations, the following five roles are non-negotiable. One person may wear more than one hat, but, bust as in any well-managed project, responsibilities and roles cannot be left to sort themselves out. So, let’s get down to outlining why these five roles are so important.
1. Executive sponsor: Political ‘air cover’
The executive sponsor is your senior ‘PIM champion.’ They sell the vision and interface with C-Suite. Typically, a Head of eCommerce, Chief Digital Officer, or COO (but not necessarily the Chief Technology Officer) might fill this role. They won’t attend every workshop, but their presence is felt in every decision.
What they bring
- Clear business goals for the project, and a visible, relevant, and complete business case
- Budget authority and the role clout to secure people’s time and attention
- The ability to settle disputes and protect the project when other priorities compete
This person ensures the project is constantly framed as a strategic change, not just “another system.”
2. Project manager: Conducting the orchestra
While the sponsor sets the destination, the project manager reads the map and checks everyone is still on the right route. This is who wakes up thinking about timelines, risk management and who has to deliver what to whom by when.
Their focus
- Turning the vision into a concrete plan, (milestones, dependencies, deliverables)
- Coordinating internal teams, the PIM vendor, and any integration consultancy partners
- Being alert to potential scope creep and indicating as such to relevant parties
As in many disciplines, a competent and focused project manager keeps the moving parts aligned: product data audit, integrations, migration, testing, training. Without them, even the best-intentioned teams end up pulling in different directions as competing priorities battle it out.
3. Data steward: Guardian of quality
This is the person whose role involves in-depth monitoring of how products are described, structured, and grouped. They are generally pulled from merchandising, product management, or marketing (not IT).
What they own
- The product data model: attributes, taxonomies, variant rules, and naming standards
- Decisions about what the quality threshold looks like to fulfil a complete, publishable product record
- Data cleansing rules, enrichment priorities, and ongoing governance
They’d be likely to say “no, we cannot import that legacy field as-is” and “yes, every safety-critical product needs these attributes filled before it goes live.” This role is pivotal in turning PIM from a glorified database into a commercial asset.
4. Technical lead: Architect of an integrated set-up
The technical lead knows your current stack like the back of their hand: Hands-on with ERP, ecommerce, DAM, middleware, APIs, they provide the knowledge as to the practical technology behind how the new PIM will fit without causing casualties from ‘friendly fire’ elsewhere.
Responsibilities
- Designing the technical architecture and data flows between PIM and other systems
- Choosing and implementing integration methods (out-of-the-box or custom)
- Overseeing data migration mechanics and performance, security, and monitoring
This person makes sure that PIM connects, confirms, and communicates. When a price changes in ERP or a new image lands in DAM, the technical lead makes sure the right updates reach the right channels at the right time.
5. User advocate: The voice of the day-to-day users
This role speaks on behalf of the people who will actually be on the front line with the system: Teams and members like product marketers, catalogue managers, eCommerce executives, and for larger enterprises, translators, or regional teams.
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Where they make the difference
- Validating that proposed workflows and screens match real working patterns
- Leading user acceptance testing from a business perspective, not just “are there any bugs?”
- Championing provision of training, quick reference guides, and post-go-live feedback
This role is to make sure that you aren’t launching a technically elegant setup which nobody actually finds user-friendly. If a PIM solution ends up making everyday tasks like enrichment harder, adoption will start stalling as people find quicker work-arounds. Usability is thus central to the user advocate’s position.
Beyond the core five: the wider cast
Evidently, a PIM implementation project team doesn’t stop there. Orbiting these five key roles, most client organisations involve a wider circle of stakeholders:
- Product and category managers who bring deep knowledge of ranges and customer needs
- Catalogue managers who understand how assortments are built for seasons, markets, and key accounts
- Procurement and supplier onboarding teams who shape incoming data feeds
- Legal and compliance for regulated or sustainability-sensitive products
- Customer service and sales, who know the questions customers really ask
You don’t need everyone at every team meeting or workshop, but you do need the right people at the right time especially when defining standards, approval flows, and policies around edge cases.
It’s neither serviceable nor feasible for a PIM project plan to talk in detail about platforms and technology while barely mentioning people, It increases risk, in fact. The structure of your team, as in who sponsors, who decides, who designs, who challenges, will dictate how smoothly you implement the PIM and how effectively the system is adopted.
At Start with Data, we have a wealth of experience collaborating closely with retailers, distributors and manufacturers to shape PIM project teams, clarify roles and support them through design, migration, and rollout. Get in touch with us today and we can give you our insights from the objective exterior to help you assess whether you have the right people in the right team positions. Let’s talk! We can explore what a successful PIM team looks like for your business so that go live is anticipated with excitement, not fear!