Walk into most IT departments today and you’ll see armies of project managers and engineers marching through backlogs, sprints, and ticket queues. To them, success means projects delivered on time and within scope. But to their internal customers—marketing, sales, product teams—this mindset feels increasingly outdated, even tone-deaf.

Why? Because marketing isn’t asking for “projects.” They’re asking for strategic, connected systems that move the business forward. They want unified data, flexible architectures, and platforms that can adapt to customer behavior in real time. Instead, they get IT-led deployments that check a box but don’t connect the dots.

And here’s the problem: IT still thinks of itself as the gatekeeper. But in reality, they’re losing face—and more importantly, losing faith—with the teams they’re supposed to serve.

The Disconnect

IT’s focus: Delivering projects, reducing risk, keeping systems running.

Marketing’s focus: Orchestrating customer journeys, measuring ROI, and moving at the speed of market shifts.

When IT rolls out a project but fails to deliver a connected ecosystem, Marketers see it as a win for IT—but a loss for the business. Each time that gap widens, marketing teams find their own way around IT. Shadow IT, SaaS subscriptions on corporate cards, and data pipelines stitched together in the dark are all symptoms of this erosion of trust.

The Product Management Shift

The best IT organizations have already realized this problem. They’re moving away from a project mindset and adopting a product management mindset. Instead of shipping one-off deployments, they treat internal systems like products that evolve. They focus on continuous improvement, user experience, and business outcomes—not just delivery milestones.

This is where IT can win back faith: stop being the project factory, start being the product builder.

The Low-Code Threat

But the clock is ticking. With low-code and no-code platforms flooding the market, marketing teams no longer need to beg IT for every dashboard, integration, or workflow. They can build what they need in days—sometimes hours.

If IT doesn’t step up strategically, they’ll be pushed into a box: a utility that manages infrastructure while the business takes control of the actual customer-facing innovation. Once that line is crossed, IT’s influence shrinks to keeping the lights on—and that’s a dangerous place to be when automation can do even that.

The Path Back to Relevance

IT can’t claw back faith with more Gantt charts or ticket completions. The fix is strategic:

• Shift from projects to platforms. Projects end; platforms evolve. IT must deliver foundations that connect data and workflows across the enterprise.
• Adopt a true product management model. Treat systems like evolving products, not one-and-done deployments.
• Think business outcomes, not technical outputs. Don’t ask, “Did we deliver the project?” Ask, “Did we move the needle on revenue, retention, or customer experience?”
• Partner, don’t police. Low-code/no-code isn’t a threat if IT embraces it as an accelerator rather than resists it as a risk.

The real “face” of IT isn’t infrastructure—it’s credibility. And right now, that credibility is cracking under the weight of misaligned priorities and Marketing isn’t waiting around.