What It Takes To Build Digital Products at a 280-Year-Old Brand

When you think about digital product innovation, you probably picture startups, scrappy teams, and fast releases. What you probably don't picture is a 280-year-old auction house. But that's exactly what makes this story so interesting.

We sat down with Samantha McCarthy, AVP of Product Management at Sotheby's, to talk about what it's like to lead product inside one of the oldest brands in the world. Sotheby's was founded in 1744, but behind the scenes, there's a modern, fully custom tech stack powering global operations. And Sam has been helping shape it.

This episode covers a lot: what it means to build inside a company that doesn't identify as a tech org, why build vs buy is a business-critical decision, how to communicate product work without drowning people in detail, and what it means to design with legacy in mind.

Let's get into it.

‍Products Must Earn Trust First‍

In legacy organizations, product isn't just about shipping features. It's about earning and maintaining trust. You might not be building for millions of users, but the users you do have expect everything to work flawlessly. There's no tolerance for "fail fast" when a buggy release could affect major transactions, damage relationships, or erode decades of brand equity.

Building tech at Sotheby's wasn't just about solving business problems. It was about protecting the client experience. These aren't casual users. Many are high-net-worth individuals bidding on one-of-a-kind items, often in real time. There's no room for lag, downtime, or do-overs.

From a product standpoint, this means prioritizing performance and stability over flashy releases. That means the product team has to design with dependability in mind. Infrastructure needs to be tight. Releases need to be deliberate. Internal processes have to account for more risk than most teams are used to. Stability and performance aren't just technical goals. They're a promise you're making to the people who count on your tools.

‍Why Build vs Buy Still Matters

Despite how far SaaS has come, the build vs buy conversation is far from dead. In fact, it might be more relevant than ever for legacy organizations.

At Sotheby's, the decision to build came from a need for control. Control over the data, the user experience, and the infrastructure supporting it all. Off-the-shelf software didn't cut it. It couldn't accommodate the specific workflows, the sensitivity of the information, or the speed required in a live auction environment.

Sam explained it clearly:

"Auction is our bread and butter. We need to own absolutely every step of the process."

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The Sotheby's team knew that building gave them the control and flexibility to create exactly what their users needed, without relying on third-party tools to keep up. And yes, that came with risk. But it was a risk they were willing to take to deliver something that felt seamless, stable, and secure. This shift from building isolated tools to building shared infrastructure is what Sam called the move toward platform thinking. And it's enabled a faster, more cohesive approach to product development across the org.

The choice to build internally allows product teams to tailor tools around their business's most critical needs. There may be some rough patches in the early days. But the payoff is a system that's stable, secure, and owned entirely in-house.‍

Treat Internal Tools Like Client-Facing Products

Some of the most high-impact product work happens behind the scenes. The platforms that internal teams rely on, especially in complex businesses, deserve the same care and investment as the tools you put in front of customers.

Some of the most essential tools Sotheby's builds are the ones most people will never see. Internal platforms power the live auction experience, connecting teams across countries, currencies, and client channels.

In high-touch, high-stakes environments, every internal misstep creates ripple effects. Auctioneers, art specialists, and coordinators rely on real-time information, and even a slight delay can throw off an entire operation. Building tools that serve these users isn't glamorous, but it's critical.

The product disappears when it works well. It gets out of the way. And in legacy organizations, that's often the goal: support the people doing the work, and do it so seamlessly that no one notices the tech at all.

‍Speak Tech Without the Jargon

If you're building products inside a non-tech company, you're going to need to talk about it without sounding like a product manual. That doesn't mean dumbing things down. It's about making your work legible to the people you rely on to get it done.

Samantha described this as one of her biggest learnings. She started thinking about every explanation as if she were talking to someone on the street — no assumptions, no jargon, just clear communication based on curiosity and empathy. When she gives updates or presents decisions, she focuses on outcomes: what changed, why it matters, and how it supports the client experience.

"It took me a while to figure out how to talk about what I do in a way that makes sense to someone who doesn't work in tech. But it's a lot like meeting someone on the street. You have no idea what their background is, so you have to meet them where they are."

Great product communication doesn't mean everyone understands every detail. It means everyone knows why the work matters and where they fit in. For product managers working in non-tech companies, this kind of translation is critical. Think about:

• Framing updates around business impact, not features
• Checking assumptions about what people do or don't know
• Giving people the option to skip technical details if they don't need them
• Aligning teams with shared context, not just shared tools

Innovate Without Disrupting the Core

Innovation doesn't always have to mean dramatic change. In legacy orgs, the best innovation is often the kind that respects what already works and builds around it.Samantha shared how her team approaches this by layering new systems carefully, with plenty of fallback plans. Even pen and paper, if needed. Because when your clients have high expectations and your brand is built on consistency, you can't afford a bad release. You need to move forward without burning trust.

"We have a smaller pool of clients, and the stakes are high. We can't afford to burn trust with a bad rollout," Sam explained.

That's why the product process at Sotheby's includes layers of contingency planning and additional QA work that wouldn't be necessary in a typical tech org. Stability and polish aren't polish; they're requirements because everything reflects back on the Sotheby's brand. Anything client-facing has to uphold that sense of prestige and trust. And the product team treats that brand experience like part of the product itself.

That's what innovation at legacy brands should look like: thoughtful, steady, and measured. It solves real problems quietly and effectively, so the people using it never have to worry about what's behind the curtain.‍

Final Thoughts

The future of product inside legacy orgs won't be defined by fast growth or flashy launches. It will be built by teams like Sam's. Teams that move with purpose, communicate with empathy, and make things that work. Because in spaces where the brand carries centuries of history, the most impactful product work often looks like nothing at all. It's stable. It's seamless. And it doesn't steal the spotlight from the moments that matter.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out the whole conversation with Samantha McCarthy on the Product Builders Podcast. And if you're building digital products in legacy spaces and want a thought partner who gets it, you know where to find us.