This paper extends the line of enquiry in SPI research to address process improvement in distributed product development teams. We develop key process areas (KPAs) that specifically address the fundamental characteristics of distributed work identified in ‘collaboration readiness’, ‘technology readiness’, ‘common ground’, and ‘coupling in work’. By explicating the five-year SPI journey of a large software enterprise that involved the use of a custom-developed SPI framework in which the above KPAs were embedded, we add a focus on SPI implementation mechanisms to the growing body of empirical software engineering literature. We establish the interlinkages between project-level process improvements and broader firm-level mechanisms, highlighting the need to design SPI operations in a way not only to assist product teams that are improving their software process capabilities, but also to contribute to broader organizational processes such as governance and learning.