As the digital transformation proceeds in great strides, industrial companies move forward on their evolutionary process from smart connected products to systems of systems. Empirically grounded in an 18-month innovation project at SustainabilityCompany – a globally leading supplier of piping systems – this manuscript strives to share in-depth insights on this journey deriving archetypes of such progressions: (1) Physical Takeover, (2) Physical Partnering, (3) Digital Intruding and (4) Digital Expansion. Considering restrictions by the single-case method, we can conclude that beside operational considerations increasingly strategic deliberations need to be taken into account. Industrial enterprises have to decide whether to lead, partner or participate when breaking the new grounds of smart connected products.