Meet Product Management Expert Loren West

Protect your brand, product or invention from the hazards of consumer product launching and go from idea to product to big brand. With guidance from retail product design and development experts Tracy and Tom Hazzard. Get the insider secrets to put the right things in the right order with the right resources so you can out design, outsource, and out profit your way to retail success.

Hey, product launchers, this is Tracy Hazzard, and I'm here with one of our experts that I'm so excited to introduce you to because this is an expertise area I do not have, and I always love to learn something new. So Lauren west is a consumer products good expert, and we're talking specifically in areas that require a lot of process and a lot of development and a lot of effort in terms of making sure you're in compliance, you've done all your documentation, you've really gone through that whole process flow and really good. And you can learn so many things about doing that for all types of product development, not just consumer products and not just beauty products in which you have a particular area in. And beauty products are kind of, I'm going to say, challenging because they have a lot of testing requirements, some of them have FDA approval, and so there's definitely that. But you have a lot of what I'm going to call intrapreneur experience, which I think is also really important. So as you're growing, and a lot of our product launchers are growing big brands, and as you're growing big brands, you need to understand process and strategies for building process, tactics for building it, tools for building it, because that process flow creates a much better team environment, creates high performance, helps you launch your products faster, be more accurate, and be able to build a big brand. So thanks so much for joining us, Lauren.

Oh, no, you're very welcome. And thank you for having me, Tracy. I appreciate it.

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started. Yeah.

Gosh, that is such a long story. I kind of fell into this line of work almost. Long story short, I started working years ago at a packaging company. And at that time, I supported companies more from a vendor perspective and how to service people in a variety of different industries that had consumer products. And most of my clientele at that time really primarily revolved around beauty and pharmaceuticals. And so when that opportunity came to a time of transition, I thought, you know, what would I like to dive into? I've worked a lot both with beauty and with pharmaceutical, and they're two completely different types of industries, different cultures, different fields. All of that. And so at that time I decided, you know, let me jump onto the whole beauty bandwagon. And fortunately at that time I was able to get connected and start basically providing services to OPI products. And they're a very well known brand within the beauty industry. They primarily, if you're not a girl.

Maybe you don't know, OPI is probably the nail polish company.

It is, it is. And so I, you know, fortunately was able to land an opportunity there to be able to service them and really kind of see things go from the inside out. And so that's really where I feel I have the bulk of my 10 year experience of really getting my feet wet and diving into that whole product launch experience. And that extends to other kind of beauty products as well. And I subsequently have supported other beauty brands as well, both on staff and independently, just depending upon how companies would like to be serviced. But basically that's really kind of fell in more on the vendor side and then started to work with different brands and really see how different companies function and how best can their processes improve and being able to see from the inside out. So recently in the last few years I did the consulting opportunity at Kaiser and so working within healthcare and that's completely different than, you know, the beauty business and consumer products. So for me that was a challenge to kind of, you know, switch gears and how do you work at process more from, you know, a people and flow and departmental and culture structure type of process rather than say beauty and product and a product based format still comparable and it can go over well.

So, you know, I always say that to people is like they're always wondering how I fell into launching podcasts, launching things, launching services. And you know, what I found is that the discipline of having the development process and documentations and having a system for looking at things.

Yes.

Lends well to any kind of launch or any kind of building of a department or a team.

It really truly does. And so I would say almost every opportunity I've had was really built upon itself and prepared me for the next opportunities that have come my way. I didn't know that at the time, but coincidentally it just kind of always just naturally does. And from a big thing, I would say overall, having companies where they're able to establish times of taking their teams together and do brainstorming and utilizing their own resources, internal resources, most companies maybe they don't necessarily always leverage that, and that's always good to do is to really leverage the people that you do have and allow them to Kind of present to you what challenges are they having within their certain departments from a process flow standpoint and what they need quicker, better, faster. So that when a whole team understands all the nuts and bolts of what's needed and what's holding people up, there's quicker ways to find solutions to solve those. So being able to put in quarterly type of meetings like that, as well as putting in process flow and structure flow, a lot of times it's kind of. Everyone wants to just get something out the door, and that's great and that is wonderful and there's definitely times for that. But there's definitely a good point to kind of take a step back and relook at what are we doing, how are we doing this and how we can do it better. So whether that's looking at, do we bring on additional tools, do we need to put an additional process in place from like a product type of standpoint, really having that connection from companies that already have like a product development department in place with like a marketing and sales team. So really having that information integrate the two. Yeah. To really kind of have that communication stream. So sometimes companies don't have that as much in place. And so having that feedback from consumers and customers and retailers go actually back internally to a company is very helpful because the field team sees everything. I mean, they're outside, they're talking to people that buy the product, that love your product. But also from an accompanying standpoint, how can you work better? Well, obviously utilizing your field team in a more efficient, productive way is one avenue to consider as well as just looking at internally how you can do things better from the top down. So say if you have an executive management team that is very visionary style, that is very. Just kind of, you know, big.

Like an inventor.

Exactly like an inventor. Yeah. That has really big ideas and having those brainstorm kind of meetings to just dump out all those ideas and seeing kind of where can you start to plan from here. So being able to have regular type of meetings, to be able to pull in what's needed, to kind of carry out someone's vision is really ideal and being able to kind of map out the A to Z of what's needed. So from a mapping process standpoint, really kind of tying in key departments. So most companies, they'll tend to have like a procurement or purchasing team as well as an operations team.

So our people here probably have like a person who maybe so many hats.

Sure.

I think that's really where you can learn from Lauren, because you're going to be hearing about some things. And I think everyone here feels very time sensitive. Right. You got to get orders out in the retail world, it feels very high pressure fast. Right. Especially if you manage to get on the show. And so you're just starting that. But what I think people discount too quickly is that taking the time to set the systems in place, to put the process, the tools, the team in place and really separate all of that into individual people instead of keeping so many hats going.

It is ideal. It is ideal. And so I've seen both formats where you have these companies that are very large, they're established, they have a lot of different departments. And I've seen smaller teams run much more efficiently, the very small crew. But the challenge with that is really having those systems and putting something in place so that because people are wearing so many hats, there's not enough time for like a lot of changes that happen.

Yeah.

And those naturally do tend to happen. And kind of taking a little bit up front, mitigation, planning of what can you do in these instances and how can you combine a couple different people's function into one role, but make it quicker and easier. And also it speaks to like, how quickly do you want to scale as a company? You know what I mean? So even if you're invited to a retailer, let's just say maybe your company's not really prepared or ready to really take that on. And so, you know, I've definitely heard of some cases where, hey, they're jumping on that bandwagon just because they want that opportunity. It's a great opportunity that came along, but can their company really deliver and provide the product at the end of the day, then they're getting hit on the back end. So it's kind of really being smart too, as a business owner and visionary of understanding what are the capabilities in my company where it's at today and how can it expand and grow too, and work towards that, work towards opening a retail space or expanding the distribution or also considering different methods. So instead of a traditional, different brick and mortar opportunities. Also looking at so much E commerce, there's so many different avenues that are opening up that way in different avenues to consider different options too, to bring in sales different ways. So it's always good to keep that in mind.

Yeah. So that's kind of the position here. So I've had a lot of recent discussions with companies that are around, I would say 10 to 20 millions and usually they've started that mostly online.

Okay.

And so they're usually going from that direction to the shelf, having sales reps and having that kind of instead of that direction. And you know, they have plans and want to get to 100 million. And it's like, what does that look like? Along the way are all pieces and parts that get that that's where you can help them sort of see the vision. On what do you have? You have this like, you know, almost no organization today. It's like this guy does three things, this woman does four. You know, it's like, what are they all doing? And how do we turn those into departments and teams and start to grow that out and have tools and communication. Yeah.

And when you kind of set up that structure, it's something that you and I have talked about previously of something I'm working on that I'll be building for. The membership group here is putting together kind of like a little bit of a process flow of some key things you want to establish at different levels of your business. So say if you're like in zero to 20 or say you're focused more E commerce or your focus more retail. So I'm putting together kind of like a little guidebook for people to use as a reference point. So that will be helpful for people because from like, even from a beauty standpoint, one of the things I think is so challenging, and I think that it's not necessarily only in my expertise and I'm not the expert at it, but it's. I'm always learning about things is looking at when you are producing products for consumers, are you owning your own formulas? Are you owning what you're producing out there in the world? So the challenge with that, with so many different clients and different things, is that say you build some great product, you have great sales on it, but say the lab or the sourcing manufacturer that you're working with, they technically own the formula, then you're kind of stuck. So I really think it's really kind of behoove of the person. Whether you're just independent, you're an inventor, you're just kind of starting out, or you're exploring stuff, is to really consider formula ownership and product ownership up front. There is more cost involved. However, if you particularly hit a great product that's just fabulous and really takes off, you won't have to worry about the legal ramifications of how are you going to work on. What if you want to go to a new vendor? What if you want to use multiple different vendors to produce your product? What if all these different scenarios that come into play, but then it limits you if you don't own your product, or maybe you can only go with your one source.

That's actually really analogous to some of the things that goes on in the product world. So a lot of times you might start your product for hard, good products. And I was just talking to a company who does toys just this week. Same thing is that they started out with using the tooling of the factory, which is very similar to like using the formulations of your. Of the company that you're working with to produce your products. Right. Beauty or in foods as well, I'm sure. Yeah. But now they're in that transition point and it is hefty investment of creating each one of those tools themselves, adding a unique thing to them so that those tools aren't just the same product, just a new tool that belongs to them, but it gives them the flexibility of being able to move factories, a second source if you need to, because your capacity is growing. And so, yeah, the consideration on when that should happen is so important. And really it's not just a financial decision, it's also a growth decision.

Sure, definitely, definitely. Because it gives you different options later on what you want to do from a development standpoint. You know, there's different things to consider when you're looking at doing new products for your company, whether you're new or you're a little bit more established, is it really profitable for you? Does it really make sense? I see so many types of discussions where there's some great ideas, but on the back end, is it really going to bring in the profit you potentially desire? And is it worth putting all that investment of your internal or external consultants, depending upon who you have on your team, is it worth really doing? So something I'll be putting together, kind of a very rough general thing. It won't work for all types of clients, but kind of like a basic, like product checklist almost, in a sense of, you know, what you might want to consider looking at to kind of basically decide if something's viable or not, essentially, because it's always good to do a checklist.

One of the things that you have a unique insight into is the cost of complexity. Right. When you have a complex product and stuff, and it's hard to assess that at the beginning. So if you have this checklist and there's like unknowns there, and you talk to Lauren, she might tell you, oh, those could be very costly for you because of the complexity and the process that you would have to use to find this. Make that happen. Yeah, lots of complexity is that thing that just drags the time out. Delays and delays in this retail markets very costly.

Because it is very costly. Not only that, but you'll have some retailers definitely charge different brands, they'll charge them fees for not making their deliveries on time. And so that on the back end could be very, very pricey. Or if you're sourcing, you know, components where you're putting together products that have a lot of promotional kind of items with it, you might be sourcing products from China. And so that takes a lot longer. And so sometimes when you're trying to.

Time all the things together, when you're.

Trying to do everything rush mode, you are also kind of looking at what are you really looking at and putting together because that may not work time wise. So it's.

There's a couple things I want to touch on for everyone. So obviously we're product launch hazards so we like to start with the problems. So you mentioned that you gone into companies that have some significant issues. So let's talk about some of the smaller ones because I think that's the majority of what people are on our platform here. Sure have our smaller brands and so that sort of startup stage and moving into get growing and bigger. And so it's a, it's a usually growth problems I would say like growing pains. But tell me what some of those might be that you would be expert in helping them out.

You know, really putting documentation in place. You know, I think a lot when you're starting and growing, you know, sometimes it's easy even when you have a small team, you're going to a little bit larger team and you kind of have people on board at different stages. How do we work, how do we function? How do we function better? Really having that documentation of what's working now and what do you want to work towards. So having everything like documented from a process standpoint plus that helps clarify from a team membership standpoint like how many people do you need to grow by to really do this function well. And so you kind of know from like an input and output. If you only have a two person team, but you're trying to have them do three or four functions, but you're also relying on external vendors that are helping you in different capacities and really understanding what their functionality is or how do you want to build that relationship with them. Really having that documentation in place is really key besides just knowing what you need. So that's something I sometimes on occasional if they don't have that type of documentation going in and helping supporting people, figuring out what exactly do you do and you know, what would help you do your role better? Or if you wanted to expand these additional functions, what would we really need to provide you in terms of resources, whether that's tools or additional staff, whatever that might look like. Even having systems of having to know what kind of system to use because there's so many different types of project management systems that are out there. For example, some of them are really low cost, some of them are very expensive. But being able to have a tracking tool because some companies, you know, they'll strictly only use say Excel and that's okay in some cases, but again it's not online and user friendly and mobile access and having like that information real time.

You can only do so much with Google sheets.

You can, you can. And I would say it's kind of of like you drive your team nuts by doing that, by not giving them the option of having some additional tools that are out there and it's all about researching kind of what fits for you. There's a lot of different types of tools I've tried over the years, some I prefer more than others, but really having that in place as well. So kind of putting together more structure. So a lot of teams I'll go in, even if it's small, it may have a real lack of focus or clarity. So really going in and providing that type of structure and clarity of what's really being worked on in the next three months or six months. So really doing a little bit more of strategy game plans, more like kind.

Of a forecast in a way of like this is what our organization looks like today and here's what it's going to look like tomorrow and what are the team, the tools, the system go into place over time.

Yeah, exactly. But looking at that also from a product standpoint, so say if you want to start off with 10 core products but you want to expand, what do you really need to be able to do that and all those kind of things to it. So I would say typically in like an ideal world, although that's very hard to get, is really putting, I would say easily like around two years from a start to finish, start to launch from a beauty product standpoint, but that's kind of without a lot of hitches going on and obviously it depends on where you're sourcing products from and stuff.

Or the length of FDA approval, all.

Of those other kind of things that tie into it or companies that they're creating. Say for some companies they're working with electronics. So they need that UL approval or all these other things that come into play.

So yeah, let's touch on that for a minute because I mean, documentation is probably the most key thing that happens in these kind of products. So whether you're in the toy industry, the furniture industry has it too. Beauty, of course, food. Right. You're talking about high liability and consumer safety issues in almost all of those categories, plus some.

Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, a lot of companies tend to rely on the expertise of their vendors and that's great and all. However, the thing is, I think it's really important for brands to really take a very proactive approach and really understand who they're working with. And what kind of things are you dividing responsibility between? What are you leaving your vendor responsible for? Because to me, the company is still taking on the most risk and liability because you're the face of the product, you're the face of the brand it's selling underneath your name. And so that's really a concern that sometimes companies tend to back off and say let the vendor do it. But it's good to kind of get involved and understand what's really there.

Well, and I think that too often brands discount. When you're a small business, you discount the fact that you're protected by the factory or protected by a retailer, which is not the case in either realm. The reality is the person who's selling it is in the way today's portal, whether you're on Amazon or ebay or anywhere else, walmart.com it's still the same way. The onus is on you. And if you're not in compliance, it's your fault. You can get your business completely shut down overnight and they won't get sued. You will.

Exactly. So in that kind of case, you know, I think a lot of companies that are bigger, they can afford to take a little bit more risk. But I think from just from a testing standpoint is to really take time to plan out the launches a little longer. So you can do all the testing.

That'S required and document the testing. That's my big thing.

All the documentation, yes, because this is.

Part of the process is like, oh, we did do this test, but where's our documentation? It's not even in one place. Like that gets out a lot from.

Companies that, and sometimes say they're working with multiple companies to be able to complete that testing, but they don't really have like the follow through to get all the follow up, to get all that paperwork back to them. So it's like having everything on file. So for example, I had a client where they were looking at some new labs to consider working with, but they kind of started on a project, decided to go another direction. But during that exploration process, they found that the lab that they were working with had some issues with the fda. So it's always good to do some initial checks because you can check online to see is there anything pending. Doing like on site checks and stuff. Having that kind of, how do you want to work with the different vendors that you're working with? So having that documentation piece in place and having everything on file at your location, not just like a lab or, you know, an outside source that you're working with to create what you want. So that's definitely key of having everything on hand as well as having like your own audit process for different vendors that you work with. So you as a brand and a company might have a certain standard that might be a little different than maybe what this particular lab or company you're working with. So you might go through that process of establishing a more corporate perspective on what you want and then see what companies kind of align with that.

Yeah, you know, I think that's really also true. Like, one of the things that occurs to me is that so often I see a company just as they're sort of on that growth cusp and what really happens is that they've got one person, so they rely on that person. Where is this document? You know, or did we do this test? Oh, yes, this person knows off the top of their head because they think that they're managing a group of products and they think, oh, this is fine, I can handle this, I know where everything is. But to take the time to put it in folders, document it like, yeah, share with everyone, that's too much work for me and I've already got a load. Right, sure. But then what happens when they're sick, they're gone, you know, they leave your company and now you don't have that core information and you think, oh, well, that's okay. But you go to do an upgraded development a year from then, and all of a sudden you have no way to know who did this. Where did we go before? Yeah, no information documented. And so that's the danger that I see so often in these small brands growing Right. At that level of where you've got someone who's your one person with the information, you're in dangerous water.

Oh, definitely. I mean, even if, say you're a small team of 20 like you're a very lean team. It's still challenging because people take different directions. They may have new opportunities present themselves. If you don't have things documented, then it's really, you're in a catch 22. Because now you have to kind of start from scratch or really scramble to find what you need.

Yeah, definitely. Well, what are some best practices, some things that you wish the brands you worked with did it from the start?

I would say it really comes down to planning and understanding realistic time frames for things. I think from a beauty perspective, everyone rushes to get things out the door, which is great because you want to be first to market and you really want to get your idea out there. But on the other hand, is it really going to be successful long term? Can you really repeat this process? What's going to happen with reorders, all those kind of things. So really having that accurate assessment up front and putting together quarterly kind of meetings where you're really planning what's the overall corporate direction for your product development and launches. I think it's easy for executives and sales teams to be like, hey, let's add this new thing in. But does it really make sense for us and can we really do it quickly? And all these other factors. And so there's always tends to be a lot of side conversations to things rather than a clear executive direction. So in really having that buy in process, so allowing your different teams to present what do you feel is going to work well for you as a company and try to sell their idea internally. So really having that in place, planning and also some structure. So really doing quarterly executive meetings that really are geared towards what are we producing in the next year, almost structuring things like a three year plan almost because a lot of projects take more time than what people tend to realize. So really putting like a three to five year structure with things. So even though I'm thinking I need to improve what's working today, what is really my plan five years out? And it can kind of seem a little arbitrary, like why would I want to do that? Because I'm in the hamster wheel right now and I'm just trying to get this done. But like what's really going to work long term and what's going to benefit for me later. So even pausing and just taking a moment and doing that kind of structure and plan flow now will be so much helpful later on.

So you know, this is a really good example. That client I was referring to before that I was talking with this week, one of the Things that they did was that they had been in business for quite some time. And what happened was, is that they were doing sort of more of that mail order. Way back when we were doing cataloging and mail order style stuff. But they had been one of the early adopters of putting their products on Amazon. And so it was about 2008 and they took the time to have an evaluation of how they did the previous year, where the growth was, and they saw a decline in catalog, but they saw an increase, a growing increase over the course of the year in Amazon. And so they made the strategy going into 2009 to dive deeper into Amazon. And it was the smartest thing and it saved their company because the recession hit. And so because they were on Amazon, Amazon was one of the few things that kept growing during that recession. It shifted their entire company model. But if they had not sat down and reevaluated and looked at that, they wouldn't have been in that position to understand this was working and this is growing, we should do more of it.

Yeah, and that's a good point of really looking at what does work well, what's really a growth, an area of growth or a channel of growth, let's just say, because so many different companies, even if they're smaller or bigger, they can be approached by many different opportunities and what's really going to work for, well, for them as a business.

Yeah, you're too apt to do them all.

And yeah, and it's great, it's great that companies are being present with all those opportunities, but it's also good to know what's going to work best for you and what you feel you can commit to long term and picking what kind of model might work for you or just kind of dipping your toes into something and trying like a new model out versus flipping your whole business direction, which is a huge gamble. Right. So it's kind of sometimes when you're trying to try out something new, maybe with a smaller mix of products or just a small little incubation period, let's just say instead of doing a huge change, that's always an option as well, too.

Well, if this all sounded like a foreign language to you, you're listening to this and it sounded like, I'm this visionary. I'm like, up here, I'm like, I have ideas and I just want stuff to get done and I don't know how to get it done, then you probably need to tune in to talk to Lauren.

Yeah. So kind of from like a perspective of ongoing type of Things I'm imagining something a little bit more process flow, really being able to take people through, you know, a beauty product launch of what does that kind of look like that might be interesting to some of your members just because it's an area that some people may not really understand or know about. But as with anything in manufacturing, I'm sure from your own experience, it's like things always take longer and there's always more steps and things involved than you might initially realize or think of. It's always being involved with manufacturing. I don't know. Over the last 10 to 15 years it's been amazing how many things go into something that actually gets produced in consumers hands. And with the whole rise of the whole focus on sustainability, a lot of consumers are becoming more open to figuring out how can we work with brands where that's a real focus of theirs. So whether it's packaging or just a manufacturing process that's more sustainable to the environment, that's also been a new flux where brands are starting to look at how can we embrace that and how can we implement that in our process already from where we're at, how can we tweak what we're doing or use different source different types of materials and everything like that as well?

What I want you to do, product launchers is to reach out to Lauren when you have questions. And this is the thing, it's like Lauren's here to help you at that early stage of evaluation and make sure that you have what you need because she knows when you get to be the big brand, you're going to really need her. So groundwork in place and you just consider some of the things that she has to teach you and has to show you and put in some of these best practices early on, you're going to grow faster because systems take over and also help you make more aware of those hazards that we keep talking about, the ones that cause you problems. Right. They bring them to light faster.

And it's good to put systems in place from the get go so that you don't get so far evolved that then you feel like you have to go backwards to go farther. So as much as you can start out with really taking account of how do you function, how can you function better, that's obviously more ideal than as you grow and you onboard and bring on more expand your team, you have more options, you can actually accomplish more by having processes in place that there's clear format and direction for people to go.

Well stay tuned for more office hours and documents That'll be in the resource library.

Yes, that'll be coming soon and more time.

And of course, you can always reach out to Lauren right through her expert profile so you can make a connection. She can do an evaluation with you, she can have a chat with you and figure out if you're ready for what she has to share and ready for the things that she does. Or if you just need a little bit of this groundwork and need some more lessons. Exactly.

Even just, you know, to brainstorm ideas. I mean, I think that's even having that sounding board for people, especially when you're new and just starting out. It's always good to get a little bit of feedback to start from someone.

Who'S been there and done that. There you go. Well, and if you have any questions or any suggestions for Lauren as to what you would like her to cover specifically in the beauty area, but in process and in growing a brand from 10 million to 100 million, like any of those types of things, please feed her questions. You can always do that right on the Expert Office Hours page so you can ask it specific to her next Office hour topic or you can just ask them in general and we'll make sure they get to her. In case you can't tune into one of our office hours because the timing doesn't work out for you, we want you to always be able to have a connection to any of our experts, Lauren especially. So thanks so much, Lauren, and I'm so glad you're on our platform because you add a much needed perspective.

Thank you for the time today, Tracy. I appreciate it. It was a great interview.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Product Launch. Product Launch Hazards. To get the most out of your membership, visit productlaunchhazards.com to join the Expert Office Hours live and ask us your burning questions. Check out the resource library for document templates and guides and get exclusive articles and shares each day. Don't forget, you can always book a private consult with any expert so you can out design, outsource and out profit your way to product launch success.