As a team developing a food and beverage product (either an adapted/established product or something from scratch) you’re going to run into several hurdles getting it to market. But is there any way you can streamline those hurdles and get your product to market faster? More efficiently? But still with accurate information and branding?
1. Product Roadmaps
Setting goals and targets are great, but how is your team going to get from A to B? Not having the right tools to curate a product strategy can slow down the process of getting your product to market before it has even really begun.
If there’s a lot of collaboration required, if artwork needs to be adapted across products or if information needs changing, a constant back and forth via email can make it even more complicated. This can lead to poor prioritization, miscommunication, and a lot of wasted time.
Having full control of the product, and which team members are working on which element can alleviate this pain. 4Pack’s cloud sharing portal provides a personalised dashboard for your team, so not only is the roadmap for the product clear, but deadlines can also be managed efficiently with time management notifications. Collaboration is documented, archived, secured and visible. Whatever your products must-haves, should-haves, could-haves, and will-not-haves, there’s no miscommunication, wasted time or missed opportunities.
2. Workflow Management
The synergy of a team can make or break it; as each member affects the development speed and quality of the final product. Your team needs the space to allow for creativity, whilst also meeting integral deadlines. Communication is key, and as we’ve said above, collaboration can be monitored through the 4Pack dashboard. This also means you can find any ‘bottle-neck’ areas so that your team can get the support where they need it.
3. Lightning Innovation
The market is always looking to adapt and grow, and your products need to be ahead of the curve to meet that demand. Slow-paced review and feedback cycles can slow down the timeline of getting a product to market, and a change in trends can render ‘new’ ideas redundant before they’ve even had a chance.
Changes in laws, requirements and expectations of the market can also slow down the process; so having an archive of specs and assets is, in itself, an asset. Being able to share the brief directly with the studio, collaborate and distribute artwork and product specs allows your team to stay ahead, and get your product to the market at a faster timeline.
4. The Dreaded ‘Unforeseen Circumstances’
We’ve saved the worst for last, as ‘unforeseen circumstances’ can mean almost anything and can create the most pain for a project manager. There’s no ignoring the changes brought forward because of COVID-19, with many teams working from home, or overhauling their management style to address these changes. Changes to teams needn’t be the headache it once was, and neither does working from home. With cloud sharing and archiving, your product is protected.
Regulatory bodies are now more strict on compliance and standards of quality, so maintaining updated guidelines for every product protects you and your team as it enters the development stage.
And we all know that a product’s development doesn’t end after its launch. If something changes, whether an ingredient, an address, or the brand colour, having software that can adapt with your product, rather than react to the unforeseen circumstances, will give your team the edge.
Contact 4Pack today to explore a better way of working to help streamline your product launch process.
