Every product starts as an idea, and before investing the time, money, and resources into developing it, teams have to determine whether the idea deserves that level of commitment.
That’s the invisible strategy behind Beauty & CPG product development — Vetting.
Vetting is not a single decision or a checklist completed at the beginning of product development. It introduces three capabilities that remain active throughout the entire lifecycle:
- Strategic Foresight: How to recognize evolving brand, consumer, and market dynamics in order to remain competitive and responsive.
- Strategic Decision-Making: How to synthesize brand, consumer, and market dynamics into strategic insights that inform decision-making in product development.
- Strategic Anticipation: How to anticipate foreseeable implications, interdependencies, and requirements throughout product development.
These capabilities do not operate in a set sequence. Their relevance changes depending on the decisions, information, and questions that emerge throughout the process.
As brand, consumer, and market dynamics evolve, these three capabilities strengthen the ability to make decisions that support business growth, innovation, and long-term planning across product development and business operations.
Building the Strategic Capability Throughout Product Development
These capabilities are particularly important before committing to an idea. However, their value does not end once that decision is made. They continue to support strategic decision-making as the product develops.
Every decision matters because each one adds to the bet you are making on the idea. Underneath it all, vetting builds the confidence to determine whether that bet is worth making.
The knowledge accumulated throughout becomes a reference point that continues to evolve as a strategic source of truth.
What comes next is determining what from that accumulated knowledge matters for the product and what still needs to be understood as the team builds toward product validation.
—by THE BUILD BRIEF