The purpose of this writing is to continue the journey of how a company travels through the transformation from the world of disconnected "automation" to a digitally connected PLM Based SolutionScape that will enable it to experience Mind to Market.
This article continues the journey with the integration of the Voice of the Customer SolutionScape module supporting Digital Testing of 2D/3D designs in support of Assortment / Range Planning.
Prior readings suggested (in order):
- Day in the Life of ...
- There's Got to be a Better Way ...
- 3D Journey: Mind to Plan ...
- 3D Journey: Mind to Design ...
Author's Note - Any reference to specific commercial products referenced in this article is not intended to denote that other commercial products (or in-house developed modules) would not serve a similar role. It is merely used to represent an example of a product in market that is capable of achieving the integrated operations as noted.
Progress continues since the previous report (in 3D Journey Mind to Design …) at Good Products, Inc.
Jonathan Wilson, the Merchandiser for the men’s collection, is undertaking a somewhat risky venture by not only adding a new style group to the men’s product line, but he is also championing the addition of a new channel to deliver this set of products to market. He wants to expand beyond Good Products on-line channel, to include sales through select retailers. He has been meeting with John Swanson, the Senior Buyer of Menswear at Retail, Inc and has been assured that his new “rustic fashion” offering will fit well into their darker tone collection for summer 2023.
Jonathan also knows that internal opinions and decisions based solely on intuition or a limited sample set can limit product success rates. So, he wants to test the new designs with both current on-line and new, retail-channel customers as quickly as possible, ensuring his sell-in opportunities. He does not want to add months to the development cycle, waiting for physical samples, much less performing in-store testing.
Digital Solutions Group says they have him covered, using First Insight’s experience management and digital testing platform via a direct integration with FlexPLM. [object Object] provides predictive, voice of the customer results regarding new styles and experiences – results that will inform his decision and increase the likelihood of product success and optimize financial returns. With InsightSUITE, digital test items are sent to a select group of respondents via the internet where they can “play a game” in any browser and provide feedback on the items.
As described in the [object Object] and [object Object] articles, the ”digital dance” is underway, replacing the manual efforts of spreadsheets, update meetings, and email mania. Maggie Wilson (Lead Designer) and her team are creating several design options for the six new styles. The new style group adds are now visible to Becky Newsom (Designer) in the [object Object] assortment planning tool as well as FlexPLM’s planning feature. The digital integration between VibeIQ and FlexPLM has created slots with detailed requirements to direct Designer Becky to come up with a range of style options for the upcoming virtual design review.
Becky is able to work in her [object Object] 3D design tool that is digitally integrated with FlexPLM. This integration provides her with both the darker tone color palette and the new diminished materials Barbara Goodwin (Materials Sourcing Manager) has secured in collaboration with John Forrester (Developer Team lead) that were recently identified in the [object Object]. The Design team is ready to turn over their designs for review by Jonathan.
Jonathan’s objective is to select one or more of the six styles that will be winners with both their current on-line customers as well as his target “whitespace consumer” -- those who shop at retailers in his target channel type. He wants to decide which items to keep for either channel, what MSRP to use, what attributes per style to fix (if any), and which (if any) styles should be offered exclusively in one channel or the other. Since there are significant financial and career implications riding on his decisions, Jonathan wants to measure consumer reactions to the new styles and let the customer inform his decisions. As Jonathan’s grandfather always told him from his decades of experience as a carpenter: “Measure twice, cut once.” and that’s exactly what he’s going to do, in his own digital way.
Jonathan launches FlexPLM, creates an Insight, and selects the style options that will be digitally sent automatically to First Insight’s InsightSUITE.
Jonathan then launches the First Insight test, which begins collecting feedback from both current and target consumers. The test results arrive within 48 hours, and Jonathan learns that 2 of the 6 styles received low value scores, with a variety of attributes to “fix”. For the 4 remaining items that are predicted winners, he learns which items are preferred more by the consumers who shop via the retailer channel, and the price points that will optimize initial market demand while meeting margin targets. He is in awe, seeing how many decisions he and his team can make quickly, all from one digital Insight.
After making decisions on the test assortment, Jonathan reviews the status of the rest of the men’s collection, content that things are moving in the right direction. Maggie moves on to updating the colorway sets of the other products she has responsibility for. Meanwhile, Janet Baldwin, the Merchandiser of the women’s collection, sees how fast and easy the digital testing process was, and so she starts her own Insights, and tick tock …
Stay tuned for the next phase of Good Products’ Mind to Market digital transformation …
To have a SolutionScape Assessment done (free of charge) today, either fill out the form below or contact brion@digitalsolutiongroup.net (also @ +1-603-566-5382) or mike@digitalsolutiongroup.net.