Building a More Intentional Product Innovation System
Creating a customer-first framework that helped Product Development, Marketing, and Design make more strategic product decisions before committing development resources.
The Opportunity
As City Beauty expanded its product portfolio, I noticed an opportunity to improve how new ideas were evaluated before entering development. While there was no shortage of ideas, there wasn't a shared framework for determining which concepts best aligned with our customer, brand, and long-term business goals.
At the same time, Marketing often entered the process late or without enough strategic context to build compelling launch campaigns.
Rather than solving these issues independently, I designed a framework that connected product evaluation, cross-functional planning, and marketing readiness into one repeatable system.
The Opportunities I Identified
Design Principle
The question changed everything.
Instead of asking:
"Can we make this product?"
I wanted our teams to ask first
"Should we make this product?"
That shift became the foundation of the entire framework.
Every product concept would first need to demonstrate customer value, strategic alignment, marketing potential, and business opportunity before moving into development.
The System
Framework One
Product Evaluation Framework
Helping product ideas earn their place on the roadmap.
Before ideas moved into development, I introduced a structured evaluation process that encouraged teams to think beyond the product itself.
Every concept was reviewed through the lens of:
Customer problem
Target audience
Brand alignment
Product differentiation
Market opportunity
Marketing potential
Business impact
Development feasibility
Step 1: Initial Evaluation Ideas Before ideas entered the roadmap/get pitched to executives, every concept passed through a structured evaluation.
This allowed Product Development and leadership to discuss opportunities using shared criteria instead of individual preferences. |   |
Step 2: Define What Makes a Strong Product Opportunity Rather than evaluating ideas based on opinion alone, I established weighted criteria that reflected City Beauty's customer, business goals, and long-term product strategy.
Evaluation criteria included:
|  |
Step 3: Prioritize the Roadmap Scoring wasn't intended to make decisions automatically, it created a common language for discussing which concepts should move forward, which needed refinement, and which should be paused |  |
Comments