Creative entrepreneurs begin their businesses with a passion for product, relying on their energy and instincts as they make product decisions. As operations scale, growing teams demand strategy, communication and process. When creating and launching product begins to feel like a chore, SK can help.
Approach
Sarah's consultancy exists to support creative entrepreneurs, growing businesses and thriving teams as they do the hard work of creating better and better product.
Her work with design-driven brands (among them Schoolhouse, Dansk, El Cosmico, Hotel St. Vincent and Filth Mart) is rooted in protecting the creative process, while building a structure of approachability, clarity and trust for all the decisions that go into developing, launching and managing product assortments.
Specializing in brands with a mix of in-house and third party manufacturing and with a soft spot for start-ups, she works with teams to draw out what's working, shore up what isn't and align the group toward a future of curiosity, communication and continuous improvement.
Services
Beginning with an introductory session to learn about the business's opportunities and goals, Sarah tailors a service plan to the unique needs of the company and team. Areas of focus include:
1.
Product strategy + goal-setting
defining product success, performing consumer and market research, gathering product requirements, planning assortments, and building product roadmaps
2.
Process building + improvement
clarifying product roles, developing work-back timelines, facilitating + improving cross-functional collaboration and information flow, increasing visibility into costs and margins, and setting key performance indicators
3.
Creative direction + design facilitation
curating mood presentations, performing color and materials studies, and creating space for the iterative design decision-making process
4.
Product development + management
efficiently executing the steps of product development and manufacturer selection; driving product assortment edit exercises and introducing merchandising, lifecycle and flow planning processes
5.
Product + brand alignment
establishing cross-functional communication loops to ensure product delivers on the brand's mission and that product positioning and storytelling are true to the intentions of the design process
Starting up:
She tidies up your business.
Sarah has the ability to drop into the tornado of a new business and outline an executable plan—be it micro or macro in focus. She is highly engaged and invested, asks intuitive questions and communicates with clarity. We at LUFT couldn’t recommend her more!
Navigating business growth:
Having had Sarah's expertise was incredibly valuable to the growth of our business.
Sarah is one of the most organized and thoughtful people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. When it comes to experience in all things product development, planning, sourcing and brainstorming big ideas, she was always instrumental. Most importantly she never felt like a consultant; she felt like an extension of our team.
Providing thought partnership:
Every team and project she is on is irrefutably better because she is there.
SK is crazy smart, very thorough and holds herself and her teams to extremely high standards. She perfectly strikes the right balance of being detail oriented while never losing sight of the strategic big picture. She is an excellent thought partner and thought leader—in design, business and beyond. Her confident communication and leadership style is clear, direct, logical and results-oriented.