Chapter
2025 — 2026
Product & Design Department
Product & Design.
Since January 2025.
From intuition to a system — five specialized roles, six gate-checks,
80% conversion to mass production, AI in the loop.
Product & Design Department
IBIS Holding · 2026

Portfolio
Private Label
Positioning
9 own brands across 5 categories. Each bar shows the brand's tier range.
Premium column — strategic headroom for the next horizon.
Entry
Mid
High
Premium
Lure
Fishing
Fishing
X-FISH
SELECT
FAVORITE
VIKING · ice fishing
Bait
Fishing
Fishing
X-FISH
BRAIN
Outdoor
SKIF OUTDOOR
Apparel
FJORD · ultralight
FRONTIER
Knives
SKIF KNIVES
flagship
niche
standard
→ Premium · next horizon

Structure
Built to Scale
Same shape per product direction. Adding the next one = clone the pattern.
4 + 1 directions
2 support units
Strategic Layer
Department Head
Single owner of strategy, customer of CEO & category management
Coordination Layer
Project Office · N coordinators
Decomposition, timing, cross-team flow — independent of product content
Lure Fishing
Product Manager
Product Owner
Product Owner ×N
Brand Manager (in future)
External experts
Bait Fishing
Product Manager
Product Owner
Product Owner ×N
Brand Manager (in future)
External experts
Outdoor & Knives
Product Manager
Product Owner
Product Owner ×N
Brand Manager (in future)
External experts
Apparel & Footwear
Product Manager
Product Owner
Product Owner ×N
Brand Manager (in future)
External experts
Constructor
+
Next Direction
same shape · ready to clone
Quality
Control
Control
Stand-alone QC unit. Tech Pack verification, sample QC, external testers, final batch QC.
Scales horizontally with production volume.
Design &
Polygraphy
Polygraphy
Strategic differentiator. Senior designer + designers, ad creatives, print & layout.
Engaged at concept stage, not just downstream.

Team
From Products
to a System
5 roles
4 functional bands
6 control gates
Operating Philosophy
Think first.
Build second.
Build second.
01
Approved concept document before any project starts.
02
Six gate-checks before mass production.
03
Zero projects without a clear owner.
Strategy
one generic «product manager» — each interpreting brand his own way
→
Product Manager per brand — owns strategy & concept gate
Tactics
same person did Tech Pack, factory, samples, testing
→
Product Owner end-to-end · Project Manager owns timeline
Quality
Product Manager tested own product — up to 50% of project time
→
Stand-alone QC unit — Tech Pack verification & sample QC
Design & Budget
Design as a service unit · budget not tracked at department level
→
Design as differentiator · Budget Manager on every project

Operations
A Repeatable
Pipeline
Product Manager
01
Product Owner
02
PO + QC
03
PO + QC
04
PO + Fin
05
PM + Marketing
06
Concept
Brief, market & PMF analysis, approved concept doc
Prototype
Build, test, decision to produce
Tech Pack
Artwork & spec verification
Sample
Pre-series samples, batch QC
Production
Factory order & receipt on warehouse
Launch
Marketing & content launch
6 control gates · Product Manager → Product Owner
12 RACI activities
9–12 months norm · 18 for apparel
Active R&D projects
210+
tracked in Worksection
Concept → mass production
80%
vs ~50% before — Favorite 16/20 · Select 24/30
Launched / year
12–15
→
20–30
per key brand · 2025 → 2026 plan

Horizon
A Modern
Machine.
AI not as a slogan — as three concrete stages of the operating system.
Now · live
Custom
Analytics
In-house scripts and dashboards on top of Worksection — real-time R&D matrix, stage tracking, priority audit, automated reporting.
Worksection API
Stage Matrix
Priority Audit
Next · in flight
Autonomous
Agents
AI agents that partially shadow the Project Manager role and enforce process & regulation compliance across every project.
Future · planned
Feedback
Wiki
AI funnel that turns any-format product feedback into a versioned wiki — driving continue / improve / discontinue decisions.
Department closing note
Right now we're learning to run faster.
In a year — we'll run with a stopwatch.
In a year — we'll run with a stopwatch.

Part Two
Design & Polygraphy
A new chapter, by the design team
A few words about design.
From production hub → to operational system.
How the in-house design holding scaled into a controlled, transparent,
multi-brand operational system since 2025.

Department
Design &
Polygraphy
An internal design holding — covering product, packaging, retail, e-commerce and launch communications for multiple brands and business directions simultaneously.
Brand
Product Design
Look, identity, construction
Brand
Packaging
Box, label, unboxing
Production
Polygraphy
Print & production files
Comms
Catalogs & Decks
Brand & sales materials
Retail
POS & Retail
In-store communication
Digital
Digital
E-commerce, social, web
Launch
Launch Comms
Go-to-market visuals
Production
Production Adapt.
Factory-ready files
Beyond visual support — direct participation in product design itself: shaping look, identity, packaging, graphic elements, colour decisions, constructive details, and the way the product is perceived across retail and digital.

Before → After 2025
From Production Hub
to Operational System
Workflow
Priority 1 — 10
To Do
→
In Progress
→
Review
→
Done
+ Pause
Task Management
Tasks scattered across messengers, verbal handovers and isolated tables
→
Single workflow with project, owner, status, deadline and comm history per task
Prioritization
Urgency decided by who shouted loudest, not by a shared system
→
Numeric priority 1 – 10 — predictable focus, fewer context switches
Transparency
No shared view of what's in progress, blocked, or who's overloaded
→
One operational view — statuses, deadlines, bottlenecks, workloads visible
Scalability
Worked as a production resource — limited by chaotic coordination
→
Scalable design ops — more brands, projects, directions without losing control

Quality Gate
Multi-Level
Review System
Review is not a single sign-off — it's a chain of five checkpoints integrated into the workflow.
Each layer catches a different class of error before the work moves on.
Layer 1
01
Layer 2
02
Layer 3
03
Layer 4
04
Layer 5
05
Designer
Self-check before handover
Project Mgr
Scope, brief alignment, deadline
Design Lead
Brand fit, craft quality, consistency
Tech Specialist
Production files, print readiness
Stakeholder
Final approval & release
Catches errors before launch
5 layers, one workflow
Applies to product, packaging, polygraphy, digital

Strategic Meaning
What This
Actually Means.
The shift is not only operational — it changes what the design department is for the business.
Fragmented requests
→
Structured production systems
Manual coordination
→
Transparent workflow management
Reactive execution
→
Controlled operational processes
Production resource
→
Scalable design management infrastructure
Design is no longer a service — it's a controlled system that powers stable product launches and brand coherence across the whole company.

P.S. · A small confession
This presentation was designed
entirely with
in approximately ~3 hours of active model time.