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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.
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
X-FISH
SELECT
FAVORITE
VIKING · ice fishing
Bait
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
Stand-alone QC unit. Tech Pack verification, sample QC, external testers, final batch QC. Scales horizontally with production volume.
Design &
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.
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.
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.