🔬In this conversation Ep #109 of the My Curious Colleague CPGCX podcast, Denise Venneri🔍My Curious Colleague and Tamanna Ramesh, MS, MBA discuss working effectively and successfully with product developers in the contact center. Tamanna shares her background in food science and product development, as well as her passion for empowering women and minorities in STEM.
They explore product development key concepts plus the process of product development, from generating ideas to commercialization, and the importance of collaboration between product development and consumer affairs.
Link to episode in Comments below...
Special Offer: Tamanna offers a special opportunity for listeners to consult with her on their career challenges & questions. The first 5 listeners who reach out to Tamanna Ramesh, MS, MBA via DM on LinkedIn https://lnkd.in/gSD5Q9qu will have the opportunity for a free 15-20 minutes consultation w/Tamanna to discuss pressing career questions and gain strategic guidance. Tamanna's side passion project is owner/coach at Spark Career Services. www.sparkcareerservices.com
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and background
02:48T he importance of relationships in the contact center
05:09 The process of product development
07:45 Key concepts in product development
16:16 Collaboration between consumer affairs and product development
19:05 Career coaching opportunity with Tamanna Ramesh
* product development, contact center, collaboration, consumer affairs, food science, STEM, innovation, sensory attributes, line extension, specifications
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
DeniseVenneri (00:01):
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with
your host, me, Denise Denyer.We'll be talking all things
consumer relations with a focuson consumer product goods
organizations and the brandspecialist and analyst roles and
responsibilities. So if you likeCPGs, like I like CPGs,
(00:22):
marketing, insights, and caringdeeply for your consumers, well,
take a listen. Hello, my curiouscolleagues. This week, I'm
curious about workingeffectively and successfully
with product developers in thecontact center.
(00:42):
And to do just that is my newcolleague, Ramanna Remesh. Hi,
Chimana, and welcome to thepodcast.
Ramenna Remesh (00:51):
Hi, Denise. Thank you so much for having me.
I am super excited to be yourcurious colleague here today and
to explore this, you know,combined space together.
DeniseVenneri (01:02):
Oh, love that. I'm I'm honored to have you on.
I know that we had met through amutual friend, and then I've
just you know, I've beenfollowing some of the cool stuff
you've been doing, on LinkedIn,and and we'll get into all that.
So let's let's start. Why don'tyou, share with us how you got
to this point in your career?
Ramenna Remesh (01:23):
Oh, great question. So I started off as a
food scientist. My educationbackground is in a combination
of food processing as well asfood science. And then I entered
the industry about 8 years agoin a food scientist slash
product development role in asmall family owned business.
From there, I went to KraftHeinz Company, got to work on a
(01:45):
lot of fun products, cheeses,condiments, and everything you
can think of that's Kraft Heinz.
And from, from a productdevelopment role, I pivoted to a
process engineering role andeventually switched out of, r
and d to commercial and programmanaging roles. So I'm still
within the food and beverageworld. I work at the Coca Cola
(02:06):
Company as a director of globalinnovation programs. So I work
closely with the technical teamnow, but I just don't do the
technical work.
DeniseVenneri (02:17):
Got it.
Ramenna Remesh (02:19):
Yeah.
DeniseVenneri (02:20):
Anything else?
Ramenna Remesh (02:21):
I also, my passion project is being a
career coach. I empower womenand minorities in STEM
profession, within the foodindustry, but also broadly
within the CPG world, advancetheir career, close pay gaps. So
I help them coach differenttechniques so they can help
(02:42):
themselves in advancing theircareers.
DeniseVenneri (02:45):
That sounds great. I love that. I have a
sister. Well, I believe in STEM.I did not go that path, but my
goddaughter and my sister, arein that field, and I'm just very
proud of them.
All right. So anyone who hasfollowed me, to manage, should
know that one of the basictenets I believe in, like being
(03:08):
a worker, be like I am incontact center leadership or
leading the whole thing, anyway,is that importance of
relationships. The consumeraffairs function is often, you
know, not always understood. SoI think the onus really is on
people in the contact center tounderstand their cross
functional partners, whatthey're up against, what they
(03:28):
do, what keeps them up at NICEso that then they can
effectively match processes orservices or analytics to those
needs, and hence, have a moresuccessful mutual collaboration.
And I thought we would go rightthere and ask for you to share
(03:50):
maybe a product development 101of sorts.
So, I like the details here onthe My Curious Colleague
podcast. You know, where doesthe idea, the germ of the idea,
even come from? That, you know,that's question number 1. And,
sort of, what are the thingsthat take that idea and, you
know, taking it from that benchtop, that imaginary bench top I
(04:10):
hear about, through prototypingand eventually all the way to
commercialization?
Ramenna Remesh (04:16):
That is such a great question. So great ideas
come from almost everywhere, butmost time they get funneled
through the marketing team,which looks at not just, you
know, the product itself, butwhat consumer needs are, where
the company is trying to growits business in, and align some
of the strategy to the ideas.But a lot of times, ideas also
(04:38):
come from r and d because r andd is so much closer to the
product and the package and theprocess than anybody else. So
great ideas come from a lot ofdifferent ways but get funneled
very traditionally throughmarketing or a combination of
marketing and r and d function,into what's called a stage gate
process. So the processessentially describes exactly
(05:00):
what you said, right, taking theidea to a prototype stage or a
development benchtop developmentstage, and from there and for
those who are not as familiar,you can think of it as you have
this recipe idea, right, foryour cooking and you start going
into the kitchen, gathering someingredients, and you'd make like
that first version, which maynot be the best, but you still
(05:21):
have a stab at it to see how itcomes out.
And then you start, like,improving it, trying to, like,
make it taste better, lookbetter, make it more appealing
to your kids if those are yourtarget, you know, end users. So
similarly, product developmentis focused on, like, taking that
idea, going to the lab,developing a bench prototype,
(05:44):
experimenting a little bit tounderstand first if it's
feasible, viable, desirable, andthen taking it to improve and
make it to a product that we canput across the country in all
the shelves for consumers totaste and enjoy.
DeniseVenneri (06:01):
So that's that's a pretty brief description. I
know there's so many details inthere. You know, who are you in
the in a kitchen? You know, likea commercialized kitchen, like,
back in the day when you weredoing I know you're doing a lot
of different aspects of of, thisprocess and product development.
(06:21):
You know, is there, like,granulated garlic on the shelf
and, you know, acerbic acid?
That's all I know. And, youknow, how do you know where to
even begin?
Ramenna Remesh (06:33):
Great. I mean, I love your question. I love how
curious you are. So, I'll tellyou 2 scenarios. 1 was when I
worked with a small family ownedcompany.
It was a kitchen setup. It wasliterally like like a kitchen in
a home, kind of setup. So we hadall the equipment, like, just
the stovetop, the oven, themicrowave, everything. And, in
(06:57):
the cabinets, we would have allthe ingredients. But the only
difference being we would namethe we label the ingredients not
just with their names, but witha code.
And each code goes back to aparticular supplier and a
particular type of even forexample, garlic powder. Because
every supplier's ingredient isgoing to taste different, and we
(07:19):
don't want the ultimate productto taste different every day.
DeniseVenneri (07:22):
Okay.
Ramenna Remesh (07:22):
Because we want it to be standardized, we try to
control all the variables in thebest way possible. And all the
recipes and formulation aretypically done with the
software, so we can go back andpredict how much of nutritional
fats is coming out of it. Right?So it's it's very similar, but
also just more structured, andthe experimentation is done a
(07:45):
little bit more structuredmanner. So we would test, like,
3 different variations of acolor ingredient to see which
color is best suitable for whatwe are trying to develop.
Rather than a 100 prototypes, wewould go and, like, try to see
which colors, you know, fit wellwith the product recipe and then
try to optimize from there.
DeniseVenneri (08:07):
Okay. One of the things I always warn people
about CPG, consumer productgoods, like any organization, is
the number of acronyms. That'sone, which just kind of cracks
me up. But, you know, you allare scientists at the end of the
day, food scientists. Can maybeyou help educate us layman
(08:29):
business folks, you know,because we want to ramp up
quickly in understanding whatyou're doing, reports you might
share with us.
So could you maybe give us 5tips or keywords or buzzwords or
acronyms that we should be orcould be familiar with?
Ramenna Remesh (08:52):
Okay. Another great question. So I can think
of a couple on top of my head. 1would be sensory. I'm sure on,
you know, on your end of theworld, you're listening
consumers complain about, oh mygod.
My product all came crumbled, orit does not look the way it's
supposed to. So those are allsensory attributes. So the top
(09:15):
sensory attributes are going tobe taste, flavor, color,
texture, and the overallappearance, sometimes odor as
well depending on the product.So that's the first keyword that
comes to my mind. Second1 Icould think of is line
extension.
So a lot of times, productdevelopment is not always about
(09:36):
bringing something new to theworld. A lot of times, in fact,
it is about renovating existingformulas in the event of supply
chain issues, especially, forexample, during the pandemic,
you couldn't get a certainingredients like you used to
before, but you want the productto taste the same and have the
same ingredient line, so youdon't create a bunch of new
(09:56):
packaging. So line extensionsare ways where you can, like,
take a product and make avariety of product in a similar
line. For example, Oreo, has avariety of flavors to it. A
marshmallow flavored Oreo or aKitKat flavored Oreo even, like,
whatever flavored Oreos.
Trying to come up with a varietyof the same foundational product
(10:20):
is called line extension. Onemore would be analytical. I
think a lot of times on, on thespecifications of a product, we
have a specific, like, range ofmetrics that the product should
meet. For example, a sauceshould have a certain amount of
viscosity. That helps kind of goback to the sensory to say if
(10:44):
it's beyond a certain viscosity,it's not going to have the same
texture.
So some of those attributes canbe controlled with subjective as
well as objective measurements.Objective being the analytical
side and subjective usually isthe sensory side. Sensory side.
DeniseVenneri (11:00):
But the, interesting thing is I know in
my experience over the manyyears is we actually, in
consumer affairs and consumerengagement, we have a lot of
different names. We actuallybuild the reason code hierarchy.
We call it, you know, whyconsumers, you know, what's the
bucket when consumers contactus? What what are what are they
saying? Bucket does that gointo?
(11:22):
And so for complaints, weactually build it under using
that that one phrase sensory. Sothat one I did know. So I'm
gonna ask you for another onelater, but we do have those
reason codes. So it, you know,maybe it's taste appear at a
high level, but in order toshare that feedback with you all
(11:43):
who who made the product and themarketers, you know, you got to
get lower. Is it bitter?
Is it sour? Is it you know,there's a lot of different
methods. And, and so we do have,though, at a high level, sensory
and then exactly the thingsyou're talking about, color,
taste, texture, odor. Sometimesthat's, you know, taste or smell
(12:05):
is kind of blended together,maybe. But, oh, yeah.
So we try to talk your language.We try. But, no, that's a great
that's a great start. Could yougive me some you said specs,
specifications. Now who ownssetting those up?
(12:26):
So viscosity, again, that I knowis, you know, how thick or thin
it is, the product is. So is ita sauce, let's say, or a
condensed soup? So who ownsfiguring out the range that that
one attribute of viscosity needsto be in? Is that
Ramenna Remesh (12:45):
Awesome question. So it will be trendy.
Yeah. I know. Right?
They're all going to be, r andd, and I think that's where the
phases of product developmentcomes into, picture. So when we
develop it in a bench scale, thevariability is so low that it's
going to be easy to replicateand get the same as long as we
(13:06):
add the same ingredients andcook it at the same temperature.
However, when you take a productfrom a benchtop and go to, like,
a factory, you're going to havea lot of other variables, like
when do they wash the equipment.If they start the batch right
after washing the equipment,there could be some residual
water from there increasing, youknow, the water content in the
(13:29):
sauce, making it, fluid than,like, thick. So there are
different variables thatcontribute to it.
That's one of the examplesthat's more, like,
understandable. But depending onthe temperature variation, time
of the day, month of the year,there's a lot of variability. So
what happens when we take frombenchtop to, scale up setup is
(13:50):
when we optimize the range, whatis the acceptable range, what is
the not acceptable range, andset the specs. And typically, we
would do, like, at least 5 to 10runs before we finalize the spec
to a range that is usually,like, plus or minus 5 to 20%
variation depending on what thatmetric is.
DeniseVenneri (14:10):
Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Let's get back to live
examples. I think you startedmentioning the family company.
I know you were working with avendor to scout some new
equipment, and you linked inwith consumer affairs, and you
might even have another one.Give us as many as you can and
give us some lot of examples ofproduct development, process
(14:34):
engineering, working withConsumer Affairs, please.
Ramenna Remesh (14:38):
Absolutely. I think I have one example of a
project where I was scouting fora novel technology that helps
the entire portfolio at, one ofthe companies that I worked on
focusing on sauces andcondiments.
DeniseVenneri (14:54):
Mhmm.
Ramenna Remesh (14:55):
The consumer affairs team was a great partner
for that project because what Idiscussed and tried to, like,
collaborate with them was basedoff of, hey. Where are we
getting consumer complaints on?Especially with respect to and
product quality because thoseare what the technology can help
unlock. So painting that caseand this building that business
(15:19):
case based off of real consumercomplaints about our existing
amazing products and using thatto build a base for the business
and say, hey. We know we are thebest in this business, but we
still get complaints about x x xattributes, and our consumer
affairs team has a record of allthis.
(15:39):
And we see that this has notbeen able to, this has not been
able to resolve based on justquality optimization or
renovation. So maybe atechnology unlock is what this
subject needs. You know? Sothere were a couple of things.
Of course, I cannot tell toomuch of the details, but on a
high level, our consumer affairsteam partnered with us to help
(16:03):
us understand and define theproblem.
And then the r and d team that Iwas part of, we would take that
problem and try to solve it withtechnology interventions. I
think there are ways you can,you know, come up with creative
ways to use, the the data thatyou guys are already collecting
(16:23):
and take it back to the frontend where we are trying to
innovate because innovation isall about solving problems
creatively. And only when weknow what the problem is, we can
actually, like, put the pen tothe paper and solve it. So I
think there are different ways,you know, consumer affairs and r
and d could collaborate, butthis is one example from my
career that stands out.
DeniseVenneri (16:44):
Perfect. I know we had talked offline that, you
know, well, you actually justsaid it right now front end
innovation really consumeraffairs often is on the back end
where something's in market and,we're kind of helping folks to
assess it at that point. Andunderstandably, you all and
(17:07):
people in product development orprocess development, you know,
works with consumer insights orthe old market research folks.
They've got a lot of certaintypes of methodologies that, you
know, most products go through.Understandably, you're working
close with them.
Is that maybe an opportunity assoon as you get a handle on, you
(17:28):
know, all this research comingback, the consumer profile or
the consumer, yeah, consumerprofile. You know, is that
something that consumer affairsand product development, you
could share that with consumeraffairs so that they also
understand who that consumer isthat's calling or emailing us.
Ramenna Remesh (17:49):
Absolutely. And I think it goes back to the
question that you asked earlierabout where do ideas come from.
I think there is value in evenhaving, like, 1 or 2 one off
brainstorming sessions whereconsumer affairs is involved
because you guys have, an edgeover other functions in terms of
being directly involved with theconsumers. None of these other
(18:13):
functions like r and d,marketing, none of these other
function is directly talking toconsumers. So when we define
okay.
This product is for a mom of youknow, kids with under 10 years
old or multiple kids in thehousehold or a multicultural
family. We are imagining asbased off of what we understand
(18:35):
and see in our lives, not whothe consumers are who are coming
the company to buy the productsthere. Right? So I think there's
value that you bring in knowingthe consumers, even if it's,
like, minor conversations or orquick fixes that you guys are
doing or an elaborate issue thatyou're trying to solve for them.
And I also wonder if elaborateissue that you're trying to
solve for them.
Mhmm. And I also wonder ifthere's a way to map back and
(18:55):
involve these consumers who arevery engaged from a standpoint
of bringing up the issues orsharing, like, phrases or
sharing things and trying toactually engage with the company
to be part of, like, even anideation. Actually engage with
the company to be part of, like,even an ideation process or a
product development process.Because consumer insights
focuses on going and findingpeople who buy our products. And
(19:19):
on the other side, we alreadyknow who is buying our product
because they're reaching back tous.
So I almost wonder if there's abridge that needs to be, like,
you know, connecting these 2worlds and bringing a little bit
of a holistic approach toproduct development.
DeniseVenneri (19:35):
Yeah. You are talking my language, friend. You
really are. I think there's alot more leveraging to be done.
Now there are some of thoselegal implications where right
now you can contact a consumeron the topic that they initially
out to you on.
So, of course, you consult yourlegal and compliance
organizations. But, you know,there's definitely some things I
(19:59):
think that we can go deeper on,you know, going back to the
consumer and and learning more,or showing them a potential
solve and get their reaction.Again, please talk to your legal
and compliance teams to ensurethat that's all, you know,
that's all done appropriately.Yeah. That's a great
(20:21):
conversation.
Yep. We we we'll have tobrainstorm more later. I do
always like to support ourguests, and you talked about
your passion project at the topof the of the interview. Let's
talk about what goodies youmight have for our listeners.
Ramenna Remesh (20:39):
I would love for the first five listeners, who
reach out to me on LinkedIn, andDenise will be sharing the
LinkedIn information in the inthe podcast posting, to have an
opportunity to consult with mefor 15 to 20 minutes, discuss
perhaps 1 or 2 of their pressingcareer problems, and get some
(21:03):
strategic advice and counselingon that front, and continue to
also, like, be open tosupporting as needed. But that
would be something I would loveto offer to listeners because
that's something I enjoy themost. People in our industry who
have different career andeverybody has something or the
other. Some things you can solvewith the help of your mentors,
(21:24):
your internal colleagues, andmanagers. But some things you
need somebody external who isnot involved in your day to day
career to help, like, justbrainstorm, open up about.
So I would love for the firstfive listeners who reach out to
me to have that opportunity.
DeniseVenneri (21:43):
That's very generous of you. Very generous.
Is is it, your
Ramenna Remesh (21:45):
your personal name, or do you
DeniseVenneri (21:45):
have the company page for the business yet? Or
Great question. My company'sname is Spark
Ramenna Remesh (21:55):
Career Services. Mhmm. And the website is
www.sparkcareerservices.com. Butmy LinkedIn page, my personal
LinkedIn page, Tamanna Ramesh,is something also you can reach
me out, reach out to me at, andI will be happy to connect in
either platforms.
DeniseVenneri (22:15):
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Again, thank you for
that. And also, thanks so muchfor your time.
I really I really appreciategetting to know you a little bit
more and, listening to yourthoughts thoughts today.
Ramenna Remesh (22:29):
Thank you so much, Denise. I really enjoyed
this, and I wish you good luckwith your, you know, podcasting
passion. I know this is yourpersonal passion project. Right?
I absolutely love what you'redoing and continue to continue
to expand and bring bring theseworlds together, which are all
supposed to be together, butit's kind of fragmented in ways
(22:51):
that, the corporate demands itto be in.
So
DeniseVenneri (22:54):
We're trying. We're
Ramenna Remesh (22:56):
trying. Thank you.
DeniseVenneri (22:57):
Thank you. If you've learned even a kernel of
an idea or was inspired by thisepisode, please consider rating
and reviewing the podcast onApple Podcasts. Be sure to share
out the hashtag CPGCX becauseCPGCX really and truly rocks.
Ramenna Remesh (23:18):
You have been listening to the My Curious
Holly podcast with Denise. Thankyou for your time.
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with
your host, me, Denise Denyer.We'll be talking all things
consumer relations with a focuson consumer product goods
organizations and the brandspecialist and analyst roles and
responsibilities. So if you likeCPGs, like I like CPGs,
(00:22):
marketing, insights, and caringdeeply for your consumers, well,
take a listen. Hello, my curiouscolleagues. This week, I'm
curious about workingeffectively and successfully
with product developers in thecontact center.
(00:42):
And to do just that is my newcolleague, Ramanna Remesh. Hi,
Chimana, and welcome to thepodcast.
Ramenna Remesh (00:51):
Hi, Denise. Thank you so much for having me.
I am super excited to be yourcurious colleague here today and
to explore this, you know,combined space together.
DeniseVenneri (01:02):
Oh, love that. I'm I'm honored to have you on.
I know that we had met through amutual friend, and then I've
just you know, I've beenfollowing some of the cool stuff
you've been doing, on LinkedIn,and and we'll get into all that.
So let's let's start. Why don'tyou, share with us how you got
to this point in your career?
Ramenna Remesh (01:23):
Oh, great question. So I started off as a
food scientist. My educationbackground is in a combination
of food processing as well asfood science. And then I entered
the industry about 8 years agoin a food scientist slash
product development role in asmall family owned business.
From there, I went to KraftHeinz Company, got to work on a
(01:45):
lot of fun products, cheeses,condiments, and everything you
can think of that's Kraft Heinz.
And from, from a productdevelopment role, I pivoted to a
process engineering role andeventually switched out of, r
and d to commercial and programmanaging roles. So I'm still
within the food and beverageworld. I work at the Coca Cola
(02:06):
Company as a director of globalinnovation programs. So I work
closely with the technical teamnow, but I just don't do the
technical work.
DeniseVenneri (02:17):
Got it.
Ramenna Remesh (02:19):
Yeah.
DeniseVenneri (02:20):
Anything else?
Ramenna Remesh (02:21):
I also, my passion project is being a
career coach. I empower womenand minorities in STEM
profession, within the foodindustry, but also broadly
within the CPG world, advancetheir career, close pay gaps. So
I help them coach differenttechniques so they can help
(02:42):
themselves in advancing theircareers.
DeniseVenneri (02:45):
That sounds great. I love that. I have a
sister. Well, I believe in STEM.I did not go that path, but my
goddaughter and my sister, arein that field, and I'm just very
proud of them.
All right. So anyone who hasfollowed me, to manage, should
know that one of the basictenets I believe in, like being
(03:08):
a worker, be like I am incontact center leadership or
leading the whole thing, anyway,is that importance of
relationships. The consumeraffairs function is often, you
know, not always understood. SoI think the onus really is on
people in the contact center tounderstand their cross
functional partners, whatthey're up against, what they
(03:28):
do, what keeps them up at NICEso that then they can
effectively match processes orservices or analytics to those
needs, and hence, have a moresuccessful mutual collaboration.
And I thought we would go rightthere and ask for you to share
(03:50):
maybe a product development 101of sorts.
So, I like the details here onthe My Curious Colleague
podcast. You know, where doesthe idea, the germ of the idea,
even come from? That, you know,that's question number 1. And,
sort of, what are the thingsthat take that idea and, you
know, taking it from that benchtop, that imaginary bench top I
(04:10):
hear about, through prototypingand eventually all the way to
commercialization?
Ramenna Remesh (04:16):
That is such a great question. So great ideas
come from almost everywhere, butmost time they get funneled
through the marketing team,which looks at not just, you
know, the product itself, butwhat consumer needs are, where
the company is trying to growits business in, and align some
of the strategy to the ideas.But a lot of times, ideas also
(04:38):
come from r and d because r andd is so much closer to the
product and the package and theprocess than anybody else. So
great ideas come from a lot ofdifferent ways but get funneled
very traditionally throughmarketing or a combination of
marketing and r and d function,into what's called a stage gate
process. So the processessentially describes exactly
(05:00):
what you said, right, taking theidea to a prototype stage or a
development benchtop developmentstage, and from there and for
those who are not as familiar,you can think of it as you have
this recipe idea, right, foryour cooking and you start going
into the kitchen, gathering someingredients, and you'd make like
that first version, which maynot be the best, but you still
(05:21):
have a stab at it to see how itcomes out.
And then you start, like,improving it, trying to, like,
make it taste better, lookbetter, make it more appealing
to your kids if those are yourtarget, you know, end users. So
similarly, product developmentis focused on, like, taking that
idea, going to the lab,developing a bench prototype,
(05:44):
experimenting a little bit tounderstand first if it's
feasible, viable, desirable, andthen taking it to improve and
make it to a product that we canput across the country in all
the shelves for consumers totaste and enjoy.
DeniseVenneri (06:01):
So that's that's a pretty brief description. I
know there's so many details inthere. You know, who are you in
the in a kitchen? You know, likea commercialized kitchen, like,
back in the day when you weredoing I know you're doing a lot
of different aspects of of, thisprocess and product development.
(06:21):
You know, is there, like,granulated garlic on the shelf
and, you know, acerbic acid?
That's all I know. And, youknow, how do you know where to
even begin?
Ramenna Remesh (06:33):
Great. I mean, I love your question. I love how
curious you are. So, I'll tellyou 2 scenarios. 1 was when I
worked with a small family ownedcompany.
It was a kitchen setup. It wasliterally like like a kitchen in
a home, kind of setup. So we hadall the equipment, like, just
the stovetop, the oven, themicrowave, everything. And, in
(06:57):
the cabinets, we would have allthe ingredients. But the only
difference being we would namethe we label the ingredients not
just with their names, but witha code.
And each code goes back to aparticular supplier and a
particular type of even forexample, garlic powder. Because
every supplier's ingredient isgoing to taste different, and we
(07:19):
don't want the ultimate productto taste different every day.
DeniseVenneri (07:22):
Okay.
Ramenna Remesh (07:22):
Because we want it to be standardized, we try to
control all the variables in thebest way possible. And all the
recipes and formulation aretypically done with the
software, so we can go back andpredict how much of nutritional
fats is coming out of it. Right?So it's it's very similar, but
also just more structured, andthe experimentation is done a
(07:45):
little bit more structuredmanner. So we would test, like,
3 different variations of acolor ingredient to see which
color is best suitable for whatwe are trying to develop.
Rather than a 100 prototypes, wewould go and, like, try to see
which colors, you know, fit wellwith the product recipe and then
try to optimize from there.
DeniseVenneri (08:07):
Okay. One of the things I always warn people
about CPG, consumer productgoods, like any organization, is
the number of acronyms. That'sone, which just kind of cracks
me up. But, you know, you allare scientists at the end of the
day, food scientists. Can maybeyou help educate us layman
(08:29):
business folks, you know,because we want to ramp up
quickly in understanding whatyou're doing, reports you might
share with us.
So could you maybe give us 5tips or keywords or buzzwords or
acronyms that we should be orcould be familiar with?
Ramenna Remesh (08:52):
Okay. Another great question. So I can think
of a couple on top of my head. 1would be sensory. I'm sure on,
you know, on your end of theworld, you're listening
consumers complain about, oh mygod.
My product all came crumbled, orit does not look the way it's
supposed to. So those are allsensory attributes. So the top
(09:15):
sensory attributes are going tobe taste, flavor, color,
texture, and the overallappearance, sometimes odor as
well depending on the product.So that's the first keyword that
comes to my mind. Second1 Icould think of is line
extension.
So a lot of times, productdevelopment is not always about
(09:36):
bringing something new to theworld. A lot of times, in fact,
it is about renovating existingformulas in the event of supply
chain issues, especially, forexample, during the pandemic,
you couldn't get a certainingredients like you used to
before, but you want the productto taste the same and have the
same ingredient line, so youdon't create a bunch of new
(09:56):
packaging. So line extensionsare ways where you can, like,
take a product and make avariety of product in a similar
line. For example, Oreo, has avariety of flavors to it. A
marshmallow flavored Oreo or aKitKat flavored Oreo even, like,
whatever flavored Oreos.
Trying to come up with a varietyof the same foundational product
(10:20):
is called line extension. Onemore would be analytical. I
think a lot of times on, on thespecifications of a product, we
have a specific, like, range ofmetrics that the product should
meet. For example, a sauceshould have a certain amount of
viscosity. That helps kind of goback to the sensory to say if
(10:44):
it's beyond a certain viscosity,it's not going to have the same
texture.
So some of those attributes canbe controlled with subjective as
well as objective measurements.Objective being the analytical
side and subjective usually isthe sensory side. Sensory side.
DeniseVenneri (11:00):
But the, interesting thing is I know in
my experience over the manyyears is we actually, in
consumer affairs and consumerengagement, we have a lot of
different names. We actuallybuild the reason code hierarchy.
We call it, you know, whyconsumers, you know, what's the
bucket when consumers contactus? What what are what are they
saying? Bucket does that gointo?
(11:22):
And so for complaints, weactually build it under using
that that one phrase sensory. Sothat one I did know. So I'm
gonna ask you for another onelater, but we do have those
reason codes. So it, you know,maybe it's taste appear at a
high level, but in order toshare that feedback with you all
(11:43):
who who made the product and themarketers, you know, you got to
get lower. Is it bitter?
Is it sour? Is it you know,there's a lot of different
methods. And, and so we do have,though, at a high level, sensory
and then exactly the thingsyou're talking about, color,
taste, texture, odor. Sometimesthat's, you know, taste or smell
(12:05):
is kind of blended together,maybe. But, oh, yeah.
So we try to talk your language.We try. But, no, that's a great
that's a great start. Could yougive me some you said specs,
specifications. Now who ownssetting those up?
(12:26):
So viscosity, again, that I knowis, you know, how thick or thin
it is, the product is. So is ita sauce, let's say, or a
condensed soup? So who ownsfiguring out the range that that
one attribute of viscosity needsto be in? Is that
Ramenna Remesh (12:45):
Awesome question. So it will be trendy.
Yeah. I know. Right?
They're all going to be, r andd, and I think that's where the
phases of product developmentcomes into, picture. So when we
develop it in a bench scale, thevariability is so low that it's
going to be easy to replicateand get the same as long as we
(13:06):
add the same ingredients andcook it at the same temperature.
However, when you take a productfrom a benchtop and go to, like,
a factory, you're going to havea lot of other variables, like
when do they wash the equipment.If they start the batch right
after washing the equipment,there could be some residual
water from there increasing, youknow, the water content in the
(13:29):
sauce, making it, fluid than,like, thick. So there are
different variables thatcontribute to it.
That's one of the examplesthat's more, like,
understandable. But depending onthe temperature variation, time
of the day, month of the year,there's a lot of variability. So
what happens when we take frombenchtop to, scale up setup is
(13:50):
when we optimize the range, whatis the acceptable range, what is
the not acceptable range, andset the specs. And typically, we
would do, like, at least 5 to 10runs before we finalize the spec
to a range that is usually,like, plus or minus 5 to 20%
variation depending on what thatmetric is.
DeniseVenneri (14:10):
Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Let's get back to live
examples. I think you startedmentioning the family company.
I know you were working with avendor to scout some new
equipment, and you linked inwith consumer affairs, and you
might even have another one.Give us as many as you can and
give us some lot of examples ofproduct development, process
(14:34):
engineering, working withConsumer Affairs, please.
Ramenna Remesh (14:38):
Absolutely. I think I have one example of a
project where I was scouting fora novel technology that helps
the entire portfolio at, one ofthe companies that I worked on
focusing on sauces andcondiments.
DeniseVenneri (14:54):
Mhmm.
Ramenna Remesh (14:55):
The consumer affairs team was a great partner
for that project because what Idiscussed and tried to, like,
collaborate with them was basedoff of, hey. Where are we
getting consumer complaints on?Especially with respect to and
product quality because thoseare what the technology can help
unlock. So painting that caseand this building that business
(15:19):
case based off of real consumercomplaints about our existing
amazing products and using thatto build a base for the business
and say, hey. We know we are thebest in this business, but we
still get complaints about x x xattributes, and our consumer
affairs team has a record of allthis.
(15:39):
And we see that this has notbeen able to, this has not been
able to resolve based on justquality optimization or
renovation. So maybe atechnology unlock is what this
subject needs. You know? Sothere were a couple of things.
Of course, I cannot tell toomuch of the details, but on a
high level, our consumer affairsteam partnered with us to help
(16:03):
us understand and define theproblem.
And then the r and d team that Iwas part of, we would take that
problem and try to solve it withtechnology interventions. I
think there are ways you can,you know, come up with creative
ways to use, the the data thatyou guys are already collecting
(16:23):
and take it back to the frontend where we are trying to
innovate because innovation isall about solving problems
creatively. And only when weknow what the problem is, we can
actually, like, put the pen tothe paper and solve it. So I
think there are different ways,you know, consumer affairs and r
and d could collaborate, butthis is one example from my
career that stands out.
DeniseVenneri (16:44):
Perfect. I know we had talked offline that, you
know, well, you actually justsaid it right now front end
innovation really consumeraffairs often is on the back end
where something's in market and,we're kind of helping folks to
assess it at that point. Andunderstandably, you all and
(17:07):
people in product development orprocess development, you know,
works with consumer insights orthe old market research folks.
They've got a lot of certaintypes of methodologies that, you
know, most products go through.Understandably, you're working
close with them.
Is that maybe an opportunity assoon as you get a handle on, you
(17:28):
know, all this research comingback, the consumer profile or
the consumer, yeah, consumerprofile. You know, is that
something that consumer affairsand product development, you
could share that with consumeraffairs so that they also
understand who that consumer isthat's calling or emailing us.
Ramenna Remesh (17:49):
Absolutely. And I think it goes back to the
question that you asked earlierabout where do ideas come from.
I think there is value in evenhaving, like, 1 or 2 one off
brainstorming sessions whereconsumer affairs is involved
because you guys have, an edgeover other functions in terms of
being directly involved with theconsumers. None of these other
(18:13):
functions like r and d,marketing, none of these other
function is directly talking toconsumers. So when we define
okay.
This product is for a mom of youknow, kids with under 10 years
old or multiple kids in thehousehold or a multicultural
family. We are imagining asbased off of what we understand
(18:35):
and see in our lives, not whothe consumers are who are coming
the company to buy the productsthere. Right? So I think there's
value that you bring in knowingthe consumers, even if it's,
like, minor conversations or orquick fixes that you guys are
doing or an elaborate issue thatyou're trying to solve for them.
And I also wonder if elaborateissue that you're trying to
solve for them.
Mhmm. And I also wonder ifthere's a way to map back and
(18:55):
involve these consumers who arevery engaged from a standpoint
of bringing up the issues orsharing, like, phrases or
sharing things and trying toactually engage with the company
to be part of, like, even anideation. Actually engage with
the company to be part of, like,even an ideation process or a
product development process.Because consumer insights
focuses on going and findingpeople who buy our products. And
(19:19):
on the other side, we alreadyknow who is buying our product
because they're reaching back tous.
So I almost wonder if there's abridge that needs to be, like,
you know, connecting these 2worlds and bringing a little bit
of a holistic approach toproduct development.
DeniseVenneri (19:35):
Yeah. You are talking my language, friend. You
really are. I think there's alot more leveraging to be done.
Now there are some of thoselegal implications where right
now you can contact a consumeron the topic that they initially
out to you on.
So, of course, you consult yourlegal and compliance
organizations. But, you know,there's definitely some things I
(19:59):
think that we can go deeper on,you know, going back to the
consumer and and learning more,or showing them a potential
solve and get their reaction.Again, please talk to your legal
and compliance teams to ensurethat that's all, you know,
that's all done appropriately.Yeah. That's a great
(20:21):
conversation.
Yep. We we we'll have tobrainstorm more later. I do
always like to support ourguests, and you talked about
your passion project at the topof the of the interview. Let's
talk about what goodies youmight have for our listeners.
Ramenna Remesh (20:39):
I would love for the first five listeners, who
reach out to me on LinkedIn, andDenise will be sharing the
LinkedIn information in the inthe podcast posting, to have an
opportunity to consult with mefor 15 to 20 minutes, discuss
perhaps 1 or 2 of their pressingcareer problems, and get some
(21:03):
strategic advice and counselingon that front, and continue to
also, like, be open tosupporting as needed. But that
would be something I would loveto offer to listeners because
that's something I enjoy themost. People in our industry who
have different career andeverybody has something or the
other. Some things you can solvewith the help of your mentors,
(21:24):
your internal colleagues, andmanagers. But some things you
need somebody external who isnot involved in your day to day
career to help, like, justbrainstorm, open up about.
So I would love for the firstfive listeners who reach out to
me to have that opportunity.
DeniseVenneri (21:43):
That's very generous of you. Very generous.
Is is it, your
Ramenna Remesh (21:45):
your personal name, or do you
DeniseVenneri (21:45):
have the company page for the business yet? Or
Great question. My company'sname is Spark
Ramenna Remesh (21:55):
Career Services. Mhmm. And the website is
www.sparkcareerservices.com. Butmy LinkedIn page, my personal
LinkedIn page, Tamanna Ramesh,is something also you can reach
me out, reach out to me at, andI will be happy to connect in
either platforms.
DeniseVenneri (22:15):
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Again, thank you for
that. And also, thanks so muchfor your time.
I really I really appreciategetting to know you a little bit
more and, listening to yourthoughts thoughts today.
Ramenna Remesh (22:29):
Thank you so much, Denise. I really enjoyed
this, and I wish you good luckwith your, you know, podcasting
passion. I know this is yourpersonal passion project. Right?
I absolutely love what you'redoing and continue to continue
to expand and bring bring theseworlds together, which are all
supposed to be together, butit's kind of fragmented in ways
(22:51):
that, the corporate demands itto be in.
So
DeniseVenneri (22:54):
We're trying. We're
Ramenna Remesh (22:56):
trying. Thank you.
DeniseVenneri (22:57):
Thank you. If you've learned even a kernel of
an idea or was inspired by thisepisode, please consider rating
and reviewing the podcast onApple Podcasts. Be sure to share
out the hashtag CPGCX becauseCPGCX really and truly rocks.
Ramenna Remesh (23:18):
You have been listening to the My Curious
Holly podcast with Denise. Thankyou for your time.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.