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IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
My plan looking for a job out of college was simple: find a company making a product I thought was truly revolutionary, and do whatever I can to join the team making it. Impossible Foods was at the top of that list.
It was a company I grew a huge admiration for through my time interning as a journalist. Beyond Meat had IPOed the month before I started at CNBC and immediately went on a crazy market rally, and that caused plant-based meat to be the default water cooler conversation on Wall Street the entire summer I was there. Impossible Foods checked all the boxes I wanted in a product: great quality, great mission, great brand, and great story. I was stoked out of my mind when I got the job offer. I graduated college on May 23rd, 2021, and three days later, I packed my car, said goodbye to my family, and left Chicago on a cross-country roadtrip bound for Impossible's Silicon Valley headquarters.
I had literally no idea what I was getting into. I had never stepped foot in the Bay Area before, I knew almost nobody else living near me, and I knew absolutely nothing about the food industry. Thankfully, I was welcomed by an experienced and ridiculously talented Product Management team that was ready to show me the ropes.
As with any company as young as Impossible, the number of hats you wear is only constrained by the number of hours in the workday. But here's a general breakdown of what I'm doing at Impossible.
PRODUCT MANAGER
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Leading Impossible’s international product management function, setting end-to-end portfolio strategy for a major new international market (tens of millions in revenue), managing a portfolio of 18 SKUs across 6 markets (millions in revenue), and overseeing concept development and product definition for 6 new products
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Serving as product manager for two new US retail products slated to launch in 2024
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Coordinating a major branding initiative across 70 SKUs, setting messaging and positioning guidelines for the GTM teams and adapting artwork and asset development processes to function at 10x higher capacity
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Leading a team of 15 people in shepherding this new branding initiative from manufacturing readiness through in-market launch, creating dashboards that monitor rollout progress and reporting findings to the executive leadership team
LAUNCH MANAGER FOR US RETAIL PRODUCTS
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Directed launch program management for 47+ products, ensuring key deliverables and launch activities were completed on-schedule, driving alignment across teams on launch strategy decisions, and helping expand Impossible's US retail portfolio by 11x
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Lead biweekly meetings with leadership and cross-functional teammates to proactively detect issues that could impact GTM success and find solutions that maintain the program schedule and align with broader company goals
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Refined the New Production Introduction (NPI) process with program management teammates to better equip sales and marketing partners for GTM activities and reduce mid-project spin for product development teams
PRODUCT AND PROGRAM MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE
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Built program management tools in Smartsheets and Google Sheets to create clear sources of truth for critical program information and funnel updates on launch activities throughout the org
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Created a new product portfolio management dashboard organizing key product development resources, technical specs, external messaging, and other business-critical deliverables in a single user-friendly webpage
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Directed five life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies as Impossible’s product sustainability lead, collaborating with external partners to quantify the environmental impact of our products and gauge mission alignment
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Spearheaded competitive analysis efforts for the product management team, writing a monthly newsletter for leadership discussing competitive products, emerging food technologies, and meat industry trends
When I started at Impossible, the company only had three products in retail. We've now expanded to over 75 products across eight countries, and I consider myself so lucky to be part of the team driving this growth. I've learned so much about product strategy and team leadership and decision making and getting buy-in and building a brand just from absorbing everything I can from the brilliant folks around me, and I'm excited for what Impossible's future holds.
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