Heather Ley: Product Development Manager in Oceanside, CA

• Manage product development for four pet supplies categories: cat furniture, dog dwellings, litter accessories, and dog cleanup. • Support the product portfolios of the two top-performing Petco owned brands; EveryYay and SoPhresh, which represent nearly half a billion dollars of revenue per year.

• Optimized, validated, and enhanced the U.S. Divers product offering which directly resulted in a substantial increase in market share and sales revenue: from 2018 to 2022, the business grew from $18M to over $29M. • Managed all phases of new product development, including ideation, research & design, prototyping, development, production, and product lifecycle. • Identified new market opportunities and developed well-informed, data-driven recommendations to support product line diversification, enhance features, and make changes to improve gross margins. • Leveraged industry trends and competitive analysis to enhance margins, improve merchandising, and optimize the product offer. • Translated the 5-year business plan into a clear product roadmap that brought the brand vision to life with products that spoke to consumer’s needs.

• Product manager for the global Aqua Lung Sport and US Divers sporting goods product lines. • Collaborated with an international team to bring innovative, high concept ideas into the international consumer goods marketplace. • Worked closely with Asian manufacturers to produce high-quality, on-time product deliverables on a global scale. • Spearheaded efforts to research, source, and bring to market sustainable and/or biodegradable packaging across all product lines.

• Managed development for Rubies Costume Company's licensed Warner Brothers and DC Comics product lines. • Annually brought to market hundreds of unique consumer products across many of the world's most high-profile licensed properties, including Batman, Superman, Justice League, and Harry Potter. • Created innovative, trend-driven items at specific price points for the country’s largest retailers, including Walmart, Target, Costco, and more. • Oversaw internal creative teams and international manufacturing to develop, produce, and ship high-quality goods while meeting project milestones and deadlines for deliverables. • Managed product lifecycles and worked with sales and marketing teams to align on strategic goals for each product line from concept through mass production. • Conducted extensive market research, analyzed sales data, and gathered customer feedback to identify up-and-coming industry trends and to develop well-informed insights into future strategic development planning.

• Managed the brand licensing relationship with Warner Bros Consumer Products and conducted bi-weekly meetings to discuss ongoing product development as well as future opportunities. • Ensured that WB's legal, marketing, and creative teams were kept up-to-date at all development stages by submitting concepts, artwork, packaging, marketing collateral, and production samples for review. • Established an efficient, reliable system to meet and track records certifying company compliance with all licensing obligations for hundreds of SKUs in development. • Updated and maintained the company-wide Product Line Management (PLM) software system and created detailed tech packs for each new SKU. • Reviewed pre-production and provided detailed, instructive feedback to manufacturing to meet QA requirements and ensure customer satisfaction.

• Designed and implemented successful marketing strategies which increased industry awareness and drove sales for a construction supplies product line. • Conceptualized, developed, sourced, and brought to market a successful lead containment product that exploited an unfilled niche in the construction and remodeling industry. • Wrote compelling blog posts, articles, and press releases and used targeted SEO initiatives to increase Google search rankings for specific keywords. • Created visually appealing product flyers, catalogs, and web graphics using design software such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. • Used Google Analytics and other web tools to track and analyze customer engagement.