It All Began When...
XM Canada partnered with XM U.S. in 2005 to provide satellite radio products and services in Canada, and I was hired in 2006 to manage the production and distribution of satellite radios and accessories for Canada.
XM Canada had launched 1 device before I joined, and I immediately inserted myself into the US Product teams to develop the Canadian product requirements and Industry Canada certifications.
My 1st and 2nd satellite radio products launched on schedule - both after the US launch - and I was determined to streamline operations to launch our devices as close to the US launch date as possible.
Operations
A large part of my role was supporting XM's distribution partners and its Customer Service, Sales, and Marketing teams.
Collaborated with XM Canada’s OEM hardware partners and 3rd party overseas factories to schedule production cycles, create distribution launch plans, and coordinated product shipments from manufacturers to distributors to retailers.
Developed product positioning, sales sheets, competitive information, and training materials for the business teams, distributors and retailers.
Maintained the product roadmap and conducted quarterly 'new product' presentations and demonstrations for the business teams and the Retail Field Representatives.
Challenge: Reduce Costs & Timelines
Canadian products had the extra bilingual requirement for packaging, user guides, marketing materials, web copy, etc., which more than doubled the time to produce the packaging artwork files for manufacturing.
Collaborated with Marketing and XM's French translation vendor to create English and French content style guides for all product content descriptions / features / positioning, and technical specs for packaging and marketing communications.
The US and Canadian packaging was originally driven by the OEM partners and XM needed its own product branding. I collaborated with XM's graphic design vendor to create a packaging template that the US team accepted, which reduced the Canadian packaging design, production timelines, and costs by approximately 40%.
The overall packaging size (master cartons) was standardized, which reduced the time spent by the distributors to receive and ship products out to the retailers by roughly 25%.
Results
Launched 7 satellite radios over 16 months - all on schedule and budget, and the last 5 products launched before the US launch.
Collaborated with distributors and retailers to implement the packaging redesign for 4 legacy satellite radios, including repackaging in-store products and producing new products.
Managed a product recall of 40,000 in-store, and 80,000 at distributor, satellite radios due to an Industry Canada stipulation to dampen our best selling product's radio signal. I led the new packaging and inserts creation, and coordinated shipping and re-kiting the in-store products.
The project took 3 months - 1 month earlier than Industry Canada’s deadline.