Installing Cosmetics Testing Virtuoso

Case study: Pairing a Beauty Industry Trailblazer with a Consumer Product Testing Pro

THE CLIENT

A global beauty industry pioneer and trendsetter.

THE NEED

This global cosmetics leader was in search of a topflight cosmetics testing expert with substantial domestic and international product testing experience. They wanted an established professional with a strong network of vendors and the ability to infuse new ideas into the company’s testing approach.

TAKEAWAYS

The Expert Needed:

Elite Cosmetics

Product Testing Manager

The Skills Needed:

Budget management & cost control
Research proficiency
Regulatory expertise
Supplier oversight aptitude
Cross functional project management skills

Time to Placement:

3.5 weeks

Client Satisfaction Level:

Off the charts

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THE SOLUTION

Every Intellex talent solution begins with a discovery process, in which we unearth the skills and traits that will make or break the senior consumer product expert’s placement. For this Fortune 500 beauty industry leader, there were three critical factors:

The experience to handle consumer product testing, both domestically and internationally, including budget management, cost control, research and supplier oversight.
The ability to manage the entire testing program, from start to finish, with minimal input from the client’s Director of Product Development.
The skills to connect and collaborate across a diverse set of internal business functions, including Clinical Testing, R&D, Packaging, Product Development, Legal and Marketing.

Finding the ultra-qualified consumer product testing expert

With this thoughtful profile in hand, our Intellex consumer products recruiters identified the right cosmetic testing expert who offered:

25+ years of product testing industry experience across the cosmetics industry
BA Psychology and Sociology, Miami University, Oxford
Graduate work in Psychology & Ethnography, University of Cincinnati
Methodology expertise in:

Culture codes (Dr. Claude Rapaille)
Deep Metaphor Elicitation (ZMET, Jerry Zaltman)
The Grove Graphic Facilitation and Strategic Visioning

Certifications from:

Stanford University dSchool and IDEO Design Thinking
Creative Problem-Solving Institute – Creative Problem Solving (CPS)
P&G Gym Innovation Labs: Facilitation and Insights Activation

Extensive remote consumer product testing experience

Within a week of being introduced, the cosmetics firm had chosen to engage our senior product testing expert. The remote arrangement was a win-win for the client organization and the consultant as both were eager to move forward with focused speed. They dove into the work just a few weeks after the search for the right CPG expert began.

THE RESULTS

This Intellex product testing expert was a perfect match for the company and the work and the project was extended to incorporate our expert into more areas of the testing process. For the company’s hardworking product team, infusing outside insights and momentum into the organization has made a big impact.

“With her external perspective, she [the Intellex expert] has offered several new, innovative processes,” said the company’s Senior Director of Product Development. “I can count on her to professionally handle issues independently and to know when to get me involved.”

For Intellex, the proof of success was in the client’s enthusiastic request to extend the work with this expert, and fill other product gaps with experts from the highly experienced, immediately effective Intellex team.

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