Product Planning (NPI)
The New Product Introduction (NPI) pipeline - every product's website imagery, produced per SKU, brand by brand.
Product Planning is WAC’s New Product Introduction (NPI) engine: the planned, per-SKU production of all product imagery - photography, videography, and CG - for every brand, the imagery that ships to the company website as PPID images.
This is catalog out - structured, year-based output. (The on-demand request side is Marketing Creative Requests (MCR).)
01 · The lifecycle
Every SKU moves through the same eight stages
Section titled “Every SKU moves through the same eight stages”A single conveyor belt from a new SKU on the board to PPID images on the website. Photo, video, and CG all feed the same Iconik review and PPID export.
flowchart LR
A([New SKU]) --> B[PM pre-selection]
B --> C[Capture / Render]
C --> D{Iconik review}
D -->|Revise| C
D -->|Approved| E[PPID prep]
E --> G[PM web tagging]
G --> H[PPID export]
H --> I([Website])
02 · The golden rule
One SKU, one conveyor belt
Section titled “One SKU, one conveyor belt”A SKU advances only when its current phase reaches Approved in the Iconik Review Process. This is now enforced by the board: downstream tasks unlock only on final approvals, and a re-fired unlock never resets work already in progress. Never skip the queue, and never duplicate a file - the filespace tracks versions by checksum, so a copy breaks Iconik.
You set your status - the board moves it through the chain
When your part is done, you don’t move the task to the next person or work out which review stage comes next - the board handles that. You set one status that records what you decided, and the board moves the work forward from there. Which status you set depends on whether you reviewed the work or made it:
Reviewers say
Approved- this passes my review; it moves on to the next reviewer.Revisions Needed- this needs changes; it goes back to whoever’s fixing it.For James Review- I’d rather James make this call; it goes to him instead.
Assignees say
Revisions Done- I’ve addressed the feedback; it goes back to the reviewer who flagged it.
03 · The phases
The production phases
Section titled “The production phases”Three input crafts feed one destination that ships to the website:
- Photography - capture (AMC/USA), PM selection, edited versions.
- Videography - product video, romance language, motion.
- CG & 3D - models, renders, cam solve.
- App shots & PPID images - the finish line: the two image types that ship to the product website. Everything above feeds them.
Crossing every phase:
- Iconik Review Process - the visual-QA approval cycle.
- Cross-team handoffs - where work passes between teams.
04 · Definition of done
Definition of done, per phase
Section titled “Definition of done, per phase”A SKU advances only when its current phase’s subitem reaches Approved in the
Iconik Review Process. See the status glossary for the
full status vocabulary.