The goal of this project is to support B2B customers and our company’s sales reps in the delivery of business value. We do this by providing them with the market standard resources that will help them successfully achieve transactions at the point of sale. A deliverable designed to meet this goal is commonly referred to in the kitchen and bath industry as a “price book”, a listing of the entire product assortment offered by the brand.

Price books serve as the primary resource for obtaining the following details for each product in the assortment:

• List price

• Product imagery

• Design and technology features

• Consumer benefits

• Measurements and requirements for installation

• Available product colors

• Industry-regulated information

I’m not going to sugar coat it. Creating a price book is a test of endurance. Multiple stakeholders are involved. There’s loads of requirements and work activities. Change is inevitable. Schedule, communications, cost, procurement, resources, and quality must be routinely managed throughout the process. Most importantly, the end users also hold stake in this brand touchpoint: Kitchen and bath showroom salespeople, plumbing supply distributors (such as Ferguson Enterprises), architects, interior designers, plumbers, company sales reps, and customer service agents.

Traditionally, the company delivers printed price books to customers by mail, and in recent years have delivered it as a PDF for digital and online use on the company website. The brand now offers an online “flip book” version as a means to enhance the brand experience (Check it out online!).

My primary responsibilities were to handle the art direction and design each year. In 2020, my role expanded to project manager in addition to serving as the creative lead.

Each annual edition presented opportunities to solve problems in both our processes and in the final deliverable itself. It was important to align our requirements with the strategies of executive leadership, product management, sales, marketing, production, and customer service. Industry standards and regulations are ever-changing, and must also be considered. Internal and external users of the book consistently gave feedback on the user experience, as they were also key stakeholders of the project. Given the qualities of the project, taking an iterative approach each year made sense.

Our company managed to meet the goal of delivering more than 10,000 copies of printed price books within Q1 of each year, along with being able to release the digital PDF and online flip book versions in the same schedule.

Each year we kick off the next edition of the price books by performing a retrospective of the previous edition. Because we do this, I believe that we set ourselves up for success for the upcoming edition of the price book, and the overall project and its deliverables continue to improve year over year.