Zone 1
External Outputs
What Propel delivers to brands, retailers, and distributor partnersBrands
Clients who pay Propel to represent their products
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Reporting
Gap info, performance, innovation status — sent to brands to show how their products are performing
Promotional Plan
Plans for how their products will be promoted at retail
Business Updates
Qualitative/narrative updates — not number-based. E.g. "this planogram is launching," "this retailer is ordering next month"
Forecasting
Sales forecasts — flagged as missing across all buckets during the session
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Retailers
Sobeys, Loblaws, Whole Foods, Save-on-Foods, etc.
✓ Outputs (mapped)
New Item / Brand Presentation
Brand info, SKUs, where to buy, distribution — the sales pitch deck for getting new items listed
Listing Forms
Specs, ingredients, product details required by retailers to formally list a product
Images
Product images & retailer library — two repos exist, neither well maintained
Samples
Physical product samples shipped with tracker, coordinated via Jam Lynn
Promo Calendars
Promotional calendars outlining when/how products will be promoted
Deal Sheets
Some retailers have portals, but data is STILL maintained in Excel too — dual maintenance
Reporting
Gap info and performance reporting for the retailer
Business Updates
Includes distributor info (pre-books, deal sheets from distributors) shared with retailers
Forecasting
Some retailers require it — natural accounts, UNFI ask for forecasts
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Distributor Partners
UNFI, Purity Life, and other distribution partners
✓ Outputs (mapped)
New Vendor Setup
Accounting info, contractual details, terms — onboarding document for new brands within the distributor
Distribution Contracts
Separate from vendor setup — the actual distribution agreements
New Item / Brand Presentation
Same as retailer presentations — brand portfolio overview
Listing Forms
Product specs for distributor item setup
Images
Product images shared via SharePoint
Samples
Physical product samples shipped with tracker
Promo Calendars
Both sides (brand team and sales team) send calendars — two different angles
Deal Sheets
Deal information for distributor promotional activity
Reporting
Ad hoc, not ongoing cadence — gap reports curated per distributor (other distributors' items filtered out)
Business Updates
Status communication, not formal reporting
Forecasting
Required for guaranteed sale contracts — has financial/contractual implications
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Zone 2
Internal Outputs
What each Propel department needs to do their jobSales
CAMs — Customer Account Managers
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Communication of Top Priority of Opportunities
Company / brand / item level. Scoring system: brand weight + prize size + strategic bucket. Top 10 per brand, monthly refresh. Jen ~70% done. Needs feedback loop.
New Distribution Report
List of closed gaps — actions team has taken. Wins showing new listings achieved.
POS Reporting
Quarterly brand dashboards — how items are performing at retailer. Coming from retailer systems (e.g. LDIA). Meetings currently take 3 hours (being restructured).
Opportunity & Gap Reports
Currently pulled ad hoc by individual salespeople from Qlik — same 20-min exercise done by 4 people independently
Item Listing Information
Specs, details, everything needed for the listing process
Promotional Guidelines & Calendars
Promotional planning and calendar management for accounts
Trade Spending Report
By account — tracking promotional spend. New tool being built, natural team will get "whole new visibility"
Promotional Analysis
What promos worked, performance insights
Brand Contractual Representation Agreement
What channels/retailers are managed per brand — multiple teams need this
Forecasting
Brand level + retailer level. Currently on individual Excel files per CAM.
POG Dates / Reviews
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Planogram review timing, deadlines, internal call-to-action from sales to brand team.
Spend Tracking
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Brand by account spend visibility.
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Brand BDM
Brand Development Managers
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Communication of Top Company Priority of Opportunities SENSITIVE
E.g. Amy's vs Beck's. Based on Qlik data + strategic positioning of company (manual scoring). Incubator / Core / Anchor / Strategic buckets. Not to be shared with brands.
Brand Dashboards (Monthly)
Monthly brand performance dashboards sent to clients
New Distribution Report
List of closed gaps — actions teams have taken
Promotional Agreements
Finalized promo plans confirmed by sales team — the "agreed" stage
Trade Spending
By account and by brand
Promotional Analysis
What promos worked, performance insights, feeds into strategy
Opportunity / Gap Reports
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Same data as sales, sliced by brand across all territories.
Brand Guidelines & Targets
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Growth targets (e.g. 15% growth / 10% spend).
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Data
Suzanne's Team — "builders of stuff"
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Brand Reporting
Reporting data from/about brands needed to build dashboards and tools
Distributor Reporting
Monthly shipments and other data from distributors
Retail POS Reporting
POS data from retailer systems (Lydia, Sarkana, etc.) — each retailer has their own unique system
Brand Priorities
What is agreed upon internally. Based on strategic positioning of company (manual scoring, from BDM team). "We say go after London Drugs and they're like absolutely not."
Brand Contractual Representation Agreement
What data is/isn't applicable per brand — "if we're not managing natural for this brand, we need to know that"
Promotional Planners
NEED ONE FORMAT — currently FDM, Natural, Loblaws all different. Even within Roxanne's team, Jena and Catherine use different templates.
Brand Guidelines & Targets
On Excel and Qlik. Needed to create tools and set benchmarks.
Forecasting
Brand level + retailer level. Currently misaligned with BDM forecasts — "not quite lining up"
Context / Priorities from Other Teams
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Need narrative about WHY data looks the way it does. "We're reporting on the news — what does that actually mean?"
Promotional Analysis
From transcript — not on whiteboard. What promos worked — requires POS data, mostly FDM only.
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
Trade
Promotional execution & system management
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Item Listing Information
Must build new items into systems (Springboard, distributor systems). 4-5 brands require system-level management.
Forecasting
Brand level + retailer level — for trade planning
Promotional Planners
What promos are running, when — for deal execution
Promotional Terms / Contracts
Retailer-level contractual agreements (e.g. Sobeys deal periods, lump sums) — attached as validation
New Item Launch Notifications
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Critical — trade must know to build items into every promotional activity in the system.
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
AR / AP
Accounting — Marianne (QuickBooks)
✓ Outputs (mapped)
Brand Reporting
For billing and reconciliation
Commission Reporting
SEPARATE from brand reporting — gross vs net distinction. "My team gets gross, her team gets net, then consolidated into master sales."
Contractual / Representation Agreements
Commission rates, terms — "every brand coming on has one... hopefully"
Expense Reporting
Trade shows, staff, travel expenses
Budgets — Commission
Receivables budgeting
Budgets — Expense
Trade shows, staff, travel budgets
Budgets — System / Opex
Lydia, Qlik, Springboard, AI tools — operational expenditures
Brand Contacts
From transcript — not on whiteboard. Who to invoice, send reporting to. Current list is outdated. Company-wide CRM need.
● Input Sources (Session 2)
To be mapped
Where does the data originate? How does it get here?
HR
Human Resources
✓
Handled by Collage
— complete system, no integration needed. Contracts, staff contacts all managed here. Will remain standalone.
Zone 3
Cross-Cutting Analysis
Reporting pipeline, duplication patterns, pain points, and tools
Reporting Pipeline
How data flows to brands
Overall Brand Performance
Jen's team sends monthly emails with data + narrative business updates in the body
Monthly by brand
Weekly POS Reporting
Near completion — Sophie verifying. Qlik-sourced. Most brands except those with direct Qlik access.
Weekly
Quarterly POS Reporting
Deep dives, retailer-specific dashboards. Uses Lydia/Sarkana directly (not Qlik) for full data granularity.
Quarterly
Monthly Shipment Dashboards
NOT STARTED — will use same process as weekly POS once that's figured out. Different data set, similar workflow.
Monthly (planned)
New Distribution Reports
Exists as a tab in brand dashboards + separate comprehensive internal report for slicing.
Monthly
Active
In Progress
Not Started
Key Pain Points
From the session
No standardization across teams for the same output types
Template proliferation with no governance — everyone has their own version
Dual maintenance — e.g. deal sheets in Excel AND retailer portals
Broken image/asset management in SharePoint — two repos, neither maintained
Everyone pulls their own reports independently from Qlik — same 20-min exercise repeated by 4 people
No feedback loop for priorities — can't mark items as done or track progress
"Reactive vs. proactive" — squeakiest wheel gets the grease, no priority system
Forecasting misalignment — CAM-level and brand-level forecasts don't match
Missing: CRM tool, project management tool, unified priority system
Duplication Heat Map
Where the same work is happening across modules
| Cluster | Brands | Retailers | Distributors | Sales | Brand BDM | Data | Trade | AR/AP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promo Calendars | ||||||||
| Listing Forms | ||||||||
| Reporting | ||||||||
| Forecasting | ||||||||
| Updates / Priorities |
Current Tool Inventory
For reference
QlikReporting & data platform
SpringboardPromotional planning
SharePointFiles, images, documents
QuickBooksAccounting (Marianne)
CollageHR (standalone, solved)
ExcelEverything else (the default)
PowerPointBrand/item presentations
Lydia / SarkanaRetailer POS portals
Teams CalendarPOG dates (partial adoption)
ChatGPTPriority scoring (experimental)
Duplication Cluster Detail
Promo Calendars / Plans
DEEP DIVE
| Who | Role | What they do with it | Problem |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales (each CAM) | Creates | Each salesperson maintains their own planner per account | Root cause — no standard template. Even Jena & Catherine on the same team use different ones. |
| Brand BDM | Creates | Sets strategic promo guidelines, gets back confirmed agreements | "Recommended" vs "agreed" — different docs for each stage |
| Data (Suzanne) | Consumes | Reads every planner to build reporting. Sophie manually pulls up each grid. | Biggest pain — "ONE FORMAT. All different right now. My team struggles with that." |
| Trade | Consumes | Enters every promo into distributor systems for 4-5 brands | Consuming yet another format |
| Distributors | Receives | Gets promo calendars from Propel | Gets it from BOTH brand team AND sales team — two versions |
| Retailers | Receives | Gets the promo schedule for their stores | Just an output |
| Brands | Receives | Told what promos are planned for their products | Just an output |
The real issue: Same info originates from individual salespeople in non-standard formats, then gets consumed/reformatted/re-sent by 4 other groups. Nobody can efficiently extract it because there's no single format. Session 2 question: Should the source be the Excel planner by account or the Springboard export?
Listing Forms / Item Info
4 modules. Different formats per retailer and distributor. Cross-cuts all three external modules.
Reporting / Gap Reports
7 modules. Everyone pulls their own from Qlik independently. Same 20-min exercise done by 4 people. "Abundance of random customization."
Forecasting
6 modules. CAM-level forecasts (per Excel file) don't align with brand-level BDM forecasts. Distributor forecasts have contractual implications.
Business Updates / Priorities
6 modules. No unified communication method. "Squeakiest wheel gets the grease." Reactive vs. proactive.