Clarkston Consulting’s DTC Webinar Series is a collection of videos designed to help consumer products and retail companies launch, grow, and optimize direct to consumer businesses. If you haven’t already, be sure to watch our first episode of the series for an introduction to DTC. For our second webinar, we are discussing direct-to-consumer success factors, including leadership, team, goals, and project management.

Download the Full DTC Project Management Webinar Here

Launching or growing a DTC business are often among the most complex and cross-functional projects that a business has taken on. What’s more, tactics and strategies that resulted in success years ago are outdated, and some companies early DTC companies are fading out with them. Staying relevant and up to date in DTC strategy requires several elements of project management excellence.  

In fact, many businesses fail with DTC due to a variety of factors. Some are out of their control (competitors, market trends, awareness), while others are in the bounds of the business (support, cohesion, management). Many business failures in general can be attributed to poor management factors, which makes excellent planning even more imperative with DTC.  

Going DTC isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. There are several changing factors across the business that require project management expertise and guidance to succeed. What’s more, DTC strategy and implementation impacts every functional area of the business.  

Direct-to-Consumer Project Management and Program Management

This webinar is focused on the critical team and leadership capabilities that make these projects successful. In this episode, we dive into the following direct-to-consumer success factors:  

Leadership support: Why is leadership support critical for a DTC project? What are the most important messages and discussion areas for leadership? How should they stay engaged throughout the life of the project?   

Defined project team: What is the right composition of team members to manage DTC projects? What is the right functional representation? What are the right skillsets to ensure project success?  

Goals and guardrails: Why is goal setting among the most critical missteps in a DTC project? How do you set aligned goals that are connected to enterprise strategy? How does a team set guardrails that help to accelerate decision making in a project?  

Project management excellence: What are the most important project management principles for DTC projects? How can you ensure that the project is delivered under time, budget, and within scope? 

Download the Full DTC Project Management Webinar Here

While these factors are essential to achieving success in any DTC project, there are several other key considerations that teams must consider for direct-to-consumer success.  Subscribe to DTC Discussions below to learn more. 

Contributions by Alexandra Hatsios