When creating a new product at one of the country’s biggest quick-service restaurant (QSR) chains, new product developers blend creativity and innovation with an established process and framework that is followed from conception to the debut of the item. During a presentation at the 2024 Reciprocal Meat Conference in Oklahoma City, Okla., Shelly Thobe, director of culinary innovation with Wendy’s Co., Dublin, Ohio, provided a glimpse of how the company’s process works, using a newly launched offering as an example.
Thobe warned students in attendance that product development, specifically in the foodservice industry, isn’t the ideal career for aspiring food scientists seeking a regimented and predictable role. She said the process is akin to a roller coaster ride.
She issued a disclaimer to students: “I hope you love living in the land of uncertainty. Because if you like black and white, don’t go into product development, especially at a restaurant group.”
She said the uncertainty parallels the whims of today’s consumers, whose preferences and priorities are constantly changing, and the reality is what is true today may not be tomorrow.
“I may give you a brief on Monday, and by Friday, depending on what’s happened in the competitive space, that brief may be null and void. The following week, we may have new research, and we’re going to come to you and say, ‘So we were working on that, but now we’re going to do this.’ And that is the most fun part of this job, to be really honest.”
Renewing Nuggs
Debuting at its restaurants nationwide on June 10, Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs were billed as an extension of its established chicken Nuggs, by offering them tossed in a choice of sauce in seven flavors, including: Honey BBQ, Spicy Honey BBQ, Garlic Parm, Spicy Garlic Parm, Buffalo, Spicy Buffalo and Spicy Ghost Pepper. Nuggs are available in four, six, 10 or 20-piece sizes and a choice of Ranch or Blue Cheese sauce for dipping.
Thobe said while product innovation follows basic principles, the key to successfully solving the new product puzzle requires a team approach.
“The bigger question is where and how you partner with people and with consumers to get to the end point for innovation, which is the new product,” she said. The launch of the new Nuggs was an example of successful partnerships.
The development process includes four phases, beginning with exploration and talking about ideas based on trends and the company’s strategic goals. After the initial phase the team begins to engage buyers while product development and product briefs are written. Next, the product development process begins, including working with suppliers.
The development and qualification phase comes next, which requires significant marketing involvement.
“We’re looking at the product and we’re assessing the product compared to the concept,” she said, “and are we delivering on that concept? Where and how will it fit into our marketing calendar, and how will consumers use this product?”
The last phase includes looking at how the product is graded from three perspectives, including consumer, financial and restaurant operations.
Idea generation is an ongoing process for Thobe, a foodie who’s always on the lookout for the next big thing.
“I love to go to restaurants, I love to go to food trucks, and I like to see how people are interacting with their food, who’s buying what food, and what’s driving them to buy those different foods.”
Thobe said her team focuses a lot on Wendy’s menu adoption cycle, which consists of four steps: inception, adoption, proliferation and ubiquity. The development of the Saucy Nuggs evolved through that cycle and she said the process was an opportunity for Wendy’s suppliers to expedite the launch of the new product.
“What I will tell you is if you’re a supplier to our brand, don’t just come in and hand me a piece of paper, ‘here are the new sauce flavors, go do this.’ Come in with ideas around the sauce flavors, how can we really look at that adoption and proliferation phases and smash them together? How can we create something new?”
She recalled when, nearly two decades ago, Wendy’s introduced Asiago cheese to the menus of its then-6,000 restaurants, and how it was pushed directly from the adoption phase to ubiquity in what was an abbreviated menu adoption cycle.
“People may have not known what it was, but when you could get an Asiago Chicken Club, all of a sudden it really was pushed forward,” Thobe said. “So, as you think about what you can do as a developer, you can move things from that adoption-proliferation into ubiquity.”
When developing a concept for new products, it behooves QSRs to have a customer-first approach to their menu options.
“Everything matters about the consumer,” Thobe said. “Quite frankly, if they’re not buying our food, we don’t have jobs. So, we put them as our number one in everything.”
She also pointed out that because Wendy’s operates as a franchise group, product developers must realize they too are customers, and consider the implications new products have on both groups.
“I am working for the consumer number one, but I really have to think about franchising also as I’m developing things.”
The process for developing Saucy Nuggs started with the premise that Thobe’s team was looking to launch something new in the chicken space, which kicked off the idea screening process, including soliciting ideas.
“We reached out to our strategic partners and said, ‘We’re looking to build this chicken space a little differently than we do today, can you help us?’”
While sifting through many ideas it became apparent that Wendy’s existing nuggets were unique in the QSR space, and they weren’t something fast-food diners could get elsewhere. The process also included online research and focus groups with consumers.
“Through those focus groups we were able to understand how will they use this; does this packaging work; do we need to think about something new?” Thobe said.
The process, which includes screening and prototyping and eventually taste testing with consumers, is predicated on the fact that consumer testing for taste is only part of the equation, and the product, packaging and how the product will be applied must all be in place first.
Once the Saucy Nuggs went into consumer testing it was clear that the product was well liked.
Source: ©CHAD ROBERTSON - STOCK.ADOBE.COM“We found out, wow, this is really good,” Thobe said. “We then did some concept screening and a concept product fit test to find out, this is a great idea. We went to our leadership team and said, ‘We have an idea. We want to go test this. We’re excited and we think it’s something that really is going to resonate with our customers.’”
She pointed out that through the concept testing process it was discovered that launching just one flavor wasn’t going to be good enough to get the product off the ground. Only launching Garlic Parm Spicy Nuggs, for example, didn’t provide enough reach in the market and more breadth was needed, Thobe’s team discovered.
“What we found is launching a family of products, in this case, was better than one individual flavor,” she said.
Throughout the innovation process the team is posing questions to ensure the new product has the best possible chance to succeed. Questions typically include: Is the product going to deliver; can we measure this effectively and whether the right questions were asked to measure this; has the product been developed in a way that the restaurants can deliver it in the way it was during the testing; and finally is the product financially viable?
Assessing financial viability today, using technology that includes artificial intelligence and modeling, shortens the timeline for delivering the product and the expense incurred from market testing. Thobe said during her early years working in product development, go to market goals for new products were about two years. Today, that goal for Wendy’s is six months, and the process is expedited with the ability to eliminate market testing.
“The less market tests you have to do, the faster you can be and the more creative you can be,” she said, with the additional benefit of not disclosing to the competition the plan for new products.
Other considerations throughout the process include assessing the impact of the new product, including its profitability, how it fits into the overall product mix, how it will create cannibalization of other products and very importantly, how it is priced. It’s no secret that consumers in today’s economy are price conscious, so it makes sense that Wendy’s suppliers are given specific price points for delivering their products.
Still another factor in creating new products is that it can be executed at the chain’s restaurants, using the space and equipment available. Additionally, employees need to be able to make and serve the product as intended. It goes back to what Thobe said previously about serving two sets of customers, the consumers and the restaurants.
“If your restaurants can’t make it, the reality is you probably are in the wrong field if you don’t think about that,” she said.
Operations opportunities
After consumer and financial grades are achieved, developers turn their attention to operations. In assessing operations grades, developers look closely at the impact on restaurant operations, whether labor guides need to be updated to accommodate new processes as well as considering options for number of pieces in a pack.
The goal Thobe said is to find out, “Have we developed something that they can easily use in the restaurant and be successful?”
Once the three key grades are in, it’s time for the main event.
“Then comes the really fun part,” Thobe said. “This is the national launch and ramp up.”
By that point, leadership is aligned with the launch and planning logistics are considered. The launch date can depend on other product launches that are dependent on seasonality for supplies, such as the fruit used to make a new flavor of Wendy’s Frosty or other limited-time offers or promotions.
“We have to commit to berries, produce, all those things during the growing time. So, if we’re thinking about anything that’s going to use a berry, produce or tomato commitment, we know those decisions have to be made in advance of others.”
Source: © ROMAN TIRASPOLSKY- STOCK.ADOBE.COMPartnership matters
Thobe made a point of distinguishing between types of partnerships Wendy’s has with its suppliers. She said most fall into one of two buckets: transactional partners or strategic partners. She said strategic partnerships tend to involve more people than transactional ones and they are typically involved in product development up front. For those people who are or hope to be strategic partners, Thobe said good partners come to their role in new product development with insights.
“And if you don’t have insights, go find an insights company to help you,” she said. “Because they’re out there and they can provide this information for you to help you go different ways.”
Companies like Circana (the company formed from the merger of IRI and The NPD Group) can provide data and information to help generate insights, but Thobe said prospective strategic partners should use that information in a constructive manner to fuel innovation.
“If you’re coming in and presenting with insights, don’t hand us a piece of paper from NPD and say, ‘Oh, here’s the insights.’ Come in with your own ideas. Use the insights to create the idea.”
That is how partners get to be on the bench with Wendy’s, she said, which is very important. She added that times have changed in terms of forging partnerships. During the pandemic, many relationships and partnerships were sustained by meetings held on Zoom, Facetime or some other virtual software. But now, Wendy’s product development kitchen is back open and in-person meetings are part of becoming a strategic partner.
“Come back, we need human interaction,” Thobe said. “We need to taste side by side.
“There’s nothing that beats being side by side with a developer on a bench. It makes the process go faster and it helps us all develop. Then, you’re going to be the supplier whose product did the market test or the ops test.”
She added that the Wendy’s team likes commercialization tests, getting all of its commercialization runs approved to move on to a national launch.
Strategic partners’ involvement with Wendy’s includes being part of the team that writes the specifications for new products and are assured of their abilities to produce the product because they are involved from the very beginning.
