A sprawling portfolio built over time without rules or a common language became a chore to navigate.
The situation how the client experienced it.
The client operates simultaneously as a manufacturer, supplier, and retailer of cosmetic products, managing over 30 brands and around 100 collections. Because their manufacturing facility sat inside the same building as the head office, launching a brand-new concept had historically become much easier than doing the hard work of revising an existing one.
As a result, the portfolio grew purely by accumulation, creating severe operational drift. Some brands looked identical on the shelf but had completely different products underneath, while others looked entirely different but sold the same range. No single, master sales catalogue existed. Every pitch meeting had to be built ad-hoc from different documents, and the entire organisation had to rely on the memory of a single, long-standing team member just to understand their own commercial offering.
What I actually did.
The brief was to build a comprehensive visual reference of the full portfolio to highlight duplicates and gaps.
I started by visiting the physical showroom to understand the problem visually, seeing firsthand how some brands stood out while others blurred into each other. Next, I requested every piece of sales literature the company had produced, so I could see what their clients were seeing.
The literature revealed the true issue: no two sales documents were structured the same way. One led with the product range, another with the brand story, and another with ingredients. Comparing brands like-for-like required heavy mental translation, forcing the company to rely on one person’s memory.
The reference point and perspective gained.
I mapped out the full portfolio using a clean, three-layered visual layout that allowed the team to step back and see their whole commercial offering at once.
First, I built a matrix mapping every brand and their products. This instantly highlighted the duplicates and gaps the organisation had suspected but couldn’t prove. Second, I created a set of shared portfolio maps viewed through different lenses; separating them by brand type, category, and region. Every map used the same visual language, giving the team the perspective needed to scan them instantly without re-learning the format. Finally, I designed a structured, visual template for all future catalogue production, ensuring every brand followed a consistent layout hierarchy.
What changed after.
With the ecosystem mapped onto a shared document, the organisation gained enough clarity to make strategic choices. Missing products were developed, dormant collections were discontinued, and forgotten brands were reintroduced to secure new business. Operationally, one team took ownership of the new reference map, allowing them to retire all previous documents and eliminate the reliance on memory.
What I learned.
A capability can become a weakness. The client's ability to manufacture in-house was a competitive advantage. However, that capability made the organisation lose sight of what it sells, highlighting the need for a shared visual reference.