Product Development, Built from the Ground Up

I led our engineering team on one belief: the moment a card opens should keep getting more surprising. Customer feedback said our cards felt small and static — so we pushed toward real scale and movement, making exploration a core part of how the team worked.

Plushpop reimagined the Lovepop card as a huggable plush character, spanning licensed IP (Grogu, Darth Vader, Mickey) and original designs. We moved production from a China vendor to our own Vietnam factory, building in-house plush capability — with licensed characters built fixed in place, non-licensed ones removable.

When "Baby Yoda" became an instant phenomenon, there was nothing to buy — no merchandise existed at launch. We waited to confirm it wasn't a passing moment, then moved fast: from green light to shelf at Disney Springs in under two months, the 4th company globally to market. That speed and judgment gave Lovepop outsized visibility for our whole collection.

We added embedded lights and sound chips to compete more aggressively — it became one of Lovepop's top-selling categories overnight. Scaling meant solving real challenges fast: in-house chip development, multi-song programming, and margin-conscious sourcing.

Suncatchers meant real risk — leaving our core pop-up format to chase a trend we believed was the perfect "gift in a card." Built from acetate and laser-cut paper, it took off immediately — and let us reinvent our stalling bouquet line into Lovepop's top-selling Mother's Day product.

Extending Plushpop into licensed territory was a real challenge — meeting licensor standards while keeping each character authentically itself in plush form. Getting it right was one of our most meaningful wins on the line.

Beyond product, my team operated as a genuine extension of Marketing — driving campaign messaging, building creative toolkits for consistent brand voice, and producing photoshoots that supported both product and campaign needs. When Marketing underwent a leadership transition, my team stepped in to run Lovepop's social creative directly for close to a year, maintaining brand consistency while onboarding new team members joining in the gap.

That partnership extended into real-world brand experiences. My team conceived and produced an in-store Mother's Day "Sip and Shop" event at Lovepop's Boston retail location — building the full experience, from food and props to a hands-on paper flower bouquet activity led directly with customers. During COVID, we translated that same experience into virtual DIY workshops, bringing the brand into customers' homes when in-person retail wasn't possible.