Kelly Clayton Email & Phone Number

Saint Paul, Mn, Us

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

• Lead Product Developer for Key Accounts. • Oversees Development & Design strategy for Key Accounts. This includes the steps from ideation through the product life cycle. • Manages Communication to Key Accounts. This includes day to day emails & sales presentations. • Collaborates with Design Team to ideate & develop product with each Key Account in mind. •Manages Product Development calendars across several accounts to meet key milestone dates. Directly manages these dates with Product Development, Design, & Sourcing to align and ensure deadlines are met. •Works with Sourcing Manager to meet both internal and client margin goals.• Strategically develop new business opportunities in the marketplace. • Collaborates with Business Segment Manager on the Annual Budget and creates monthly Business Summaries to present to Company Leadership.• Core Team Leader on new PLM system rollout.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

• Collaborate cross-functionally to establish design, product development, financial analysis and assortment strategy. • Responsible for tracking and managing all financial aspects of programs to meet or exceed budget goals.• Provide leadership, guidance, and project management to multiple departments from initial development to in store sets, including pre- production and production. • Support and manage all stages of the product life cycle, generating ideas and identify gaps in assortments that can help determine where there is need for product development and innovation. • Utilize macro to micro trend development through competitive and market shopping, trend service review, and lifestyle/cultural research. Stays abreast of trends in the marketplace to ensure the product/assortment's competitive position.• Ownership of in-depth business trends, product innovation, customer brand guidelines and business objectives. • Produce products that will meet company goals and client expectations for design, price, technical feasibility, quality and function.• Conduct sales and inventory analysis and recaps, using data to influence future assortments. • Communicate with excellent detail, follow-up and professionalism using preferred platforms to meet client expectations.• Collaborate on product concepts through from development to in-store set with China Team and factory partners.• Lead owner to the Product Development Specialist (PDS) position, which is responsible for product development support, compliance regulations, quality and function of all product from development to in-store set.

Primary Responsibilities Include:•Work collaboratively with the Product Development Manager and Product Designer to accomplish product development goals.• Effectively communicate with factory partners to seek and confirm materials, finishes, and items that achieve value and costing requirements.• Data management of costing received from factories within various documents ( I.e line plans and costing worksheets), to effectively do duct costing meetings with Supply Chain Managers.• Manage the internal timing and action calendar based on customer's timelines and deadlines to help the entire Product Development & Design team plan for deliverables. •Create and Manage presentation decks to help support product direction at line reviews and key meetings.•Communicate with the factories regarding sample quality and aesthetics; re-engineering samples to achieve optimal costing in effort to reach customer's IMU/PMU goals. • Collaborate with the team to maintain trend resource lists; consistently review primary and secondary tools to keep database relevant.•Utilize trend services, online platforms (Pinterest, Instagram, blogs), retail comp shopping and more. This is done with the goal of finding and creating innovative trend right items. •As a member of our Target team and Business Development team, I am accustomed to working with multiple retailers and buyers at the same time. Secondary Responsibilities:• Social Media Team Member: Along with other team members we strategize and plan our branding efforts. We manage and plan photo shoots, social media giveaways, & Social media growth plans.

As a Product Development Assistant, I am responsible for supporting the Product Development Manager in creative development and execution of assigned product categories.Primary Responsibilities Include:• Participating in brainstorming sessions for new product ideas that meet company initiatives and customer needs.• Responsible for competitive product and sales analysis including market research and competitive shopping among key retailers to track trends, pricing, and packaging formats.• Responsible for sourcing trend right product online in foreign markets to fit within the pricing constraints. • Creating and maintaining development grids using internal database system to track samples, item costs and spec information throughout the development process.• Involved in overseas communication to follow up on product sourcing, sample tracking, and development sample issues.• Sample management- including requesting samples, tracking and prioritizing all development, photographing samples, meeting preparations and showroom organization. I help to maintain records and check to ensure samples are correct.Additional Responsibilities Include: • Attending internal & customer meetings, and providing meeting recaps.• Interacting with Product Managers, Design, and Supply Chain to communicate product details and assure the accuracy, quality and integrity of all products.• Help with line plan creation to define and execute strategies for each customer.

•Key responsibilities included data management, file organization, drafting office memos using Microsoft word. •Managed awards and proposals for their final destinations, entered data into excel and kept the database organized. •Provided administrative and executive support within a busy office.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

• Acquire, convert and retain users on the ByME app.• Identify and execute on campus marketing opportunities.• Participate in business strategy decisions with senior team members.• Find and meet with influential students and staff on campus.• Schedule and give mini presentations in front of classes and student groups.• Inform senior team members of issues students are having with the app.• Keep the company up-to-date with trends popular among college students.• Discover popular merchants with students near campus.Results of Internship:•Along with my co-worker we managed the promotional efforts of ByME and increased user base by 280%. •Contributed to creating and implementing a social media strategy that created an additional 100,000+ impressions on social media.

Ecommerce

• Increase brand awareness and generate leads and sales.• Market Ellie across various social networking sites.

University Of Minnesota

• My role within EFDAQ was promoting and marketing this innovative new POS experience to retail food locations everywhere.• Perform Market Analysis and develop marketing strategies.

• I was selected to be a denim expert and jewelry expert for AEO. I was responsible for maintaining jewelry displays through inventory, marketing, and sales to generate effective product movement as well as being responsible for the floor sets and designs for Jewelry and Denim in the store. • Worked with other sales team members to help store achieve daily and monthly sales goals as well as develop a rapport with the customers to establish a more effective customer relationship.