The Power of Customer-centric Packaging Design

Nicholas Schuelke, Sr. Manager of Packaging R&D at Dawn Foods Global has worked for many years in packaging across multiple companies. He is an expert in innovating new ways of packaging and an advocate of customer centric packaging. In an exclusive interview with food business review magazine, he shared his insights on innovation in packaging.

Can you share the key experiences and milestones in your career that have led you to your current role as senior manager of packaging R&D?

I would say getting to the role of Sr. Manager of Packaging R&D at Dawn Foods has been a combination of luck and a continuous desire to learn, grow, and develop others. I actually have a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and not Packaging Engineering. With that said, when I joined Procter & Gamble out of college they placed me in a packaging engineering group. During my time at Procter & Gamble I worked in the Fabric & Home Care business unit working on packaging for a variety of brands such as Dawn, Tide, & Downy. Those roles helped me develop the leadership skills to be able to lead teams and projects effectively while also helping me realize that I enjoy working on packaging.

“At the heart of it all, you need to be putting your customer or consumer at the forefront of the packaging design. We try to take a design thinking approach to truly understand our customers’ pain points and how we can solve them”

I then chose to make a move into the Lawn & Gardening sector by pivoting to a role at Scotts Miracle Gro. My last role at Scotts was leading the Controls & Hawthorne Gardening teams. In that role I was much more innovation focused. As I was leaving, my team was in the process of launching two innovations in that space: a handheld battery-powered applicator for insecticides and a flexible concentrate pouch for herbicides. About two and a half years ago, I had the opportunity move back to my home state of Michigan and lead the packaging team at Dawn Foods. In this role, I’m leading a team of packaging engineers for the North America region. Our team is focused both on launching new packaging innovation and also on partnering with our cross functional partners to optimize our current packaging and processes. What I love about this role is it’s a wonderful combination of needing to be tactical in solving issues as they arise as well as strategic in helping set the vision for what future packaging innovation could solve our customer’s unmet needs. I’m blessed to be chosen to take on this challenge.

In food packaging, functionality and perception go hand in hand. How do you design for both utility and emotional connection with the end-user?

At the heart of it all, you need to be putting your customer or consumer at the forefront of the packaging design. We try to take a design thinking approach to truly understand our customers’ pain points and how we can solve them. Once we have that focused problem statement, we match it with technical performance and functionality.

How do you facilitate effective communication and alignment across multiple departments, such as marketing, procurement, supply chain and compliance, to ensure cohesive project execution?

I’ve seen cross-functional collaboration continue to evolve over my time in the industry. The most important thing is taking the time to build connections with your key cross functional partners both professionally and personally. To do this I have recurring one-on-one meetings with my key cross-functional partners. Especially in today’s hybrid work environment, having those connections and touchpoints scheduled ensures that everyone has awareness and alignment to the priorities of the business and allows for more agile and effective decision making.

How do you balance innovation with the strict regulatory and safety requirements in food packaging, and how does your team's approach to this balance differ?

Innovation begins with having the utmost confidence that the material of choice is safe and approved for food contact use. We pull in our quality assurance and regulatory partners early and they have a seat at the table for any innovation that we are investigating. This allows any concerns to be voiced early and often in a project so don’t we don’t waste time and energy, and instead focus on innovations that can solve our customers’ problems.

Are there any cutting-edge tools or software that your team uses for rapid prototyping or simulation of packaging designs?

We do have partners and vendors that we leverage for prototyping and testing. We’re also looking into bringing that capability in-house. Our goal is to have a “fail fast, fail early, fail cheap” mindset when vetting out packaging opportunities. What we’ve found is that to be effective in utilizing external partners it’s critical to build strong relationships with the right partners. When you have those strong relationships it can lead to better communication, increased agility, and a more optimum packaging design.

Many young professionals may view packaging as a purely technical role, what advice would you share on balancing technical expertise with creativity and innovation in packaging roles?

My advice would be to have an open mind about what a career in packaging might look like or lead to. To be an effective subject matter expert you do need a certain level of technical expertise, but true innovation requires you to also tap into the creative side of your brain to develop solutions to problems. Likewise, breakthrough innovation often requires a lot of creativity, especially when developing concepts that have never been in market before and solving an unmet customer need. Lastly, while gaining that technical skillset is crucial early in your career, you don’t necessarily need to stay in a purely technical role. There are a variety of other roles one can take from there such as people leadership, procurement, supply chain, and operations.