How Program Management Runs the Home Decor Spring Launch

A nationwide Home assortment transformation that depended on many teams -- Merchandising, Suppliers, Transportation, DC Operations, and Store Operations -- making the right decisions at the right time. Program Management sat at the center: translating Merchandising's strategy into execution-ready plans, setting and holding the timeline, and engaging follow-ups across every organization from pre-order creation through final store delivery.

$122.6M

initiative scope

17 weeks

planning cycle

25+

suppliers aligned

67% → 88%

on-time delivery

Program Ownership Model

Five layers of ownership run top to bottom: Strategy (Merchandising and Replenishment), Readiness (Program Management), Execution (Suppliers, Transportation, and DC Operations), Launch (Store Operations), and Benefits Realization (Program Management and Merchandising jointly). Program Management translates Layer 1 strategy into execution-ready plans for Layer 3, then closes the loop with Merchandising on results.

Five layers of ownership, top to bottom. Program Management owns Readiness outright and co-owns Benefits Realization with Merchandising -- but its real function is the translation between layers: turning Merchandising strategy into a plan Suppliers, Transportation, and DC Operations can execute against.

Execution Timeline & Cadence

Across a generalized multi-week planning cycle, six phases run in sequence: Kickoff and Intake, Order Creation, Procurement Handoff and Smoothing, Routing and Transportation Kickoff, Load Audit and Handoff to Execution, and Launch and Store Set. Program Management drives a specific action in every phase and runs recurring cross-functional check-ins throughout.

The same 17-week cycle, broken into the phases Program Management actively drives -- with a named PM action at every step, from the first supplier kickoff to confirming the store set is complete.

How It Works, Behind the Scenes

In general terms, the program manager's job was not to run any one function -- it was to make sure every function was working from the same plan at the same time. That meant taking Merchandising's assortment and financial strategy and converting it into concrete, dated commitments (supplier onboarding, purchase order creation, capacity validation, transportation planning) that Suppliers, Transportation, and DC Operations could act on directly. Each phase of the cadence had a defined Program Management action -- confirm, escalate, mobilize, audit, hand off -- so that risk surfaced early rather than at the loading dock. Once execution was underway, Program Management stayed engaged through launch and into benefits realization, closing the loop with Merchandising on what worked and what should change for the next launch.

Capabilities Demonstrated

Commercialization
Launch readiness
Supplier enablement
Cross-functional governance
Risk management
Retail execution
Stakeholder leadership
Program cadence design