Tracking samples in a simple sheet

A spreadsheet is enough to track trial samples in a small team, provided it has the right columns and is updated on the day of the sample review. At Color of Vietnam this sheet is the team's shared memory: where each sample stands, what was decided, why, and which box the retained bar sits in. This piece explains how we built the sheet, how we code and version samples, and the day a missing column sent the whole team looking for one bar.

Why a spreadsheet

A small team needs one place that everyone can open, including on a phone while standing at the partner facility. A spreadsheet does that without anyone having to learn new software. What keeps the sheet alive is not the tool but one rule: any sample that reaches the review table has its row updated before the end of that day. When a spreadsheet stops being enough, usually because there are too many products or too many people, that is the moment for software. Not before.

The columns worth having

Each row is one sample. The columns we keep:

• Sample code: the single name, printed on the sample slip and the retained sample box.
• Brand and product: for filtering during meetings.
• Version and batch: the recipe version number and the batch letter.
• Date received and where made: trial kitchen or the partner facility's line. The two places lead to two different kinds of conclusion.
• What changed from the previous version: one line, one variable. This column is compulsory, because without it a new version is just a number.
• Decision: approved, rejected, or adjust and retry.
• Reason: one sentence.
• Next step, owner, due date.
• Retained sample: box number, and the retaste date.
• Matching specification: which version.

Columns we dropped after a while: a score out of ten, because nobody scored the same way; a long description, because nobody read it; and a general notes column, because it became the home of everything nobody wanted to classify.

Coding and versioning

Our sample code has three parts written together: a short product abbreviation, a two-digit version number and a batch letter. Reading the code tells you the product, which version and which batch. The code is printed on the slip that travels with the sample and on the retained sample box, so the review table, the sheet and the shelf all speak the same language.

The versioning rule has three lines:

• A change to the recipe or the process is a new version, however small the change.
• A repeat of the same recipe, for example a second batch at the facility to check repeatability, keeps the version number and moves to the next batch letter.
• Old rows are never edited. A sample retasted after a few weeks is a new row pointing to the old code, not a correction of the old decision.

Each product has exactly one row marked as the current standard sample. When the specification sheet changes version, the standard sample row records the new number, so the two documents cannot drift apart.

The decision log lives inside the sheet

We do not keep a separate decision log for samples. Filter the sheet by product and the whole history appears: version one rejected and why, version two adjusted, version three approved and now the standard. The rejected rows are the most valuable, because they stop the team from trying the same thing again six months later. The sheet is open during the planning hour at the start of the week, and when our partner facilities ask which version was approved, the answer comes from the sheet, not from anyone's memory.

An example: the column for where the retained sample sits

We once needed a PLAY Nutrition bar of the exact current standard version to include in a sample set for a buyer. The sheet said which version. The sheet did not say where that bar was. Three people searched drawers, the office fridge and a cardboard box under a desk for most of a morning, and finally found it in a box labelled with an old code from before we changed the coding scheme.

That afternoon the sheet gained two columns. The retained sample location column records the box number and shelf position. The retaste date column records when the sample must be tasted again to see how the bar changes over time. The retained sample boxes were renumbered, each with a sheet listing the codes inside. Since then, retained samples are tasted on schedule rather than when someone remembers, and notes about bars hardening or softening after a few weeks now appear in the sheet regularly. One small column made the sheet far more trustworthy, because it now records not only what was decided but what is physically on the shelf.

If you would like to be the person who keeps this sheet and learns to make decisions from it, our Fresher Product R&D (FMCG) role in Hanoi is open on the Careers page. If you are a buyer who wants to know which version your samples belong to and what they have been through, get in touch and we will send the history of that exact sample code with them.