From idea to first sample: our six steps

A product idea at Color of Vietnam passes through six steps before a first sample is approved: a brief, benchmark tasting, recipe direction with the partner facility, the first sample, a review, and a packaging draft. None of the steps is long, each produces one clear output, and any of them can end with a decision to stop. To make it concrete, this piece follows one example: a cheese tteokbokki style rice cracker for the Let's PLAY brand.

Steps one and two: the brief and the benchmark tasting

The brief (a one page description of what we want to make) answers six questions: who eats it, on what occasion, under which brand, in what format, what must not be written on the pack, and what question the first sample has to answer. For the cheese tteokbokki cracker the brief says: a family sharing in the afternoon, Let's PLAY, a bag of eight crackers at 13.5 g each, no health promises, and the question is whether a sweet and spicy tteokbokki style seasoning works on a crisp rice cracker base.

Benchmark tasting is the step most often skipped. We buy several cheese flavoured rice crackers already on the shelf, taste them blind (labels covered, nobody knows which is which) and score each on crispness, intensity, cheese aroma, aftertaste and how greasy the fingers get. This gives us a mark to measure against. Without it, the first sample can only be called good or not good, with no answer to the question: good compared with what?

Step three: recipe direction with the partner facility

We have no trial kitchen of our own, so this step happens with the technicians of our partner facility. We send the brief and the benchmark scores, then sit down together to answer three questions:

• What the existing lines can do. The cracker base goes through the sheeting line and tunnel oven; seasoning is applied in the coating drum. A new flavour has to fit inside those capabilities.
• Which ingredients go into the seasoning: which cheese powder, where the sweet and spicy element comes from, and whether each has a COA (certificate of analysis).
• What the smallest trial batch is and which slot in the facility's schedule it can take.

The output of step three is a recipe direction on paper, with two or three variants and a date. No meeting ends with the words let us see how it goes.

Steps four and five: the first sample and the review

The first sample is a small batch, usually two or three versions that differ in a single variable, for example the ratio of cheese to the sweet and spicy part. Each version carries a sample code, the date and the machine settings the partner used. Samples travel to the Hanoi office in sealed bags of the same type we expect to sell in.

The review always runs the same way. Samples go next to the best benchmark from step two. We taste in order: appearance, crispness, taste, aftertaste. Everyone writes before anyone speaks. At the end each version gets one of three verdicts, keep, adjust or drop, with a one line reason and a next step. Everything goes into the sample tracker. If all versions are dropped, the idea returns to step three or stops. Stopping here is cheap. Stopping after the packaging has been printed is not.

Step six: the packaging draft

People are often surprised that packaging comes this early. The reason is that packaging forces us to say clearly what the product is. The draft only needs the front: the flavour name, one descriptive sentence, the Let's PLAY brand colour, and the A brand of Color of Vietnam stamp. As soon as it is written we hold it against the approved sample. If the pack says spicy and the cracker is merely warm, one of the two has to change, and it is usually the pack.

The draft is also what we show to a few people outside the team, together with the cracker, to hear the first thing they say when they pick it up. Mandatory lines such as ingredients, nutrition and shelf life wait until the spec sheet is final.

What comes after step six, and why we do not skip

After the approved sample and the packaging draft come shelf life testing, the final spec sheet, tasting with people outside the team, and only then printing and a production slot with the partner. The six steps take a few weeks, but each one costs a small batch or a sheet of paper. Jumping from idea to printed packaging saves a few weeks and can cost an entire print run.

This is our Small Trials value in the shape of a process: a clear question first, a small batch next, a recorded decision, and only then scale.

If you would like to work inside these six steps, from writing the brief to sitting with the partner's technicians, the Fresher Product R&D role in Hanoi is open on the Careers page. If you are a partner with an ingredient, a packaging material or a sales channel that belongs in one of the steps, send us a message through the Contact page.