Director, Ideation in Gent, Belgium

Esko, a Veralto company, is a global provider of integrated software and hardware solutions that accelerate the go-to-market process of packaged goods. For each stakeholder in the process, Esko solutions enable them to work efficiently and deliver right-first-time packaging and marketing content on time, every time. Our goal is to make it easier for CPG and pharma businesses to manage their packaging, labeling, regulatory and marketing content.

With our packaging management platform, brand marketing and packaging teams can increase their productivity, reduce costs, and save time. For packaging and label trade shops, premedia service providers and printer converters, we digitize, automate, and connect the entire print production process with software and hardware solutions for CAD design, prepress processes, flexo platemaking and print inspection.

About the role:

The Director of Ideation is responsible for driving the development of innovative solutions, processes, and services that are aligned with market demands, ultimately contributing to organizational growth. This role requires continuous monitoring of market trends, competitor activities, customer needs, and technological advancements, adopting both an “outside-in” and “inside-out” approach.

The Director actively engages with various partners within Esko during the ideation phase and disseminates insights across the organization. Based on thorough analysis, the Director identifies and initiates new ideation projects and is accountable for leading creation of concepts and prototypes to show prospective customers for feedback/validation, and for helping build the business rationale necessary to advance these projects through TG0 and TG1 stages. Upon validation, the Director transitions approved product concepts to Product Managers for further development and execution, ensuring a seamless pre-TG2 handover.

Key Responsibilities

1. Management of the Ideation Process

The Director of Ideation leads the development of the ideation funnel, ensuring alignment with market demands, competitive landscape, and Esko’s strategic objectives.

• Evaluating all ideas based on strategic alignment, market potential, revenue prospects, solution uniqueness, and complexity in replication, to determine their viability at the TG0 stage.

• Leading TG0 projects, including feasibility analysis to further define market opportunities, covering aspects such as competition, differentiation, market potential, and strategic fit.

• Building ad-hoc teams to work active Ideation projects by recruiting relevant resources from Product Management and R&D to be active contributors to reach TG1

• Ensuring innovation ideas are consistently linked to customer value propositions, answering the question, “How will this improve my business?”

• Facilitating the creation of prototypes or mockups to be presented to selected internal and external stakeholders.

2. Proactive Market Opportunity Exploration

The Director of Ideation is responsible for actively identifying opportunities to enhance Esko’s product and service offerings, thereby achieving business objectives and driving growth.

• Continuously monitoring press releases for potential opportunities.

• Actively exploring all possible ideations, including those beyond product innovation, to foster growth aligned with customer expansion.

• Identifying and assessing potential market developments through regular consultations with colleagues, external partners, customers, and other stakeholders across the packaging value chain (brands, designers, premedia, converters).

• Participating in internal and external events and activities, such as user groups and industry conferences (e.g., DScoop, EFI Connect), as well as engaging with regulatory bodies and industry associations.

• Building and maintaining a robust network within the industry, encompassing customers and non-customers across the packaging value chain.

3. Strategic Development of Products and Services

The Director of Ideation plays a pivotal role in supporting the Product Managers by contributing essential insights for the strategic development of products, services, and processes.

• Supporting the creation of comprehensive market scans.

• Conducting market analyses to identify potential growth initiatives.

• Interpreting competitive patent reports.

• Developing well-founded and structured strategic narratives that balance conceptual vision with practical applicability.

• Advising, in collaboration with relevant departments, on market segments Esko should target and the products or services that should be developed for profitability.

• Analyzing market data collected by the marketing team and translating these insights into strategic marketing approaches.

4. Other Responsibilities

• Actively participates in the annual Strategic Plan process as initiative owner or team member. Additionally, the Director can be appointed to support market and diligence work on M&A opportunities.

• Engages with stakeholders within Esko to cultivate a culture of innovation, continually fostering the generation of new ideas.

• Collaborates with Partnership leaders in a consultative capacity to identify potential projects with existing partners or to introduce new partners that align with Esko’s strategic solutions.

Qualifications

• Subject-matter expertise in packaging industry, with multiple years in the industry in active roles (user, technical, commercial, product management, development).

• Ability to create value base with creative thinking applied to solve specific customer problems in novel and differentiated ways with software solutions.

• Ability to interact with customers, experts and internal colleagues in different group settings (interviews, workshops, etc.) for problem-solving and ideation.

• Expert in value stream mapping, voice-of-customer techniques and problem-to-portfolio tools.

R eporting Structure and Key Contacts

• Reports to: Chief Product Officer

• Direct reports: software engineer and UX design lead

• Key Internal Contacts: Product Management, R&D, Marketing, Sales

• External Contacts: Partners, End Customers, Industry Stakeholders

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