M&M's 5 Year Innovation Pipeline

The Challenge

Due to severe production constraints, portfolio gaps, and a focus on core products, M&M’s lacked a 5-year innovation to unlock brand growth.

M&M’S needed a more balanced growth model, with a greater percentage of total growth coming from innovation rather than core Milk and Peanut varieties
Milk, Peanut, and Seasonal SKUs consumed 90% of available manufacturing assets
The existing 2015 pipeline had gaps that prevented the brand from meeting long-term growth targets
The brand relied heavily on core production, which limited flexibility and restricted the ability to explore new product formats or experiences
Any potential innovation required to address capacity challenges to avoid derating or removing core production, which would result in production loss and reduced sales

M&M’S needed a more balanced growth model, with a greater percentage of total growth coming from innovation rather than core Milk and Peanut varieties
Milk, Peanut, and Seasonal SKUs consumed 90% of available manufacturing assets
The existing 2015 pipeline had gaps that prevented the brand from meeting long-term growth targets
The brand relied heavily on core production, which limited flexibility and restricted the ability to explore new product formats or experiences
Any potential innovation required to address capacity challenges to avoid derating or removing core production, which would result in production loss and reduced sales

M&M’S needed a more balanced growth model, with a greater percentage of total growth coming from innovation rather than core Milk and Peanut varieties
Milk, Peanut, and Seasonal SKUs consumed 90% of available manufacturing assets
The existing 2015 pipeline had gaps that prevented the brand from meeting long-term growth targets
The brand relied heavily on core production, which limited flexibility and restricted the ability to explore new product formats or experiences
Any potential innovation required to address capacity challenges to avoid derating or removing core production, which would result in production loss and reduced sales

Results

$60 M Release of M&M's Caramel

$81.6M Capital Investment in New Technology

M&M's

Grounding the Future

To build a credible future pipeline, we grounded the work in how people actually snacked and how M&M’s fit into real-world behaviors. I led in-home consumer research to uncover the behaviors and tradeoffs shaping everyday decisions. We conducted 13 in-home interviews with 18 participants, using hands-on exercises to observe how snacks were stored, chosen, and consumed in context. Insights were synthesized into three opportunities that aligned marketing, R&D, and operations as the needs of the consumer and the foundation for downstream ideation and pipeline development.

Shaping The Pipeline

After grounding the team in deeper consumer insight, I led a focused ideation sprint that deliberately paired consumer needs with operational and manufacturing realities identified during the framing workshop, ensuring ideas were evaluated for consumer value and production feasibility at the same time. The sprint produced 556 ideas, synthesized into 48 expanded concepts shaped with early consideration of manufacturing, capacity constraints, and technical risk, positioning operations as an active input rather than a downstream gate. From there, 25 concepts advanced into online qualitative testing, creating a disciplined funnel that connected insight to an innovation pipeline rooted in real manufacturing capability and informed investment decisions.

Unlocking a Platform for Growth

M&M’s Caramel had existed inside R&D as an unrealized idea for more than 15 years. I led the team that reframed the opportunity through real consumer behavior, aligned it to brand strategy, and translated it into a clear operational and business case. This work shifted Caramel from a single product concept into a platform decision, enabling investment in soft-center technology that the business could scale.

The resulting $81.6M capital investment unlocked a new manufacturing capability and a future-facing innovation pipeline. This platform delivered $60M in M&M’s Caramel GSV and enabled a broader set of product extensions, including Brownie, Cookies & Creme, and additional soft-center variants, establishing Caramel as the foundation for sustained growth rather than a one-off launch.

WORKS