Coworking with Juliet Choi

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Juliet Choi is VP of product at supplement brand Grüns.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I create new product ideas and lead the teams that turn them into something real—a gummy in a sachet that’s delicious, effective, and ready for a consumer to pick up off a shelf. I lead cross-functional teams across product development, research and development, commercialization, and science and regulatory to make sure every idea actually becomes a successful product. I’m also the connective tissue for what other functions need from a product; if sales needs a unique flavor or size for a retailer, or operations needs a new co-manufacturer trained and validated, that runs through me and my team.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? A huge part of my job is building the infrastructure for repeatable success, not just one-off wins. Any team can figure out how to launch a product once on a fast six-month timeline, but it takes a process and systems to do that 12 times a year without something breaking. I’ve built out the innovation gate process we use to track every formulation in our pipeline through go/no-go decisions, which is what lets us scale from one great launch to a portfolio of them. The other thing people don’t see is how much the role demands beyond product development itself. To make the right call on a product, I need a working understanding of retail, marketing, customer service, operations, and legal—the role is inherently cross-functional, and I cannot operate in silos.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Our most recent launch, Müves! It’s a first-to-market 10-gram fiber gummy. I developed the concept to solve a real problem: 95% of Americans don’t get enough fiber in their diet, and nothing else on the market delivers 10 grams of fiber from three different prebiotic sources in a format people actually want to eat. I led the launch across my 14-person product team from positioning, R&D on the gummy formulation, claims validation, pilot trials at the manufacturer, consumer testing, all the way through to launch. We took it from ideation to launch in under 10 months, which is an unusually fast timeline for a company our size in this industry. That speed is only possible because our core functions, including R&D, science, regulatory, ingredient sourcing, and packaging, all sit in-house and move together as one unit.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? I love seeing everyday formats that have been around forever such as mac and cheese get re-engineered around real nutritional needs, like protein. It’s making healthy nutrition something people can hit day-to-day without it feeling like a checklist.

What’s your go-to coffee order? Cold brew with a dash of oat milk.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? That something can’t be done, so I shouldn’t bother trying. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been told an innovation wasn’t feasible because someone tried it once and it didn’t work. I don’t believe “impossible” until my team has tested it ourselves. With our Immün formula, we were told by others in the industry that it couldn’t be done. It took my team more than 40 iterations, but we unlocked a formulation that’s challenging for others to replicate, because we were willing to go find out for ourselves instead of taking someone else’s word for it.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? When I was 15, the Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil was my holy grail acne product! My favorite product right now is Cadence—it’s an electrolyte beverage that’s so delicious, tastes like a treat, and is my go-to after a run or a sauna session.