• Over our combined 40 years of strategic business leadership and product program development, we have developed tools and strategies that help our clients refine their organizational vision, better understand their customers with their challenges, and break down innovation-stifling silos to leverage the talent in your company in solving your customers’ most important challenges.

    We bring the tools and expertise you need to unlock the potential in your organization and transform your business from a vendor to a full-spectrum partner that your customers will come to rely on to solve their problems.

Our Expertise

  • Many entrepreneurs know what they want to build and why it’s a great idea but they don’t always know exactly who it is for and what problem it solves. Even established companies with numerous products often don’t understand how their product portfolio fits together, where their products are in the lifecycle, and where the gaps are in their offerings. We have years of experience bringing coherence to product portfolios, understanding what the customer needs, and how to fill that need. Getting there is the first step on the road to moving from selling products to building real solutions.

  • We have built programs that align corporate vision and strategy with customer needs and business capabilities to build strategies that motivate, inspire, and create devoted customers by being their solution partner.

  • By leveraging diverse and cross-functional teams, lean methodologies, agile practices, and project prioritization, we’ve streamlined product and project management and expanded the pool of problem-solving expertise. Our approach has cut development timelines by up to 75% and saving hundreds of thousands in rework while significantly increasing sales with better-tailored solutions.

  • We are not just consultants but trainers as well. We provide training to companies and organizations working to develop businesses in their community to help them drive their own success.

  • Collectively, we’ve developed and launched dozens of products across manufacturing, software, logistics, and services into markets around the world.

    • Customer Focus: Our culture revolves around learning of and deeply understanding customer needs.

    • Iterative Development: We stay flexible to evolving customer needs and feedback on current products by using agile and iterative approaches that constantly validating our solutions with the customer at each stage of development.

    • Agile Manufacturing: We’ve extended agile to manufactured products using 3D design and additive manufacturing, allowing iterative design that creates a product in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional waterfall and injection molding approaches.

    • Stakeholder Engagement: Frequent reassessment and proactive engagement keeps us aligned with user expectations.

    • Collaboration: Cross-functional teamwork and diversity drive efficient problem-solving and more innovative ideas. We help you bring your experts together to solve customer problems.

    • Product Management

    • Scrum

    • Additive Manufacturing and Design

    • Sales

    • Remote Teams

    • Global Business

    Along with expertise in

    • Market Research

    • Financial Analysis

    • Customer Climate Surveys

    • International Trade in Arms Regulation (ITAR)

    • Lean, Six Sigma

    • Process improvement

    • Compliance

    • Systems integration.

    • On-Time Delivery: We consistently deliver products on schedule, emphasizing security, quality, and scope.

    • Global Coordination: With training and extensive experience in global business, we help you build global teams and understand global markets. We have developed products and led teams across North America, Europe, and Asia.

    • Quality Assurance: Our background in quality assurance of both software and manufactured goods will help you build robust programs that ensure you deliver not just the right product, but one that works as your customer expects it to.

    • Unified Vision: Expertise in global and remote teams means that despite time zones and cultural differences, clear communication will align everyone with project and corporate goals.

    • Product Launch: Our collaborative approach means that when launch time approaches, everyone is on board. Our experience in working with production, operations, sales, marketing, finance, and management to develop launch plans ensured everyone knew their role in a smooth and successful launch.

    • Our Expertise - While we specialize in product management, we also bring our analytical and business intelligence expertise to bear on finding where your business is doing well and where improvements are needed.

    • Data Collection - We dig into the details, slice, dice, and compare to find causes of good or poor performance.

    • Strategy Building - Using this data, we help you build plans and strategies to build on strengths and shore up areas of weakness.

Our Banner & Logo

  • The Customer-Led Innovations Consulting (CLIC) banner helps us remember how the whole cross-functional team fits together.

    • The customer comes first. They are the reason we are in business.

    • Next is the Leader. The Leader represents the company’s culture, vision, and mission. This gives us focus. They are the keeper of the “Why.”

    • Third is the worker. They represent our capabilities and are the true innovators - they have the skills to solve our customers’ problems. While, like people, companies can learn new skills, doing what you are good at gives us a competitive advantage and daily focus makes it easier to see how we can get better.

    • Finally, in blue is the consultant. This is where CLIC comes in. We help you understand your “Who” (customer), your “Why,” and your “What.” We then can bring all three together like a puzzle to create balance that provides real value that resonates with both your customers and your employees. This then translates to passionate service to the customer and in return, customer devotion to your mission.

  • The logo reminds us of our mission as the consultant to bring the key players in the team together and help them combine their “superpowers” to do great things.

Meet the Team

  • Brent Willson, Global MBA & Certified Product Manager

    LinkedIn

    As a U.S. Air Force veteran with over 20 years of aerospace and intelligence experience, Brent managed complex projects for high-value systems and large organizations, collaborating with multiple stakeholders.

    He learned two key lessons: start by understanding customer needs to create tailored solutions, and build a team of experts to find the best solutions.

    After the military, Brent joined the R&D department at a construction tools company, driving change by shifting from siloed project managers to customer-focused, cross-functional teams. This approach brought new perspectives and capabilities, leading to faster development and more successful product launches.

    To further enhance product development, Brent's team leveraged 3D CAD and additive manufacturing, allowing them to start with a minimum viable product (MVP), test it with customers, identify improvements, and implement changes quickly.

    As a result, Brent established a formal product management program, including product portfolio reviews, alignment, new idea generation, evaluation, and prioritization in roadmaps. This ensured resources were allocated to the best prospects.

    Brent also built systems for customer feedback, product defect tracking, an ideas portal, and knowledge-based articles and other resources including articles in industry publications and an invitation to present at the 2018 World Demolition Summit in Dublin, Ireland on dust control regulations.

    These changes reduced development times by 75%, increased the customer base, and doubled sales.

    Brent then transitioned to fine art logistics and services, where he established product management, developed solutions like cloud storage, 3D scanning, blockchain, global logistics, emissions reduction, and other technologies.

    His team analyzed and organized the product portfolio, created roadmaps, identified key market segments, developed product training, and boosted sales by focusing on customer needs, transforming the company from a vendor to a full solution partner.

    Brent and his teams have launched dozens of products in B2C, B2B, and public sector markets, sold in specialty stores, big-box retail, and eCommerce. His drive to solve customer needs led him to become an expert in compliance and sustainability, instituting a "sustainable by design" program.

    Brent holds numerous certifications, including:

    • Quartz Open Framework Certified Product Manager

    • Executive Certificate of Global Business Management

    • Certificate of Proficiency in Additive Manufacturing and 3D Design

    • Certified SolidWorks Associate

    • Certified Tech Sales Professional

    • Master Remote Leader

    • Master Remote Work Professional

    • Certified Adjunct Instructor

    • IBM Certification in Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals

    He has a Global MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, a Bachelor of Arts in languages from Excelsior College, and two Associate degrees from the Community College of the Air Force in aircraft maintenance and intelligence and communications technologies.

    Brent has seen the benefits of strategic alignment, cross-functional and diverse teams, balanced product portfolios, and market insights in transforming companies and creating repeat customers.

  • As a Senior Leader, Product Visionary, and Software Delivery Expert, Lance Wadman is passionate about driving seamless product delivery from ideation to market, ensuring excellence and customer satisfaction at every step.

    In his role as a Senior Technical Program Manager, Lance managed security services and client expectations for a global organization, building strong relationships with stakeholders, development teams, and leadership. He produced weekly reports and status updates, introduced Portfolio Management tailored to business requirements, and drove over 20 projects across domestic and international teams. He managed scope, schedule, cost, and quality while coordinating execution across eight teams. Lance supervised Product Owners and UX to streamline the Product Delivery Lifecycle, consolidated backlogs for effective feature-level management, and improved customer satisfaction by 30%. By mentoring and coaching teams, he enhanced delivery and quality by 50%, established program structures based on KPIs and customer feedback, and served as an Agile Coach for three Agile Development teams.

    As an Agile Release Manager, Lance managed the Release Management lifecycle for multiple applications across various portfolios, improving software engineering processes for continuous integration and deployment. He established IT metrics, set goals and execution plans to shorten cycle times, and held retrospectives for continuous improvement. He managed release windows and the overall release lifecycle, communicated key project plans and changes, and conducted release readiness, milestone, and business go/no-go reviews.

    As an Agile Coach and Program Manager, Lance built a team of Agile Project Managers (Scrum Masters) and introduced Scaled Agile (SAFe) to a development group with 18 teams. He coached teams to maximum efficiency with Agile Best Practices, implemented Communities of Practice for continuous improvement, and mentored small development teams. He drove quality initiatives during the transition from Waterfall to Scrum, reported on Agile Transformation, identified waste using LEAN, and enhanced the SDLC for faster value delivery. He oversaw Agile teams in multiple countries and orchestrated showcases, demos, and reviews.

    As a Senior Leader, Lance established teams for Product Management, Quality Assurance, Cyber Security, Technical Writing, and Change Control. He developed test automation infrastructure, implemented security procedures and audits, and set up technical documentation workflows. Lance managed several small teams, drove quality initiatives during the transition from Start-Up to Customer Focus, developed reporting systems and metrics, and aligned efforts for TDD, BDD, and ATDD. He improved speed to production, maintained environment integrity, promoted early testing, supported continuous delivery, identified and addressed issues within the SDLC, and continuously improved processes, products, and business relationships.