CM Artefacts™
Small tools for commercial reality.
Over the years, I noticed that some surprisingly useful Category Management tools simply did not exist.
So I started creating them.
Not as consulting projects.
Not as software or complex methodologies.
Just small practical artefacts designed to help people navigate commercial reality a little more clearly.
The Category Manager
First Aid Sheet
A calm reset for commercial reality.
A free printable poster with seven simple reminders for staying commercially clear when everything gets noisy.
The Category Manager Doodle Pack
For long calls and commercial survival.
Five printable doodle sheets for Category Managers navigating dashboards, promotions, meetings and commercial overload.
Category Management Memory
Match the symptom with the real problem.
A printable memory game designed to train pattern recognition behind modern FMCG complexity.
Category Management Picture Memory
Match organizational reality with the underlying commercial insight.
A conversation starter for people who know that commercial problems rarely begin where they become visible.
The Category Manager Field Guide
A practical field companion for store visits, category reviews and commercial inspiration.
A structured way to observe categories through the eyes of a shopper and understand what the dashboard never shows.
The Perfect Store Navigator
6 Lessons Learned
A compact guide for anyone involved in Perfect Store programs.
Six lessons on why execution is only the visible part of a much larger commercial system.
Category Management
The Shelf Is Not Your Lever
“A senior perspective on how commercial decisions shape category performance.”
Most Category Management work becomes visible at the shelf.
But many category problems begin long before products ever reach it.
This playbook explores Category Management not as an operational discipline — but as a system of connected commercial decisions shaped by shopper logic, organizational structures, portfolio priorities, retail dynamics and execution reality.
Topics include:
- why many category issues originate upstream
- how incomplete decisions create downstream complexity
- why relevance matters more than visibility
- how Private Label exposes structural weakness
- why promotions often compensate for unclear strategy
- how Retail Media changes commercial priorities
- and why the shelf reflects decisions rather than defining them
Written in a calm, structured and highly practical style, the book is designed for FMCG professionals who want to move beyond operational optimization toward strategic commercial clarity.
Not a book about managing shelves.
A book about improving the decisions behind them.
Explore the Book