Natalie Wayne

• Lead enterprise-wide product innovation and product roadmapping across furniture and adjacent lifestyle categories, defining Lovesac’s long-term roadmap that connects brand vision, consumer insights, and commercial strategy.
• Drive go/no-go and commercialization decisions, ensuring operational readiness and alignment from concept through scale while embedding data-driven portfolio management.
• Advance innovation frameworks and governance, introducing new ways of working, stage-gate processes, and strategic prioritization to accelerate development and reduce time-to-market.
• Partner cross-functionally with design, sourcing, marketing, and operations to deliver consumer-led, commercially viable innovations that expand Lovesac’s category footprint and elevate sustainable, purpose-driven growth.

• Advise CPG, food, beverage, and wellness brands on end-to-end innovation, from whitespace identification and concept development through commercialization, translating insights into scalable growth strategies.
• Architect innovation and commercialization systems that embed long-term value, accelerate speed-to-market, and align R&D, marketing, and operations around consumer-led opportunity spaces.
• Partner with founders and executives to shape brand platforms, prioritize pipelines, and build repeatable frameworks for sustainable category expansion and portfolio renovation.

• Built and led Curaleaf’s first centralized Innovation function, generating $80M in incremental revenue through two new brand launches, multiple rebrands, and 13 new products in Year 1.
• Defined the enterprise innovation roadmap and introduced a scalable “Now, Next, Future” pipeline model integrating brand, consumer, and commercial strategy.
• Developed commercialization frameworks and Ways of Working that accelerated speed-to-market, strengthened cross-functional alignment, and standardized launch excellence across categories.

• Led innovation strategy and commercialization across multiple global beverage platforms, managing concept development, consumer-backed briefs, and end-to-end pipeline planning.
• Directed large-scale product and brand launches, aligning senior leadership, distributor partners, and cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact innovations across priority markets.
• Defined and scaled growth platforms in Ready-to-Drink and Ready-to-Serve, translating consumer and trend insights into disruptive innovation that captured incremental market share.
• Championed Smirnoff’s “big bets” initiative, shaping pipeline and platform strategy rooted in data-driven category foresight and consumer behavior shifts.

Led brand renovation and innovation for Guinness and Smirnoff, establishing Diageo’s first Renovation function to accelerate speed-to-market and strengthen global brand consistency.

Managed large-scale innovation projects across Diageo’s spirits portfolio, leading commercialization and supply chain execution from concept through launch to ensure seamless market delivery.

Supported front-end product innovation through packaging development for Gatorade’s emerging platforms, advancing new technologies and materials to enable future product formats.