Provide some basic explanations/definitions about the model/insight you use and then apply them to analyze the case Jeanne David may be interested in future growth for Outer Aisle. Assume she comes to you for advice on the product planning and development process as she is considering new products. Please provide her with a comprehensive overview of how she should proceed.

Case – Outer Aisle
Based on: Her Bet on Cauliflower Led to a Business With $11 Million in Sales
By: Tom Foster, Eidtor-at-Large, Inc. Magazine – September 2020
An interview with: Chef Vicky Colas, Authority Magazine – December 23, 2020, Adapted, modified, and condensed by Ronald J. Abraira (February 2022) for academic purposes Jeanne David has a simple goal--to revolutionize the bread industry. The founder and CEO of Outer Aisle, a Santa Barbara, California-based maker of cauliflower pizza crusts and sandwich thins, David recognized the potential for a cauliflower trend in 2013, the year she founded her company. At the time, the white cruciferous vegetable was not "the cool kid" it is today. With $11 million in 2019 revenue and a three-year growth rate of more than 5,000 percent, Outer Aisle is a leader in a burgeoning new category. Among the company's fast-growing team: all
four of David's sons, as well as her husband. I grew up in a big family with 12 siblings in uptown New Orleans. I studied nursing for two
years at LSU but chose not to continue my practice as a nurse when starting my family. From an early age, I always loved the concepts and structure of business and the thought of inventing and making something. I was always looking for ways to be industrious and earn an income. I had my first business in 5th grade at the age of 10, a summer day camp for kids in my neighborhood.
My first foray into the food industry was when I started my own homemade cookie dough company in my 20s ‘The Beary Best Cookie Company’ made with all-natural ingredients. About 10 years ago, our doctor put my husband and me on a diet of protein, fruits, and vegetables. We took out all the empty carbs and basically went paleo before paleo was big--and we couldn't believe the change in our bodies and minds. Why did we feel so good?
As we're both from New Orleans, we really enjoy food. It's not like I want to eat a salad three meals a day. And I missed the convenience that bread lent to so many things. I saw a cauliflower-based pizza crust on Pinterest--Instagram didn't exist yet--and I thought, "Oh, my gosh. If I could just get this in bread form."
My husband and I did tons of research and realized nobody was talking about this. I was 50 when I left my prior job, as executive director of the Arthritis Foundation. And I wanted to do something impactful and meaningful. I didn't want to just take a job. I wanted to figure out what I was uniquely created to do. I had already been an entrepreneur 15 years earlier and brought a product to market--a line of gourmet cookie dough--and I swore I'd never do that again. I told myself I wouldn't do this either.
My youngest son kept telling me to do it. He and I used to talk in the car on the way to school about all the things he wanted to invent. When he was little, he would hide in the back of the car and come with me to my cookie-dough factory and sleep under the steel table. We have four sons, who were all in their 20s and on their career paths when we launched this company. A few of us have personal training backgrounds, and health and fitness are important to us all. So we pulled everyone together and said, "What's it going to take? Can we take this idea from concept to market? Let's pencil it out. It'll just be a project we do together."
We started in our home kitchen in our oven. We went through 80 iterations of the cauliflower bread recipe. We burned out the oven element. The hinge wore out. But, after more than 80 different attempts and variations, we finally whipped up a cauliflower “bread” with just four
ingredients that were low carb and truly tasty, and it became a staple in our kitchen. My family had the “ah-ha” moment that others would like my new “veggie bread” before I did and urged me to bring it to market. After my previous cookie dough business, I knew the challenges and
work that would be involved in actually doing this, and so was reluctant at first. However, after a lot of convincing and soul searching, I decided it was time to launch Outer Aisle. That decision made Outer Aisle the first brand to offer a cauliflower-based bread alternative. I never could have imagined what a success it would become. Our youngest, Jason, decided to join the company when we got our first region of Whole Foods.
He came in as our ops guy, thank god because he knows the product through and through. We are a manufacturer. We chose to do our own manufacturing to maintain quality and because we use so much fresh cauliflower. We built out a brand-new facility last year and will double our
production headcount in the next month. Our oldest son joined last summer in sales. Our son who is an MBA working in M&A has helped
a lot on the finance side when we've gone out to raise money. And our other son is in commercial insurance; he just became our risk manager. We are constantly thinking of new products, but we have to make sure any new product fills a gap, meets a need, or solves a problem in the market, and that it tastes great. The next steps would be to work on the formula and refine it until we are completely satisfied with it. Afterward, we begin sharing it with a small group of customers, including friends and family, this is to gather critical feedback on taste and texture and their thoughts on the product’s general nutritional attributes. In the life of an entrepreneur, you must take the first step and get out of concept mode and into action mode. I think it is important to have a goal of what you want to accomplish, and what you think you can accomplish in the market. For instance, from the beginning of Outer Aisle’s product development phase, we said we wanted a nationally distributed product for the grocery store shelves. Although I only shared this with close family members, in my mind, I wanted to and thought we could move the bread industry in a healthier direction. My husband, who left his law practice last year, is now working full-time for the company. He is general counsel and president. Thanks to his savvy, we walked away from three venture capital deals last year with terms that were very, very far-reaching. We needed the money for the construction of the new facility; we ended up signing with more of an individual investor. I grew up in a family of 13, and my dad called me the manager. Now I'm doing that again.

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