Executive product and merchandising advisory for consumer brands at inflection points.
I partner with founders and leadership teams to bring structure and clarity to product decisions so growth feels intentional, not chaotic.
I help brands scale without losing focus, simplicity, or what made the product special in the first place.
Who This Is For
This work is most useful for founders and teams starting to feel the weight of scale.
Typically, that looks like:
A brand with real momentum and a clear point of view
Expansion beyond an initial hero product or early assortment
Increasing complexity across product, merchandising, or storytelling
A desire to grow thoughtfully without overbuilding or diluting the brand
This work is best suited for teams with real traction who are looking for strategic partnership rather than hands-on execution support.
What I Do
I help bring structure and clarity to product and merchandising decisions as brands scale.
My work focuses on assortment architecture, franchise thinking, and decision frameworks that protect brand equity while enabling growth. I work closely with founders and leadership teams to sharpen focus, reduce unnecessary complexity, and make better product decisions with confidence.
This often includes shaping long-range product strategy, assortment architecture, and line planning direction, while supporting teams as they execute with focus and clarity.
The goal is not more product.
It’s better decisions that compound over time.
How I Work
I show up as a thought partner and strategic leader.
Together, we:
Clarify what truly matters in the product line
Identify where focus creates leverage and where restraint protects the brand
Build simple frameworks that guide future decisions
Support confident execution by the internal team
I stay closely involved at key decision points, helping set direction, pressure-test work in progress, and make tradeoffs clear, while the internal team owns day-to-day execution.
I care deeply about product that earns repeat wear, not just attention.
How We Work Together
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An ongoing partnership for founders and leadership teams navigating growth, transition, or increasing complexity.
This work provides hands-on strategic leadership across product direction, assortment architecture, and long-range planning. It often replaces or supplements a Head of Product or Merch role without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
Typically includes:
Weekly working sessions with founders or leadership
Async review and feedback on key product decisions
Ongoing guidance on assortment architecture and franchise logic
Monthly synthesis of priorities, risks, and upcoming decisions
Structured as a monthly advisory relationship with limited capacity.
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A focused engagement to bring clarity and structure at a key moment.
This sprint establishes the logic, structure, and decision rules behind the work, not to replace the team responsible for detailed execution. It’s often used ahead of category expansion, wholesale growth, or a new season build.
Outcomes often include:
Clear articulation of product pillars and franchise focus
Guardrails for future assortment expansion
Decision frameworks that simplify future product choices
A short, practical roadmap for next steps
Delivered over a fixed timeline with a clearly defined scope.
Helped a growing lifestyle brand avoid premature category sprawl by defining franchise logic that directly shaped the next two seasonal line plans.
Sample Outcomes
Partnered with founders to pressure-test expansion ideas, clarifying where restraint better protected brand equity and simplicity.
Brought structure to assortment decisions during early scale, enabling teams to finalize line plans faster and with fewer revisions.
Shortform Studio was founded by Annie Short, a product and merchandising leader with deep experience building and scaling consumer brands.
I’ve spent my career inside consumer brands making product and merchandising decisions where the stakes were real and the consequences expensive.
My background spans global product leadership, merchandising strategy, and assortment management across brands navigating growth, scale, and change. I’ve led teams, built assortments, cut SKUs, launched categories, and lived through the downstream impact of both strong and misaligned product decisions.
I founded Shortform Studio to bring that operator perspective directly to founders and leadership teams, not as someone delivering decks, but as a senior thought partner who understands how product decisions ripple through brand, margin, and long-term equity.
I believe the strongest brands grow through focus, not excess.
About Shortform Studio
Working Together
I work with a small number of brands at a time so I can stay deeply engaged and genuinely helpful. My role is to help teams make the hard calls early, so execution downstream is simpler, faster, and more aligned. If this feels like the kind of partnership you’re looking for, I’d be happy to explore fit.