Harriet Cole is the founder and managing director of Tarn & Fell, which sells outdoor clothing on its own website and on two marketplaces. About a third of the year’s sales come between mid-November and Christmas, so Harriet’s leadership team plans the year in Headwater around that peak. The big changes to the business go live by the end of September, and nothing new goes live during peak.
Done when Every website order goes through the new site and checkout.
Live on 18 August
Nothing new goes live on the website or the marketplaces from mid-November to the first week of January.
A climb is a priority that has to be finished in the next 90 days. Tarn & Fell set its company climbs for October to December in late September. Peak trading starts on Monday 16 November, and Black Friday is on 27 November, so four of the six climbs were planned to finish by Friday 13 November.
Three of those four are done. Bethan Rhys, Head of Brand, is one milestone short on her loyalty climb and has marked it off track. The other two climbs are about getting through peak. Gareth Lowe runs the warehouse, and his climb is to ship every peak order within 24 hours. Its last two milestones are on 4 December and 23 December.
Each dot is a milestone on the date it is due. Choose a climb to see its milestones.
Done when Every order placed from 16 November to 23 December leaves the warehouse within 24 hours.
0 of 8 milestones ticked
- Peak packaging in stock9 Oct
- 20 peak pickers hired16 Oct
- Late collections agreed with the carrier23 Oct
- Pickers trained on both packing lines30 Oct
- A 4,000-order test day shipped6 Nov
- Peak rota signed off13 Nov
- Black Friday week shipped within 24 hours4 Dec
- Christmas orders shipped within 24 hours23 Dec
Tarn & Fell runs its trading day in the tools it already has. Orders, stock, and sales figures are in the store’s own reports. Listings and prices are in the website and marketplace tools, campaigns are in the email and ad tools, and customer messages and returns are in the service system.
Headwater holds the changes the leadership team has agreed to make to the business, such as a new range, a plan for each marketplace, more customers who buy again, and fewer returns. Each change has an owner and a done when line, and the team follows it up every week. When someone sees a problem in one of the store’s tools, such as a jacket that keeps coming back, they raise it in Headwater as an issue.
Choose an area of the business to see what stays in the store’s own tools and what goes in Headwater.
- Orders so far today
- 1,412
- Conversion rate
- 2.4%
- Blencathra jacket, size M
- 38 in stock
Done when Nine in ten winter styles sell through at full price by the end of January.
The Blencathra jacket went on sale in September. By late October, Finn O’Hare, who leads customer service, could see in the service system that a third of the jackets sold had come back. Most customers said it was too small.
Finn raised it as an issue in his Monday check-in, and the leadership team ranked it first in Tuesday’s huddle. Zara Malik, Head of Product, asked Tilly Hartley, the garment technologist, to measure the jacket against the size guide. It came up one size small, so Zara changed the size guide and the listings in the store’s own tools that day.
When the team solved the issue on 3 November, it recorded the outcome as a standing rule. The rule is in the Rulebook under Product, where anyone can find it before the next range goes on sale.
Step through the issue from Finn’s check-in to the Rulebook, with Next or the ← and → keys.
From 16 November to Christmas, most of the leadership team’s day goes on orders, the warehouse, and customer messages. Harriet keeps the weekly rhythm going through peak, with a shorter huddle.
Everyone still checks in on Monday morning. A check-in takes about five minutes, and it puts the status of each climb in Headwater before the huddle starts.
In a usual week, the leadership huddle runs from 9:00 to 10:00 on Tuesday. In peak weeks, it starts at 8:30 and lasts 30 minutes. The team goes through the wins, initiatives, and climbs in a few minutes, and spends the rest on issues. Anything that can wait until January is moved to long term.
Play the first peak huddle, on Tuesday 17 November, or drag along the half hour.
- LMEvery Black Friday offer is tested on all three channels
Peak ends when the last Christmas orders leave the warehouse on 23 December. The planning window for January to March runs from 14 December to 15 January, so Tarn & Fell holds its planning sessions in the first two weeks of January.
In the last huddle of the quarter, on 22 December, each owner brings their climb up to date. On 5 January, the leadership team holds the company session. It closes each climb from October to December as done, carried over, or dropped, decides what to do with each issue parked during peak, and sets the company climbs for January to March. The teams set their own climbs two days later.
Choose a day to see what happens on it.
- Get the winter range on saleZMDone
- Set up every Black Friday offerLMDone
- Let customers book a return onlineLMDone
- Sign up 10,000 loyalty membersBRDone
- Ship every peak order within 24 hoursGLOn track
- Answer every peak message within four hoursFOOff track
Book a demo and we’ll show you how Headwater would run your week, from the vision down to Monday morning.