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Judd Asoyuf

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Stage Gate: A Structured Product Lifecycle Governance Initiative

Building Discipline Into Innovation: Designing and Leading the Stage-Gate Governance System for a Regulated Cannabis Leader

Building Discipline Into Innovation: Designing and Leading the Stage-Gate Governance System for a Regulated Cannabis Leader

Case Study: Designing & Implementing a Stage-Gate Governance Model at Organigram

Challenge

Organigram’s innovation pipeline was productive but lacked structured governance, portfolio discipline, and consistent financial oversight. Projects were often driven by stakeholder priorities rather than enterprise strategy. Very few initiatives were ever killed, which diluted resources across too many concurrent efforts. This created inefficiencies, increased the risk of misaligned investments, and limited the organization’s ability to strategically prioritize transformational initiatives.

The company needed a formal Stage-Gate governance model that would:

  • Provide structure from idea through R&D, scale-up, launch, and ultimately product sunsetting

  • Enforce financial rigor, strategic alignment, and capability assessment before approvals

  • Introduce clear go / no-go accountability at defined gates

  • Prevent scope creep and ensure change control

  • Allow multi-year initiatives to be properly forecasted into future CAPEX planning

  • Create transparent, cross-functional decision-making with clear ownership

Action

I led the design, deployment, and cultural adoption of Organigram’s enterprise Stage-Gate process, establishing a disciplined governance framework that the Senior Leadership Team approved and mandated.

Design & Rollout

  • Initiated March 2023, aligned enterprise-wide by August 2023, and completed first formal gate review in September 2023

  • Built an end-to-end gated lifecycle covering Idea → R&D → Scale-Up → Launch → Sunset

  • Defined structured stages with clear deliverables, financial criteria, and readiness expectations

  • Established a tiered approval authority with designated gatekeeper groups empowered by SLT

Governance & Decision Discipline

  • Embedded financial and strategic evaluation at every gate

  • Required re-evaluation if any project materially changed scope, cost, or assumptions

  • Formalized Go / Kill / Recycle pathways, ensuring rejected concepts could return when improved

  • Introduced financial governance for kill decisions to ensure resources were intentionally redeployed to higher-value opportunities

Systems, Tools & Portfolio Visibility

  • Implemented digital tracking, standardized documentation, and unique project ID governance

  • Built workflows for pre-approvals and faster gate readiness

  • Required pre-gate complexity and resource assessment with Director and Manager stakeholders

  • Created dashboards for leadership to visualize portfolio mix, budget impacts, resourcing, and stage distribution

Change Management & Adoption

  • Managed resistance through practical problem-solving and iterative refinements

  • Used case-by-case coaching to build comfort, reduce fear of governance, and normalize saying “no.”

  • Ensured SLT sponsorship, which drove accountability, credibility, and permanence

  • Expanded influence beyond R&D, with other departments seeking inclusion in the process

Impact at a Glance

Strategic Discipline & Better Decisions

  • Enabled the organization to stop prioritizing “everything.”

  • More than 25% of projects were deliberately and confidently killed early, versus almost none previously

  • Enabled leadership to focus investment and people on high-value, strategically important initiatives

Financial Governance & Capital Efficiency

  • Created an enterprise understanding of financial implications and trade-offs

  • Integrated multi-year initiatives into forward CAPEX planning instead of reactive approvals

  • Prevented weak projects with poor ROI from quietly advancing unless backed by a strong strategic rationale

Execution Quality & Delivery Confidence

  • Maintained a >99% launch success rate for approved projects

  • Reduced dilution of resources, increasing depth of focus on priority launches

  • Improved predictability of delivery and readiness quality

Organizational Adoption & Cultural Shift

  • Over 130 projects flowed through the system in the first year, proving widespread adoption

  • Meaningfully reduced scope creep by enforcing stage guardrails and returning off-track projects for re-evaluation

  • Strengthened cross-functional collaboration, visibility, and accountability

  • SLT began routing non-R&D initiatives through similar gated rigor, demonstrating enterprise trust and value recognition

Insight

  1. Governance does not slow innovation when done right. It accelerates the right work, prevents waste, and increases confidence in execution.

  2. Killing projects is a maturity milestone. Moving from emotional decision-making to financially and      strategically disciplined decisions fundamentally changed Organigram’s innovation culture for the better.

  3. Executive sponsorship is non-negotiable. SLT endorsement ensured credibility, accountability, and sustained adoption.

  4. Tools alone do not create governance. The success came from clear rules, empowered decision forums, financial transparency, and ongoing reinforcement, not simply software.

  5. A great Stage-Gate system becomes enterprise infrastructure. What began as an R&D governance framework evolved into an organizational decision-making model for broader initiatives.

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