Name: Dana Symons

Title: Category and Consumer Insight Manager

Company: Lassonde

Certification Obtained: CPCA

How long have you or your company been involved with the CMA?

I’ve been following news and resources from the CMA for a number of years, but this was the first year our company had a CMA membership.

Why did you decide to become certified?

Category analytics and insights has been a part of my role for many years, but I never had any formal training or education specific to category management. Becoming certified was a great opportunity to ensure I had a solid base knowledge and formalize that.

What was the most interesting thing you learned as you completed the training and certification?

I appreciated learning the details of CATMAN 3.0 and how the process relates to the evolving consumer landscape, particularly how we think about categories and strategies on e-commerce platforms and how that may differ from brick and mortar. 

How do you feel you will use this certification in your current role?

The certification and concepts learned will help me focus on bolstering our internal processes to better align with category management best practices. Becoming certified was also a great way to get introduced to the content available through the CMA to understand how other departments may benefit from the trainings as we look to enhance understanding of category management fundamentals across our organization.

What advice would you give someone considering completing the training and certification? 

I’d say if you’re considering it, go ahead and do it. If you’re brand new to category management or in a role that’s more tangentially related, you’ll find great content to build a foundational understanding of key concepts. If you’ve been involved in a category management role for a while, it’s still beneficial to identify any knowledge gaps, tap into advanced training topics and get the latest updates on CATMAN 3.0.