The Unsung Heroes of Licensing: What Product Development Really Takes with Jenna Chalkley
After two decades in licensing, I've negotiated countless deals, structured partnerships worth millions, and helped bring hundreds of products to market. But here's what I've learned: the moment a licensing agreement is signed isn't the finish line—it's barely the starting line.
The real work—the work that determines whether a licensed product succeeds or fails—happens in product development. And the people doing that work are some of the most underappreciated professionals in our entire industry.
That's why I was excited to sit down with Jenna Chalkley, Head of Product Development at Born to License, who's spent 18 years navigating the complex, detail-obsessed, often stressful world of bringing licensed products from concept to shelf. From her early days as a buyer's assistant at Disney (where seeing her first pin in-store made her "have a meltdown") to managing 800-1,000 submissions simultaneously at Cartoon Network, Jenna has seen it all.
What struck me most about our conversation wasn't just the complexity of the product development journey—though it is staggering. It was Jenna's perspective on why product development professionals don't get the recognition they deserve, despite being the people who actually make licensing work.
Here are five insights from our conversation that everyone in licensing needs to understand about product development.
1. Product Development Professionals Weren't Celebrated Because Licensing Used to Be Sales-Driven—But That's Finally Changing
The Insight: For decades, licensing success was measured primarily by deal volume and revenue, not creative execution—which meant the people actually making great products were invisible.
When I asked Jenna why product development professionals haven't been celebrated enough in our industry, her answer was revealing: "I think it's more of a sales driven industry, or it definitely has been previously. I do think it's changing slightly now. People are starting to be a lot more creative. 20 years ago, 30 years ago, it would be a brand and a character slapped onto a product. There wouldn't be a lot of thought into it."
She continued: "Now we are being celebrated. You've got to have a keen eye for detail. These types of things are required now, but years ago they weren't and it was all about the money. People who work on the creative side aren't necessarily pulling in the numbers and I think that's why potentially we weren't celebrated. But I think times are changing."
The shift is driven by consumer expectations: "Not like how it is in the market currently—people are being a lot more creative now, therefore you're gonna have to get creative minds and great designers and sculpt designers and people who know what they're doing. So now we are being celebrated."
Jenna emphasized what this means for the industry: "If you have a keen eye for detail, these types of things are required now. It's not just about slapping a logo on a t-shirt anymore. Consumers see through that. They want authenticity, they want thoughtfulness, they want products that feel true to the brand."
Why It Matters: The licensing industry has evolved from "logo slapping" to genuine brand storytelling, but our recognition and compensation structures haven't fully caught up. Product development professionals are no longer just executing—they're creating the differentiation that makes licensed products succeed or fail at retail. Companies that still treat PD as an administrative function rather than a strategic capability are setting themselves up to lose.
The Takeaway: If you're a licensing executive, ask yourself: are your product development professionals properly resourced, compensated, and recognized? If your best PD person left tomorrow, could you replace them easily, or would your entire program fall apart? Treat product development as the strategic function it actually is, not the afterthought it used to be.
2. The Product Development Journey Takes Minimum 6-9 Months—And New Licensees Are Always Shocked By This
The Insight: The biggest misconception new licensees have is thinking they can get licensed products to market in 2-3 months because they manufacture quickly—completely misunderstanding everything that happens before manufacturing.
Jenna encounters this constantly: "We have a lot of companies that come to us looking for help with licensing, and one of the questions we ask them is, when would you like to get your product to market? And it is usually the case they say in two months time or three months time because 'we're really quick to manufacture, we manufacture locally and we can get to market really quickly.' It's an educational process to help them understand that just because you can move fast doesn't mean that this is going to be a fast process."
She broke down the three core stages: "There will be the initial designs or initial ideas. Then when it comes to your product approvals, there are three stages primarily: concept, pre-production, and contractual stage."
The concept stage alone is complex: "The concepts is where we would request designs of the product and as much information as possible. Full turned designs if it's a 3D product. If it's a soft lines collection like t-shirts, we would want to know what the range consists of. Assets from the style guide with numbers. Pantone colors."
Then comes the waiting: "When we submit anything onto the systems officially, we have usually I'd say 10 working days, so two full weeks before they can return the submission back to us. And that can just be for a review, that doesn't mean you're going to get instant approval. I would say most times you're going to get at least one review stage."
Why It Matters: This timeline misconception causes more failed licensing programs than almost anything else. Licensees underpromise to retailers, miss critical seasonal windows, or rush approvals and make mistakes that require expensive corrections. The entire program starts from a place of stress and disappointment rather than strategic planning.
The Takeaway: If you're getting into licensing for the first time, triple whatever timeline you think you need for product development. If you think it'll take three months, plan for nine. If you think six months, plan for 18. Build in buffer time for unexpected feedback, Chinese New Year shutdowns, licensor holiday closures, and inevitable surprises. Your future self will thank you.
3. Product Approvals Reset the Clock Every Single Time—And Most Licensees Don't Plan for Multiple Rounds
The Insight: Every time you resubmit a product for approval, the licensor's 10-day review period resets—meaning one round of feedback plus resubmission can easily consume 5-6 weeks.
Jenna was clear about this: "It resets, doesn't it? It's not like they've spent 10 working days to review and provide feedback the first time around. When you resubmit, they're not going to look at it within an hour. The whole 10 working days resets again."
She walked through the math: "You're talking about the time it takes you to do the initial design, then you submit it, then perhaps 10 working days to get feedback, then the time it takes for you to make the requested changes, then submit again. Those listening can really start to understand how all that time can add up."
The volume challenge compounds this: "When I worked at Cartoon Network, you're talking on average I'd have between 800 and 1,000 submissions in my inbox at any one time. And heaven forbid I ever took a day holiday or was ill because I'd just come back with 300 more. It was like a constant waterfall."
Jenna also highlighted often-forgotten factors: "Critical paths can include things that unless you've worked in the industry for a long time—holiday closures, Christmas, July the fourth. Those days aren't included in that 10 day turnaround. Chinese New Year's a big one. I always say don't include that month. The factory closes for a few weeks, but there'll be times prior to that and afterwards where they're not up to their full capacity, so it will take slower."
Why It Matters: If you're planning to launch for the holidays and thinking "we'll start product development in September," you've already failed. Between multiple approval rounds, holiday closures, manufacturing lead times, and shipping, you needed to start in January or February. This isn't theoretical—this is why shelves are empty of the hottest licenses every Christmas.
The Takeaway: Create a critical path for every product launch that includes: initial design time, first approval (10 days), revision time, second approval (10 days), potential third approval (10 days), pre-production sample creation, pre-production approval (10 days), manufacturing time, quality control, shipping time, and retail delivery deadlines. Add buffer time for every stage. If this timeline doesn't work, change your launch date—not your timeline expectations.
4. Attention to Detail Can Make or Break Careers—And Public Mistakes Haunt the People Behind Them
The Insight: Product development requires simultaneously managing enormous volume while maintaining perfect attention to detail on every single submission—and when mistakes happen, real people's careers are on the line.
Jenna spoke passionately about this after the Wicked/Mattel incident where the wrong URL appeared on packaging: "I absolutely felt sorry for everyone involved. It's not just the PD team. This gets checked several times over throughout the company. It's such a human error. Anything like that will make your heart drop. This happened to me. It's very stressful in the moment."
She emphasized the human cost: "There are people behind these kind of mistakes, their jobs, their passions, and they would be feeling very horrible about the situation. The media really picked up on it, everybody was talking about it. Half of the people agreed that we should not pile on, it was human error, this was a mistake that anyone could make. The other half were like 'how could you possibly make a mistake like this?'"
Her perspective on critics: "I think the people that were really critical don't understand product development. They don't understand how the process works and how an innocent mistake like this could actually happen."
But she also acknowledged the pressure: "Legal lines are tricky and that's something that I'll always try and look out for. A full stop in the wrong place can change everything and that becomes a legal issue. You definitely learn from these mistakes. You definitely don't want to go through those mistakes again for sure."
The fan scrutiny adds another layer: "We create products for people who have such passions for these brands. Look at the Star Wars fans, the Marvel fans. If you get one thing wrong, they will come for you in the forums. It could be something as simple as the wrong button for Darth Vader—the blue is over the red on his chest palette. People will come for you and you may not have a very good sleep for a few weeks but you won't do it again."
Why It Matters: Product development professionals operate in an impossible balance—massive volume requiring speed, but zero tolerance for errors that could damage the brand, breach the contract, or become a PR crisis. The mental toll of this work is real, and the industry needs to recognize it rather than just expecting perfection under impossible conditions.
The Takeaway: If you're managing product development professionals, give them the resources, systems, and support they need to maintain quality under pressure. Implement checklists for common errors. Create peer review processes. Build in buffer time so people aren't rushing. And when mistakes happen—and they will—focus on fixing the process, not destroying the person. Your team will be more careful, not less, when they know mistakes are treated as learning opportunities rather than career-ending events.
5. Executing Great Licensed Products Requires Authentic Brand Integration—Not Logo Slapping
The Insight: The difference between licensed products that succeed and those that fail often comes down to whether the product feels authentic to the IP or like a cynical cash grab.
Jenna was emphatic about this: "In the past, brands would just be slapped onto products. There wouldn't be a lot of thought into it. Now, you have to be creative. Make it stand out. Make it true to the brand. Would Moana be sitting on a bike? That's not in the world of Moana. But would she be in the sea paddling something? That makes sense."
She emphasized the importance of character authenticity: "It's important to make sure that the brands are only ever being represented and how their personalities are in their worlds, within their worlds. It needs to feel authentic. Fanbases get angry if something feels forced, if it doesn't feel natural to the character."
The consequences of getting it wrong: "There's times where brands have been over saturated in the market because in the past they just wanted the sales. So it ends up all the product doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't feel like it's authentic. That's why it's really important when we're creating the designs for the products that we're working on—is it staying true to the brand?"
Jenna also highlighted what licensors are looking for: "When we're working with our clients to develop product, I'm big on being creative. Some licensors have brands that are very strategic and they have certain rules, but if you are given the chance to be creative, be creative. Make it stand out. But whilst you're making it stand out, make it be true to the brand."
Why It Matters: In an era where consumers have unlimited options and can spot inauthenticity instantly, licensed products that feel like cynical cash grabs don't just fail—they damage the IP's reputation. Meanwhile, products that demonstrate genuine understanding of the brand and authentic integration create the kind of excitement that drives word-of-mouth and repeat purchases.
The Takeaway: Before approving any product design, ask: "Does this feel true to the IP, or does it feel like we just slapped a logo on our existing product?" If it's the latter, go back to the drawing board. Work with your licensees to understand the IP deeply. Encourage them to propose creative executions that surprise and delight rather than taking the safe, generic route. The extra time spent on authentic integration will pay dividends in sales and brand equity.
The Bottom Line
Jenna Chalkley's career in product development has given her a front-row seat to the transformation of licensing from a sales-driven, logo-slapping industry into a creative, strategic discipline that requires equal parts artistic vision and operational excellence.
But her most important message wasn't about process or timelines—it was about recognition. Product development professionals are the ones who actually make licensing work. They're the ones managing impossible volume while maintaining perfect attention to detail. They're the ones who turn contracts into products and ideas into revenue. And they're the ones whose mistakes become headlines, even though they're working under conditions that would break most people.
As Jenna put it when talking about why she loves this work despite its challenges: "I think once you fall into licensing, it's rare you get out because you kind of end up with a passion for it. I love this industry. I could never see myself working in another industry. I just love it so much. I think it's so important that we spend so much time doing our job that you have to enjoy it."
That passion deserves recognition, support, and proper resourcing. Because without great product development professionals, licensing is just pieces of paper. With them, it's magic.
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