Align IT With Growth at a Direct-to-Consumer Cosmetics Startup
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Assess a cosmetics startup’s tech alignment, identify costly operational gaps, and design an 18-month improvement plan. Earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
GlowUp is a 50-person, venture-backed cosmetics brand based in Munich, Germany, that sells exclusively online directly to consumers and acquires most of its customers through influencer-led campaigns on Instagram and TikTok. Its sales have outpaced its internal systems, leaving the online store, accounting software, and influencer tracking running in isolation just as leadership commits to aggressive growth and an international launch.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
GlowUp's technology systems are fragmented and disconnected from its business strategy, so the company cannot reliably support its targets of 30 percent revenue growth and expansion into new countries.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Apply a recognized strategic alignment framework to assess how technology supports business goals
- Translate operational evidence into quantified, prioritized gaps with clear business impact
- Build a sequenced, budget-aware technology roadmap that maps each investment to a stated business goal
- Define lightweight governance suitable for a small, fast-growing company
- Communicate technical recommendations persuasively to a non-technical executive audience
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- It Alignment
Apply it alignment to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Strategic Planning
Apply strategic planning to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Business Process Analysis
Apply business process analysis to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- It Governance
Apply it governance to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Roadmapping
Apply roadmapping to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
IT Manager
This challenge mirrors the core of an IT manager's job: assessing whether technology supports business goals, identifying gaps, and building a funded roadmap, giving you a portfolio piece that shows you can connect systems decisions to growth.
This challenge sharpens
- it-alignment
- strategic-planning
- roadmapping
IT Business Analyst
Translating messy operational data into quantified gaps and process insights is the daily work of a business analyst. Here you practice evidence-based gap analysis and process mapping that directly transfers to analyst roles in growing companies.
This challenge sharpens
- business-process-analysis
- it-alignment
- strategic-planning
IT Governance Associate
Defining lightweight decision rights, data ownership, and review cadences for a fast-growing firm introduces the governance foundations that larger organizations formalize, bridging you toward roles focused on technology controls and oversight.
This challenge sharpens
- it-governance
- strategic-planning
- roadmapping