May 13, 2026
By Eric Rakotomalala, Senior Manager, D&T Formulation & Creation
How our squads build custom products to support our business units.
In Digital & Tech (D&T), we build software that's connected to how teams work every day. From tools and platforms that help our scientists and creators move from an idea to a formula to a solution that can scale. That means dealing with real constraints such as complex workflows and regulated environments, while continuously improving.
Our formulation & creation domain helps teams across Perfumery & Beauty (P&B), Taste, Texture & Health (TTH) and Health, Nutrition & Care (HNC) improve how they design and develop products using digital tools. We build and evolve a set of custom digital products and shared capabilities that support how teams capture requirements, explore options, collaborate, and make decisions. Without sharing confidential details, the key lesson is delivering a simple, end-to-end solution that works and then expand based on feedback.
This is where agility becomes an engineering practice. Requirements change as soon as users touch something real. Integration and data-contract issues show up quickly once you cross system boundaries and because our products are long-lived, maintainability and operability matter as much as new features. Our approach is to deliver small increments, keep them production-ready, and learn from real usage. We support this with automated tests where possible, continuous integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), and the basics you’d expect in any serious product: clear interfaces, versioned APIs, and observability so we can spot issues early.
What agility looks like for us (beyond the buzzwords)
We work in small, cross-functional squads; product, engineering, design, quality, and architecture, aligned around a clear product outcome. Instead of long handovers, we aim for tight loops: discover with users, prototype quickly, build the smallest valuable slice, validate in the real workflow, then iterate. The goal isn’t “more change”; it makes change safe and intentional.
Disciplined engineering so we can move fast
Agility only works when the technical foundation is solid. We invest in automated testing, peer reviews, and CI/CD so increments are always ready to deploy. We use architecture guardrails (shared patterns, pragmatic standards, and intentional tech choices) to avoid every squad building a different platform. We design for operability and build security and compliance from the start, not as a final checkpoint.
Design and AI as delivery accelerators
Our designers help translate complex workflows into experiences that are learnable and efficient. Prototypes and usability checks early in a sprint often save us weeks of work later. On the engineering side, we’re also pragmatic about AI: we use Copilot, AI coding and automation to speed up boilerplate and documentation, while keeping humans accountable for architecture, correctness, and maintainability. AI gives us more time for the parts that require judgement and deep domain understanding.
Projects we build (and the impact we aim for)
We build workflow products that digitalize key formulation & creation steps, plus shared platform capabilities (reusable services, integration patterns, and APIs) so improvements can scale across P&B, TTH, and HNC. The impact we aim for is practical: less manual friction, clearer visibility into work, and faster time-to-decision, without sacrificing quality, security, or long-term ownership.
What we’ve learned building custom products
A few lessons keep coming back, regardless of the product:
Start with the workflow, not the feature list. The fastest way to waste time is to optimize the wrong step.
Make increments production ready. “Almost done” creates hidden risk while deployable slices create momentum.
Integrations are products too. Treating Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and data contracts as digital products, held to the same quality and standards as software, avoids rework.
Quality is a team sport. Automation helps, but alignment on standards and shared ownership matter more.
Measure impact in terms of time saved by the user and improved decisions.
Why this matters (and why we love the work)
For an IT department building custom software, agility is more than just a delivery framework. It is a strategic approach to solving complex problems and adapting to change. It is about empowering teams to do their best work.
When you combine agility with the unique strengths of custom development, the intelligence of AI, and the craft of UX/UI design, you create a powerful engine for innovation. This is part of our DNA in formulation and creation. Agility is at the heart of how we deliver high-value, game-changing software to our business partners.
If you’re an engineer (software, platform, data), product-minded, and excited by messy real-world domains, where integration, quality, and long-term ownership matter, this is the kind of work we do in D&T. We’ll keep sharing what we learn as we build products that support formulation and creation at a global scale.