Smartsheet helps LifeStyles Healthcare increase project capacity by 4x

LifeStyles Healthcare is a global leader in the sexual wellness sector, comprising a broad range of condom, personal lubricant and other related products. For the past 100+ years, it’s built on innovation, quality, and experience to reach more people globally. “We have various brands in our portfolio, including the world's number one non-latex condom SKYN®, which at the moment is number one in Amazon US and France, and the market leader in Australia,” says Rebecca Hill, Associate Director of Commercial Projects and Products at LifeStyles Healthcare.

Spotting opportunity for growth

With such wide-scale operations, LifeStyles needed a more streamlined approach to project management. 

“Every product project was being managed differently—separate sheets and processes with no consistency to how we worked,” she explains. Each project had to be built from scratch, and data wasn’t readily available, leaving teams without a shared source of truth.  This led to long meetings mostly spent on updating each other.  

Managing 20+ projects across seven global offices like this became increasingly chaotic and overwhelming for project managers. 

“Trying to keep track of everything, from spending to risks, was a real headache. And without a clear view of projects, we couldn’t make the best decisions. This is what drove us to look for a more structured and connected way of working,” Hill says.

A measured start within capacity

Hill knew she had to start small since the company was dealing with a lot of structural changes and divestitures at the time. “Even though we had outgrown our ways of working, we weren’t at a place where we could confidently move forward with a big investment and a complicated change of process for the team,” she says.

She opted for a foundation-first approach—refining what worked before scaling.

Working from the ground up

When searching for a platform that would suit the needs of its Project Management Office (PMO), LifeStyles saw the potential that Smartsheet could have. Though the company had already been using it, Hill saw that they could do more. 

“We felt that we could adjust the templates we found in Smartsheet to perfectly fit our workflows,” shares Hill. “The Smartsheet team was really helpful with this, as were the articles on the help pages and community boards. Working with the feedback from our team, we tailored forms, templates, and automations to focus on our project needs.”

The result was a project folder toolkit that includes an editable intake sheet, pre-built templates, and reports that automatically feed into dashboards. Having this in place immediately centralised and streamlined how cross-functional teams worked.

Following the success of the small-scale rollout, Hill introduced Smartsheet more broadly. Her team embraced the change, building expertise through hands-on training and key skill development, and quickly gained confidence in a more efficient way of working.

Greater visibility, sharper focus

With everything in one place, LifeStyles can now launch new projects right away and have clear visibility of progress. 

“Smartsheet has become a single source of truth for us. We no longer have a sea of information, and we don’t have to go searching for specific data; it’s right there at our fingertips,” Hill says. 

Meetings are also a lot more decisive and effective, instead of a lengthy time spent updating each other.

The PMO is also constantly kept informed of risks and schedule slippage, thanks to automated alerts and updates. “We’re no longer firefighting each issue but being more proactive,” says Hill.

Better resource optimisation for growth

Having visibility at hand allows LifeStyles to optimise resource allocation and accelerate project completion with a custom-built prioritisation matrix sheet. “With real-time data, our teams can align and direct their efforts more effectively. Our capacity has increased 4x, and that’s what is empowering us to run 80 live projects today,” shares Hill.  

The focus now is to roll out Smartsheet to a wider range of manufacturing projects that fall under the PMO operations team. “That’ll give us insights from both areas of the company in one place,” Hill says. “Then we can keep growing through better automation and planning and resource management tools, and continue creating experiences that bring people closer together.”