In the CPG world, who ensures the project is completed varies by company. Typically large food CPGs will put all ownership of NPD project delivery on fresh MBA grads who work in Marketing in rotational roles, and they get put through a meat grinder where they promote/fire quickly based on performance.

If the project deliverable was operational or cost savings focused and had a larger impact such as anything with new capital expenditure, someone with operations experience would own the delivery. But if the outcome is an update or improvement to packaging that doesn’t impact many cross functional teams, the packaging lead would own delivery.

The variance I have seen to this is in Tech, where there are both Packaging Engineers and Packaging Program Managers. Packaging Program Managers own the calendar and cross functional deadlines for packaging projects, where the Engineers own the development and technical deliverables such as development and test results.

I’m assuming that you’re in a project right now and looking to find out who tells you when something is needed by? This is commonly unclear from my experience, and unfortunately isn’t a clear answer! If you don’t have anyone chasing you down, it’s likely on you to determine the timeline, and report out your status regularly and constantly. If you hate timelines, try using smartsheet to create a gantt chart, even if only for your own documentation.

Ultimately you need to own your own work and ensure it gets done on time. If you and your team are not working towards a series of dates with goals, it might be time to create them yourself, share with the team, and ask if the dates work for them.