Designing supplement formulation around consumer needs

The wellness industry has spent decades innovating individual pieces. The next opportunity is connecting them.

Borrowing a concept from technology, a “full stack” brings together the different layers required to create a complete solution. The parallel to nutrition and wellness is compelling: while the industry may operate in individual layers, consumers experience the outcome as a whole.

Consumers do not think about ingredient suppliers, formulation constraints, dosage-form technologies, manufacturing capabilities, or regulatory pathways. They think about outcomes: they want more energy; to stay strong; to sleep better; to perform better; and feel like the best version of themselves.

Industry has traditionally approached those needs one layer at a time, shaped in part by where each company sits in the value chain. What if the next wave of innovation comes not only from advancing each individual layer, but from connecting them? That is the idea behind Full-Stack Wellness: an approach that starts with the consumer need and connects the layers required to address it – insight, science, ingredients, formulation, delivery, manufacturing, and, ultimately, the consumer experience.

TSI sees four opportunities for companies across the wellness ecosystem to put full-stack thinking into practice: design around the consumer rather than the category; design delivery alongside the science; solve the whole consumer problem; and connect the physical and digital wellness experience.

Design around the consumer, not the category

One of the clearest shifts in wellness is toward greater personalization. Consumers increasingly expect products and routines to reflect their goals, lifestyles, and life stages rather than offering one answer for everyone.

Innova Market Insights describes a continuum ranging from bespoke programs informed by biomarkers and DNA to more scalable personalization using questionnaires and “lifestyle stacks” aligned with specific wellness objectives. Innova also points to the rise of hybrid and bundled products designed to address multiple needs while making wellness choices easier for consumers.¹

But personalization is about more than tailoring a recommendation. It changes where innovation begins. Instead of asking, “what ingredient should we sell?” or “what product should we make?”, the better questions are: Who is this consumer? What are they trying to accomplish? And what combination of science, nutrition, format, and experience can best support that goal?

Starting there makes traditional category boundaries less important. Consumers do not experience wellness according to the organizational structure of our industry. Their needs overlap, interact, and change over time.

Longevity is a good example. A consumer may not identify as an athlete or even think of themselves as a “healthy aging” consumer. They may simply want to stay strong, think clearly, recover well, and continue doing the things they enjoy. Addressing that outcome may require thinking across muscle health, cognition, mobility, metabolic health, sleep, and nutrition rather than choosing a single category.

TSI sees an opportunity to develop around health outcomes rather than individual ingredients. That can mean synergistic ingredient systems, science-backed combinations, and a more holistic view of health categories.

Full-Stack Wellness does not mean putting every possible benefit into one product. It means understanding the complete consumer need and determining which combination of science, ingredients, formats, and experiences can address it most effectively. The need comes before the SKU, and the outcome comes before the category.

Design the delivery alongside the science

Selecting the right ingredients is only part of creating a successful wellness solution. Consumers also must want to use it.

That makes dosage form, delivery technology, taste, convenience, and experience part of product strategy – not decisions made after the science is settled. Gummies remain important, but innovation now spans shots, stick packs, direct-to-mouth powders, and granules, gels, soft chews, functional foods and beverages, and increasingly food-like formats.

The shift is showing up in consumer behavior: NIQ reports that functional beverages now generate 1bn in average monthly popularity, reflecting a broader movement of wellness beyond traditional pills and powders and into everyday food and beverage experiences.²

TSI think about format as a differentiator, not simply a container for the ingredients. On-the-go formats and direct-to-mouth delivery can change when and where a product fits into someone’s life, while novel delivery technologies can create entirely new product experiences.

TSI’s FZZR™, for example, offers a different way to think about supplement delivery, with the options to “drink, buzz, or chew”. The point is not that one format is right for every consumer. It is that format itself can be part of solving the consumer need.

Each format brings considerations around dose, stability, sensory experience, portability, and consumer preference. The development journey becomes increasingly connected:

Science → Ingredients → Formulation → Delivery → Experience → Adherence → Outcome

Thinking across those layers earlier can reveal possibilities and tradeoffs that may be missed when the ingredient is selected first and the delivery experience is figured out later. The question is no longer only “what should be in it?” but also “how should the consumer experience it?”.

Solve the whole consumer problem

GLP-1s offer a timely example of what systems thinking looks like in practice. A consumer using a GLP-1 does not simply have a “weight-management” need. Changes in appetite and food intake can create considerations around protein, muscle preservation, fiber, hydration, micronutrient density, and digestive tolerance.

And consumers are already trying to navigate those needs themselves. PwC found that 80% of current GLP-1 users are piecing together their own routines with supporting products, pointing to an opportunity for more integrated wellness solutions.³

Creatine offers an interesting example. Once associated primarily with bodybuilding and sports performance, it is increasingly relevant to broader conversations around muscle health and wellness.

TSI see that evolution reflected in interest in OptiCreatine™, its proprietary premium creatine platform. Its improved solubility, rapid dissolution, and reduced sedimentation open opportunities beyond the traditional scoop into formats such as chewables, fast-melt powders, effervescent pellets, and sprinkles.

But the Full-Stack Wellness opportunity is bigger than creatine or any single ingredient. The better question is: how is this consumer’s nutritional ecosystem changing, and where can nutrition meaningfully support that journey?

The answer may involve macro and micro ingredients plus different formats as needs and behaviors change. That is systems thinking: start with the whole consumer problem, then build the solution around it.

Connect the physical and digital stack

The wellness stack does not necessarily end when a product reaches the consumer. Technology is adding another layer as wearables, apps, and other digital tools generate information around activity, sleep, recovery, stress, and individual goals.

And consumers are acting on those insights. EY’s 2026 US Consumer Health Survey found that 55% of consumers track their health data, and 82% of those who do say they changed health-related behaviors such as exercise, diet, or sleep in the past year.⁴

AI may add another dimension, helping translate those signals into more personalized recommendations, product discovery, and new-product opportunities. This is where the technology origins of “full stack” become especially relevant:

Data → Insight → Recommendation → Science → Solution → Delivery → Behavior → Feedback → Refinement

The feedback loop may be the most interesting part. Learn more about the consumer. Identify a need. Develop or recommend a solution. Understand how it fits into their life. Then use what you learn to produce relevant outcomes.

Not every company needs to own every layer of the stack. Few will. Full-stack thinking isn’t about owning everything. It’s about seeing the whole picture and knowing where the right capabilities and partnerships can connect it.

What happens when we connect the stack?

Great science will continue to matter. So will great ingredients, formulations, formats, manufacturing, and technology. But none of these connect themselves. It takes people – with expertise, curiosity, and the ability to see across disciplines – to bring the stack together. But increasingly, some of the most interesting innovations may happen in the connections between them.

That’s what makes Full-Stack Wellness exciting to TSI. Its work spans consumer insights, science, ingredients, synergistic systems, formulation, delivery technologies, and manufacturing. That gives us an opportunity to start with a consumer need and ask a bigger question: what could the solution look like if we weren’t limited by where one part of the value chain ends and another begins?

Sometimes the answer may be a science-backed combination built around a health outcome. Sometimes it may be giving a familiar ingredient new relevance through a different format or consumer experience. And sometimes it may come from connecting capabilities or ideas that haven’t traditionally been connected at all.

It is unknown where Full-Stack Wellness will lead, but that’s what makes the conversation interesting.

So, bring TSI the consumer need you are trying to solve, or the ingredient that deserves a better experience, the product that needs a rethink, or the “what if we tried this?” idea.

The next great wellness solution may already exist in pieces. The opportunity is connecting the right ones. Let’s see what happens when we connect the stack.

If you’ll be at SupplySide Global in Las Vegas this October, come find TSI. TSI will be sharing some of the science, ingredients, formats, and ideas in progress – and would love to hear yours.

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