Innovation Strategy Innovation strategy consultancy
New offers fail when they are built on opinion. We help you generate ideas, test them with the customers who would buy, and decide what is worth building.
For SMEs and corporate teams exploring a new product, service or line of business and wanting evidence before they invest.
The idea is exciting, and nobody has asked a customer.
The usual path is the same: a founder or a leadership team has an idea, it gets built, and then someone finds out it does not match how customers behave. Months of effort and budget go into something that needed a week of testing first.
Innovation work does not mean theatre. It means writing down the problem, generating enough options to avoid the first idea, showing rough concepts to real buyers and deciding with their reactions in hand. The prototype exists to be tested, and the roadmap includes the signals that tell you to stop.
When teams use it
- A new product or service line
- A new customer segment
- Reworking an offer that no longer sells
- Digital extensions of a physical business
- Corporate teams testing ideas quickly
What you get
You get opportunity areas, facilitated workshops, concept tests with real customers, a prototype of the strongest idea, business-model options and a roadmap.
Opportunity Areas
A short list of areas where a new product or service could fit, drawn from your customers, your strengths and what the market lacks.
Idea Workshops
Facilitated workshops, including design-sprint formats, that take your team from problem to a handful of concepts in days, not months.
Concept Testing
Each concept shown to real customers in interviews or simple tests, with what they liked, doubted and would pay attention to.
Prototypes
A clickable or physical prototype of the strongest concept, built to be tested, not to impress.
Business-Model Options
Two or three ways the idea could make money or be delivered, with the risks of each written down.
Roadmap
A phased roadmap of what to test, build and decide next, with owners and the signals that mean go or stop.
An idea, or only the itch for a new offer?
Send your business, who you serve and the area you are curious about. We reply with questions and a scoped quote.
How it works
Step 1: Frame
The problem, the customers, the limits and what success would look like for your business.
Step 2: Explore
Research, workshops and a wide set of ideas, narrowed together to a few concepts worth testing.
Step 3: Test
Concepts and a prototype shown to real customers, with the results written up honestly.
Step 4: Decide
Business-model options and a roadmap, so you know what to build, what to park and what to drop.
Strategy work
See all work
Project or retainer?
Questions
How much does an innovation project cost?
It depends on scope: the length of the workshops, how many concepts are tested and with how many customers, and whether a prototype is included. We quote a defined scope after a short brief.
What is a design sprint?
A short, structured workshop that moves a team from problem to a tested prototype in days. We adapt the format to your team’s time, sometimes spreading it across several shorter sessions.
Can you promise that an idea will succeed?
No one can. The point is to learn cheaply whether an idea is worth more investment, and to stop early when it is not.
Do you build the product too?
We build prototypes for testing. If the concept is worth building, our design and development services can take it forward, or we hand the material to your own team.
Can you help us find funding or grants?
No. We do not advise on funding, grants or programmes. We can prepare the concept evidence and materials that someone else may ask for.
Who joins the workshops?
Usually four to eight people from across your business, including someone who talks to customers daily. We agree the group with you.
Who owns the ideas and outputs?
You do. Ideas, prototypes and reports are yours, and ownership is in the proposal.
Can the work be remote?
Yes. Workshops and customer sessions can be run online, and in person if you prefer.
Tell us what you want to explore.
A short note is enough: your business, the customers, the idea or problem and what you can commit to testing. We reply with questions and a scoped quote.
More specialist services
Each one stands alone, and they work together on a single brief.
Got a brief?
Tell us what you are making and when it has to ship. We will take it from there.