Innovation consultancy that finds where to grow next.
See what’s coming, find where to grow, and develop the ideas worth backing, with the people who’d buy them brought into the choices that matter.
Five kinds of innovation work, alone or as one program.
- Growth opportunities
Where to grow next, and how far your brand could stretch into a new or adjacent category, each area with a brief your team can develop.
- Trends and foresight
Scenarios for how your market could change, and how your team could respond.
- Product and technology innovation
Which features to lead with and which need rework, with evidence timed to your development.
- Concept development
Ideas developed with your team and the people who’d buy, far enough to test.
- Innovation strategy and pipelines
Which ideas to back and in what order, with the reasons, and sizing where a choice needs a number.
To test which concept to back, see concept testing, and to measure what people would trade between features, conjoint and choice modeling. Consumer brands can start with our work in their category, and technology teams with our work with technology companies.
Then came the launches.
“antedote went far beyond beta testing and drilled down into features and benefits, identified contextual insights, product insights to inform software development…”
- Getting athlete evidence into a training wearable’s development sprints Evidence shared with the product team during its development sprints. What happened next The training wearable later launched.
- Developing and testing new products for a cleaning brand A prioritized concept pipeline with closer work on selected concepts, then a quantitative range test with volume modeling. What happened next Both propositions later reached shelves.
- Generating hair styling product ideas from men’s own routines Concepts with rendered visuals. What happened next The brand later launched new products.
What clients took forward.
Innovation work is judged by what a client takes forward.
A pet food company wanted new directions for two of its brands to bring to its key retailer’s innovation review. It presented all seven concepts at the review, and two further engagements followed.
A spirits brand went ahead with a series of new editions we refined with drinkers one market at a time, and two of the editions we researched later reached market.
For a snack brand, we built platforms for ideas and ran a co-creation workshop with its team and creative snackers, then developed the strongest into concepts and pack briefs. The company then commissioned further work from us.
When an idea has to work in more than one country, each market sees it on the same terms, the approach behind our international research.
Questions innovation teams ask.
Can you build an innovation pipeline for a CPG or FMCG brand?
Yes. We find where the brand can grow, develop ideas with the people who’d buy them, and compare the ideas, so the pipeline you take forward is prioritized on evidence.
How do trends, concept testing and investment choices fit together?
Each informs a different part of the choice. Foresight suggests where a category is heading, research with buyers shows which opportunities matter to them, and concept testing compares the ideas that follow. None of them makes the decision; together they show what an investment would rest on.
How do you tell a real opportunity from an idea people only say they like?
Stated liking is a weak signal. Stronger ones are what people do today, what they would give up to switch, and whether their interest holds once a price and a trade-off are in front of them.
Can you assess the concepts already in our pipeline?
Yes. We put the ideas in front of the people who’d buy them, on the same terms and beside your current range where that matters, so you can see which to develop, which to improve and which to stop.
Will you tell us when an idea should stop?
Yes. Deciding what to back also means deciding what to set aside. When the evidence is against an idea, we’ll say so and say why.
Our thinking on innovation that ships
- What should an innovation consultancy leave your team able to decide? Article
- More than a decade of working with AI, and what our 2017 forecast got right Article
- The AI feature is useful. How much control will customers give it? Article
- The innovation brief that starts with pleasure Article
- What decides when a trend arrives? Article
- The technology works. What should it become? Article
An ambition, or an idea still forming?
Tell us where you’d like to grow. We’ll suggest where to start, and what your team would have at the end.
A partner or director will reply.