From days of desk research to a same-day category evidence base

Client

Date

US innovation consultancy and venture studio

08/2026

The challenge

A US innovation consultancy and venture studio builds category evidence bases for the world's largest consumer brands. For a decade that discovery work ran on manual desk research, with senior consultants finding and logging every source by hand. One evidence base cost roughly a day and a half of analyst time.

The solution

FifthRow was deployed inside the consultancy's own delivery, not sold on to its clients: a small team ran FifthRow research systems against live client briefs, with a category or a company going in and a structured, source-verified evidence base coming out. The firm kept its methodology and its client relationship. FifthRow replaced the reading.

16,129

analyst-hours displaced, the equivalent of 5 full-time analysts

85

distinct research studies completed for client work

Time to a category evidence base~11 hours of desk research typical, 19.9 minutes average run time here

Studies delivered123 deep research runs, 85 distinct studies, on a team of 4

Analyst-hours displaced16,129 hours, the equivalent of 5 full-time analysts over the period

01 — CATEGORY SIGNAL MINING

Deep social and market signal mining for one of the firm's large consumer clients, run as the evidence layer under a category programme. Jobs-to-be-done mapping, STEEP scanning, claims tracking, occasion and channel analysis.

Core Activities

Mined consumer conversation across social platforms, forums and reviews for unmet needs in the category
Ran STEEP trend and theme scans across the wider consumer landscape, then translated themes into category-specific implications
Mapped which product attributes and claims were gaining ground, against what consumers actually say
Built occasion and channel views as separate opportunity lenses
Extended the same evidence base into a long-horizon futures view for the category

The Results

A standing evidence base for one category programme, built over three months and reusable across every workstream in it. Opportunity spaces were drawn from mined signal rather than from a workshop.

3,761

analyst-hours displaced across the category programme, the equivalent of 1 full-time analyst over the period

02 — CONSUMER VOICE & CLAIM CREDIBILITY

Social listening turned into a decision input for a consumer goods manufacturer. Not sentiment scoring – a structured read of which product claims consumers find credible and which they reject.

Core Activities

Mapped the category conversation across social video, short-form platforms and discussion forums into named conversation zones
Analysed claim credibility: which product claims consumers accept, challenge or ignore
Traced the overlap in language between two adjacent categories to find where they are merging
Ran parallel scans on an emerging product attribute to size the consumer conversation around it
Set a market-sizing baseline for the category alongside the qualitative work

The Results

A claim-credibility map the brand team could use directly, produced inside the same three weeks the client brief was live rather than after it.

3 weeks

from brief to a consumer-voice evidence base the client could present

03 — COMPANY & COMPETITOR DILIGENCE

A repeatable company workup, run as a battery rather than a single report. Fourteen research angles on one target, executed on the same day, then repeated on the next target.

Core Activities

Ran automated competitor scouting, competitor move tracking and market-share analysis on a defined target set
Built business model canvases and go-to-market analyses from public evidence
Mapped customer segmentation, customer journeys and product-and-pricing positions
Tracked talent and leadership changes, technology integrations and partnership activity
Ran risk identification across each target as a standing part of the workup

The Results

A company workup that used to be a report became a same-day battery. Fourteen angles were run against a single target in one sitting, and the same battery was re-run against the next target without redesign.

1 day

from a new target to a fourteen-angle company workup

04 — WHITE SPACE & CONCEPT FRAMING

The layer that turns evidence into something a client can decide on: white space, addressable market, desirability screening and emerging-technology landscapes.

Core Activities

Ran white-space analysis and TAM assessment against mined category signal rather than desk assumptions
Screened early ideas for desirability before they were written up as concepts
Scanned an emerging technology field to find who is already building in a space
Profiled startups and niche players as build-or-partner candidates
Framed opportunity spaces into briefs the delivery team could carry into venture design

The Results

Opportunity spaces and concept briefs traceable to source. Every claim in a client deck could be walked back to the run and the source that produced it.

1,331

analyst-hours displaced on opportunity framing, close to eight months of a full-time analyst

What it proved

Across twenty months, four consultants ran 123 deep research studies covering 2,832 source-verified research questions, displacing 16,129 analyst-hours of desk work, the equivalent of five full-time analysts.

What the firm got back was margin and reach: those 16,129 hours are the equivalent of five full-time analysts over the period, working alongside a team of four. The reading moved off the senior team, which meant a discovery phase could carry more categories, be rebuilt when a client changed the brief, and reach depths a manual desk review would not attempt. The methodology, the client relationship and the judgement stayed with the firm's own consultants.

Results

MetricBenchmarkResultImprovement

Time to a category evidence base

Benchmark: ~11 hours of manual desk researchResult: 19.9 minutes average run time

~33× faster

Verification of findings

Benchmark: Analyst judgement, spot-checkedResult: 2,832 questions checked against source

Auditable by default

Distinct studies run

Benchmark: One category study per engagementResult: 85 distinct studies, 33 reusable research templates, so a repeat study starts from a working method rather than a blank brief

Reusable library

Analyst-hours displaced

Benchmark: Every study took significant senior timeResult: 16,129 hours over twenty months

+5 full-time analysts on a team of 4

UNCAPPED STUDY DEPTH

A single evidence base reaches source depth a manual desk review would never attempt, so scope follows the question rather than the reading time available.

PARALLEL ANGLES

Every question worth asking about a target gets asked in one sitting, instead of being triaged down to the few an analyst can afford.

REBUILDABLE EVIDENCE

An evidence base is cheap enough to rebuild whenever the brief moves, so findings get refreshed rather than defended past their shelf life.

ON-DEMAND CAPACITY

Research capacity absorbs a whole campaign in weeks then sits idle, matching work that arrives as client engagements rather than as a steady stream.