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 equivalent, 5 FTEs

85

distinct studies for client work

Time to an evidence base19.9 minutes average, from ~11 hours

Studies delivered123 runs, 85 studies, team of 4

Analyst-hours equivalent16,129 hours, 5 FTEs

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 social platforms, forums and reviews for unmet category needs
Ran STEEP scans, translated into category implications
Mapped which attributes and claims gain ground
Built occasion and channel opportunity lenses
Extended the base into a long-horizon futures view

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 equivalent, 1 FTE

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 conversation across video, short-form and forums into named zones
Analysed which claims consumers accept, challenge or ignore
Traced where two adjacent categories merge in shared language
Ran parallel scans sizing conversation around an emerging attribute
Set a market-sizing baseline 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

brief to evidence base

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 competitor scouting, move tracking and market-share analysis per target
Built business model canvases and go-to-market analyses from public evidence
Mapped segmentation, customer journeys and product-and-pricing positions
Tracked leadership changes, technology integrations, partnerships
Ran risk identification on every target

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

target to fourteen-angle 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 and TAM analysis on mined signal, not desk assumptions
Screened early ideas for desirability before concept write-up
Scanned an emerging technology field for who is building
Profiled startups and niche players as build-or-partner candidates
Framed opportunity spaces into venture-design briefs

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 equivalent, eight analyst-months

What it proved

In twenty months, four consultants ran 123 studies covering 2,832 source-verified questions and saving 16,129 analyst-hours, the equivalent of five full-time analysts.

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

Results

Metric	Benchmark	Result	Improvement
Time to an evidence base	~11 hours manual desk research	19.9 minutes average run	~33× faster
Verification of findings	analyst judgement, spot-checked	2,832 questions checked against source	Auditable by default
Distinct studies run	one study per engagement	85 studies, 33 reusable templates	Reusable library
Analyst-hours saved	significant senior time per study	16,129 hours, twenty months	Equivalent of adding 5 analysts to 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.