Two exploration spaces, 100+ ideas, four concepts prioritised

Client

Date

$4B+ global consumer peripherals manufacturer

05/2024

The challenge

A $4B+ global consumer peripherals manufacturer had two areas it wanted to explore for new products and no capacity to explore them properly. The team knew roughly where to look, but getting from a space to concepts specific enough to argue about, with the market read and competitive position attached to each, was the work nobody had the weeks for.

The solution

FifthRow ran the client's own written brief for two exploration spaces into a prioritised set of concepts. A space goes in; more than a hundred ideas come out, developed into concepts carrying their problem framing, market read, competitive position and proposition, and ranked far enough that the team can pick what to take forward.

100+ ideas

generated across two briefed spaces

4 concepts

the client prioritised in writing

Exploration spaces2, from the client's own written brief

Ideas generated100+, across both spaces

Client prioritisation4 concepts chosen to develop further

Output per conceptProblem framing, market read, competitive position, proposition

01 — CLIENT-WRITTEN BRIEF

The engagement started from the client's own definition of where to look, not from a scope we proposed. Two spaces were briefed in writing before any work began.

Core Activities

Took the client's written brief for two exploration spaces as the starting scope
Worked through a standard question set with the team before the kickoff call
Reviewed the brief and raised clarifications in advance rather than in the session
Kept the kickoff for the briefing itself rather than for scoping
Fixed both spaces before either exploration ran

The Results

Two exploration scopes the client had written itself, clarified in advance, so the work started against the team's own definition of the opportunity rather than an interpretation of it.

2 spaces

defined by the client before work began

02 — IDEA GENERATION & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Both spaces were opened up widely before anything was narrowed: more than a hundred ideas generated across the two, then developed into concepts far enough to be judged rather than returned as raw findings.

Core Activities

Generated more than a hundred ideas across the two briefed spaces
Developed the ideas into concepts rather than reporting the spaces alone
Attached problem framing and insight to every concept, not just a description
Built each concept out with its market read and competitive position
Delivered both explorations into the client's own workspace for review

The Results

More than a hundred ideas developed into concepts the team could react to specifically, rather than two space reports needing interpretation before anyone could use them.

100+ ideas

generated across the two spaces

03 — IDEA PRIORITISATION

This is where the value of generating widely gets realised. More than a hundred ideas had to become a handful the team would actually spend development time on, and the client made that call itself, in writing.

Core Activities

Presented the full developed set for prioritisation rather than a pre-filtered shortlist
Took the client's own written selection of four concepts to develop further
Combined two pairs of related concepts into single propositions at the client's direction
Consolidated overlapping options so the count reflected distinct opportunities
Left the marketing messaging for each prioritised concept ready to pitch and test

The Results

A written client decision naming four concepts out of more than a hundred ideas, with related options consolidated into stronger single propositions, and messaging ready for the team to pitch and test them.

100+ to 4

ideas prioritised down to a development shortlist

What it proved

The client wrote the brief: two spaces to explore. Both were opened up widely - more than a hundred ideas generated across the two - and developed into concepts, each carrying its problem framing, market read and competitive position. From that set the client prioritised four concepts to develop further, naming them in writing and directing two pairs of related options to be combined into single propositions.

What that produced was a decision rather than a document. The team started with two areas it had no capacity to explore, and ended with a named shortlist it had chosen itself out of more than a hundred developed options - with the messaging for each already written in a form the team could take out and test. The client's own assessment picked out two things as most valuable: the whitespace analysis, and the marketing copy for pitching and testing the ideas.

Results

Metric	Benchmark	Result	Improvement
Idea volume	Two spaces the team had no weeks to work at all	100+ ideas generated across both	Explored widely rather than deferred
What a concept arrived as	An idea needing the research done around it	Concepts carrying framing, market read and position	Concepts ready to be judged on arrival
Basis of the shortlist	A choice between a handful of options, developed unevenly	4 prioritised out of 100+ built to one standard	A ranking rather than a preference
Route to testing	Messaging written after a concept was chosen and resourced	Pitch and test copy ready per concept	Concepts testable without a further cycle

LET THE CLIENT WRITE THE BRIEF

An exploration scoped by the people who own the opportunity starts against their definition of it. Working the question set before the kickoff means the kickoff is a briefing rather than a negotiation.

DELIVER CONCEPTS, NOT SPACES

A space report hands the hardest work back to the client. Concepts developed far enough to be judged are what make a review productive rather than interpretive.

GENERATE IN THE HUNDREDS, PRIORITISE TO A HANDFUL

More than a hundred ideas cost little more to generate than twenty, and they are what make the prioritisation worth anything. The number that matters is not how many were produced but how few were chosen.

CONSOLIDATE REDUNDANT CONCEPTS

Several concepts describing variants of the same idea inflate the option count and make choosing harder. Combining them at the client's direction produced stronger single propositions.

THE CLIENT SHOULD MAKE THE CUT

Four concepts chosen out of a hundred-plus by the client itself is a decision it will defend internally. The same four handed over as a pre-filtered shortlist is our opinion, and it gets argued with.

WRITE THE PITCH COPY WITH THE CONCEPT

Messaging is usually written after a concept is chosen and funded, which is a further cycle. Producing it alongside the concept is what lets a team take an idea out and test it immediately.

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