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Strategic Discovery

Given the significant costs of bringing a product to market, it can be overwhelming (and maybe even scary) deciding which ideas are worth the investment. Root3 Labs offers what we call Strategic Discovery services to help our clients evaluate opportunities for innovation to gain confidence in their decision before we ever start engineering.

This process has been proven many times over in the creation of new ventures, extensions to existing product lines, and everything in-between. The output is typically a handful of compelling opportunities for potential development, each with one or more promising solution concepts.

Root3 Labs can execute on this process as a turnkey research project or come alongside a client to enhance an internal effort and everything in between. As always, we work to understand how to tailor each step to a client’s needs.

As the saying goes “measure twice, cut once,”. It’s critical to start a development project with a thoroughly evaluated need to maximize the chances of a product-market fit and commercial success. Innovators who seek to make the most of their limited resources are wise to invest up front in making sure they are pursuing the best strategic opportunities. The Strategic Discovery process and deep expertise of the Root3 Labs team filters out the ideas that sound great have a fatal flaw from the start and identifies those which are most promising.

Finding the RIGHT opportunities

Strategic Focus

Working with the client to document and refine goals, agree on the scope of the discovery work, and define organizational values used to measure and compare opportunities. Making these things explicit is good for strategy and communication both internally and for us.

Need Finding

An open-eyed, open-ended look at the domain – best accomplished through a mix of observation, ethnographic research, interviews, and desktop research – to produce a list of unmet needs. Bring a fresh perspective to get past the assumptions and norms that evolve in any company or industry

Need Definition

Translating found needs into carefully structured statements, supported and informed by an in-depth need “brief” that provides a snapshot of information about the problem including potential market size, existing solutions, key factors for all stakeholders, and necessary criteria for any potential solution. A deep understanding of the space refines our understanding of the needs and shows us hooks for innovation; also becomes a resource for others joining the project at a later stage.

Ideation & Evaluation

Brainstorming potential solutions to the needs which appear most ripe for innovation and evaluating these against the client’s strategic focus. Having many ideas is the best way to find great ideas, and because here we align the output of the process with the intended purpose.