Explore + Validate: Turn ideas into evidence
Before you build, before you invest, before you scale, discover what your customers actually want and validate that your ideas have real growth potential.
The cost of building without validation
Too many businesses rush from idea to execution, burning time and money on solutions nobody wants. Sound familiar?
Wasted Resources: Building features customers don't use or solving problems that don't exist
Wrong Target Market: Assuming you know your customers without actually talking to them
Delayed Time to Market: Discovering problems after launch means costly pivots and rebuilds
Poor Product-Market Fit: Launching without validation leads to low adoption and failed products
Our evidence-led, problem-first approach
We help you validate ideas through real customer insights, employee research, and market analysis so you can invest in opportunities with actual growth potential.
Employee Research
Uncover internal process improvements and AI/automation opportunities by researching how your team actually works, not how you think they work.
Rapid Prototyping
Test concepts quickly and cheaply through prototypes, concept testing, and MVP validation before committing to full development.
Market Validation
Test demand before you build. From competition analysis to market sizing, we help you understand if there's a real opportunity worth pursuing.
Evidence-Based Ideation
Turn research insights into actionable opportunities through design sprints, ideation sessions, and data-driven prioritisation.
User Insights
Get inside your customers' heads through interviews, surveys, and observation to understand their real needs, not their stated preferences.
Strategic Focus
Cut through the noise and focus on what matters. We help you identify which opportunities deserve your attention and resources.
Our research toolkit
We use the right mix of research methods for your budget, timeline, and objectives.
Discover Needs
-
Deep, qualitative insights into customer problems, motivations, and workflows
-
Understand internal processes and identify automation opportunities
-
Competition research, market sizing, and opportunity assessment
-
Watch how people actually behave, not just what they say they do
-
Quantify demand and validate findings across larger customer segments
-
Monitor online conversations to understand unmet needs and pain points
Test Ideas
-
From paper sketches to interactive prototypes—test before you build
-
Test your core assumptions and value propositions with real users
-
Measure real demand through targeted ads and conversion tracking
-
Gather feedback on ideas and concepts from your target audience
-
Compare different approaches to see what resonates with users
-
Ensure your solutions are actually usable and intuitive
Validate Concepts
-
Build minimal versions to test core functionality with real users
-
Get early adopters using and providing feedback on your solution
-
Test internal processes and automation in controlled environments
-
Watch how people actually behave, not just what they say they do
-
Involve customers in designing solutions to their problems
-
Measure real purchase intent through pre-orders and waiting lists
Our training and workshops
Alongside our expert consultancy services, we provide training and workshops
Novice: Haven’t done research before
-
Learn first-hand how to identify market groups, and validate and test your ideas using Facebook ads. Together we’ll identify Facebook audiences and set-up multiple campaigns to give you the blueprint to set this up on your own.
-
Starting with assumptions and hypotheses, we’ll identify your research objectives that will inform your interview guide for talking to anyone from employees to customers to experts about their problem and your idea. This will inform how you revise and review your solution.
Intermediate: Done some research before
-
In this session we’ll explore innovation frameworks including Design Thinking and Lean Startup to show you how to apply them through research, testing and experimentation for continuous improvement and insights.
-
Artificial Intelligence and automation are great starting points for evaluating where innovation can occur in your business, and to identify use cases from easy wins to complex products, we’ll learn how to explore this.
Expert: Elevate your research and testing skills
-
We’ll explore, evaluate and apply a range of business and product frameworks to give you a foundation in how to apply a product mindset to developing and building your business to the next level.
-
We’ll cover the leadership styles that are conducive to innovation, how to create an experimentation culture, develop your social capital internally and externally to competitively innovate and use storytelling to win stakeholders over.
Case studies
RegTech Startup Success
When a RegTech startup came to us with an idea for government policy makers, we helped them validate real user needs before building their platform.
The Challenge: They had a solution, but they were looking for a problem, and they were unsure if government policy makers would actually use their RegTech platform.
Our Approach: We conducted in-depth user research with UK government policy makers, followed by beta testing of early prototypes to validate core functionality and user experience.
The Impact: Instead of building features nobody wanted, they focused on solving real problems policy makers actually had, leading to higher adoption and successful product-market fit.
Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
Validation A local authority partnered with Sharp Insight to understand how residents would actually use proposed EV charging points before investing in an expensive infrastructure rollout.
The Challenge: The council had allocated significant funding for EV charging infrastructure but needed to validate whether their proposed locations and charging types would meet real user needs and drive adoption in their community.
Our Approach: We conducted a comprehensive user behaviour evaluation, combining observational research of current parking patterns with in-depth interviews of EV owners and potential adopters. We tested early concepts through real-world pilot installations and gathered feedback on usage patterns, accessibility, and integration with daily routines.
The Impact: Our research revealed that residents prioritised convenience and reliability over speed of charging, leading to a complete redesign of the infrastructure strategy.