Incubating New Business Ideas in an FMCG Company
Executive summary
Challenge
- The need to supplement the R&D pipeline with new product ideas
- A broad field of exploration with numerous possibilities, requiring the best possible selection
- Concept validation is critical before making an investment decision
Actions
- Narrowing the challenge based on research, passions, and trends
- Conducting ethnographic interviews and research with potential customers
- Generating ideas and selecting them according to Design Thinking criteria
- Prototyping and validating through two iterations
Results
- Nearly 100 ideas across 4 business areas
- 2 concepts developed as prototypes and tested with customers
- Ready innovation pipeline for the upcoming years
- 10 employees trained in Design Thinking
Our Client
Kruszwica is a leading producer of oils in Poland, operating in the FMCG market.
Challenge
Kruszwica was seeking fresh product ideas to enhance its R&D pipeline and wanted to engage employees from various departments, as well as gain external perspectives. The company’s leadership wanted employees to explore a broad range of business development opportunities. The challenge was transforming this general direction into specific, actionable concepts that could be tested with customers before making an investment decision.
Clearly defined areas with the greatest business opportunities, combined with a proven process, diverse team experience, and careful client listening, led us to formulate very specific action plans with a clear vision of success.
Objectives
Our goal was to implement an idea incubation process tailored to the company’s needs. We aimed to effectively introduce Design Thinking methodology into the organization by working with two interdisciplinary teams of company employees.
Key Actions
We started with a broad challenge that we then narrowed down based on market research, team passions, and current trends. Innovations are born from focused challenges, not from overly broad exploration areas. Teams were prepared to conduct interviews and ethnographic research with potential customers. The collected insights allowed us to define precise challenges – both around the company’s core business and in completely new areas.
The next stage was generating ideas. Following Design Thinking criteria, each team selected 3-4 of the most promising concepts for further exploration. We categorized the remaining ideas as quick wins and long-term concepts for continued work in the R&D department. For the selected ideas, we created value propositions and prototypes. Teams tested these with potential customers, gathering feedback. Two rounds of testing allowed us to refine the final concepts.
Working with Innovatika was very inspiring for me, as the unique and innovative project management methods used allow for a holistic look at business ideas, their impact on the company, required resources, and business consequences.
Results
As a result of the project, we developed a list of nearly 100 new product and service ideas across four business areas: functional food, healthy and rational nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyle, and one entirely new area for the company. Two concepts were developed as prototypes and tested with real customers.
We categorized the remaining ideas into quick wins and long-term concepts, providing the company with a ready innovation pipeline for the coming years. Additionally, 10 Kruszwica employees learned practical application of Design Thinking methodology.
100
ideas
2
concepts
10
employees
Client Benefits
Kruszwica recognized the value of working in interdisciplinary teams and understood how critical it is to keep the customer at the center of the design process. The company gained not only specific product ideas but also the competencies to independently manage similar processes in the future.
Summary
Large organizations often struggle with systematically generating and validating new product ideas. The R&D pipeline requires consistent infusion of fresh concepts, but a broad exploration field can lead to resource dispersion. The solution is to focus the challenge and work in interdisciplinary teams using Design Thinking methodology.
This approach enables rapid progression from general directions to specific, tested concepts. Building internal organizational competencies is also crucial – ensuring that employees who have gone through the incubation process can independently lead similar initiatives in the future.