Essentials of Innovation Research

Essentials of Innovation Research: Online Course

What innovation research should you run at each stage of developing a new product? This three-hour online course walks through the whole innovation funnel, from finding opportunities and generating ideas to testing concepts, products, packs and prices, and tracking performance after launch.

The course is taught by Cynthia Portugal, Growth Director at Insight Platforms, who has more than 20 years’ experience in market research on both the agency and client side. It costs £99, is available on demand, and suits newcomers to research as well as marketers, product teams and anyone who commissions innovation research.

What you’ll learn about innovation research

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

• Recognise the main types of innovation, from disruptive and business model innovation to incremental, design, social, sustainable and open innovation
• Make the case for innovation research, using the reasons new products fail: no market need, hard-to-use products and ignored consumer feedback
• Understand who does what in innovation, from product owners, R&D and marketing to insights, legal, finance, supply, production and senior leadership, and the key terms they use
• Find opportunities with usage and attitude studies, segmentation, consumer observation and retail and household panels
• Generate and screen ideas using brainstorming, co-creation workshops and AI idea generation tools, then rank ideas by interest and commitment
• Refine and test concepts and claims, measuring liking, suitability, understanding, differentiation and purchase intent
• Design product tests, including blind and branded tests, digital usability tests, AI-based product tests, top-two-box purchase intent and Just About Right scales
• Validate the market mix with pack tests, usability tests, price tests (monadic, conjoint, brand price trade-off, Van Westendorp and Gabor-Granger) and volumetric forecasts
• Track performance after launch with communications pretests, a wave zero baseline, brand and innovation health funnels and user feedback

Who this course is for

• Researchers new to innovation and new product development projects
• Client-side insights teams supporting product and marketing teams
• Marketers, brand managers and product owners who commission or use innovation research
• R&D and product development teams who want to understand consumer testing
• Newcomers to the research industry looking for a structured introduction

What’s covered in the course

The innovation context and types of innovation

How innovation has evolved, why innovation waves are getting shorter, and the different types of innovation, with examples such as the first iPhone, Netflix and Uber.

Why companies invest in innovation research

Why companies innovate, why most new products fail, and how research reduces the risk of spending time and money on products that won’t succeed.

Innovation stakeholders and essential concepts

The roles of each team involved in innovation, and the core terms: innovation funnel, concept, minimum viable product, mock-up, feedback, P&L, point of sale, claims and market mix.

Opportunity assessment and ideation

How usage and attitude studies, segmentation, consumer observation and retail panels reveal white spaces and category drivers, and how workshops, co-creation and generative AI turn insights into ideas.

Concept development and testing

Idea screening, qualitative concept refinement, quantitative concept testing and claims testing, with examples of how to read concept test results.

Product testing and market mix development

Physical and digital product testing, blind versus branded tests, AI-based product testing, and how to interpret purchase intent, liking and Just About Right results.

Financial and market mix validation

What happens at the financial go/no-go stage, and the research used to validate the final mix: pack testing, usability testing, price testing methods and volumetric forecasting.

Launch and performance tracking

Communications pretesting, setting a wave zero baseline, brand and innovation tracking, user feedback and how to act on post-launch results.

About the instructor

Cynthia Portugal is Growth Director at Insight Platforms and runs C. Portugal, a research, marketing and digital marketing consultancy in Brazil. She has more than 20 years’ experience in market research on both the agency and client side, including at Unilever and JDE, and has worked on research at every stage of innovation for products and services.

About the Essentials of Research Series

The Essentials of Research Series is a set of on-demand courses from the Insight Platforms Academy covering the most important techniques and methods in market research. It is designed for people new to research and for anyone who needs to commission or use research.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the course cost?
Essentials of Innovation Research costs £99 and is available on demand from the Insight Platforms Academy.

Do I need research experience to take this course?
No. The course starts with the basics of innovation and the key terms you need, then works through the research used at each stage. It suits newcomers to research and anyone who commissions or uses innovation research.

How long is the course?
About three hours of on-demand video, which you can watch at your own pace.

What is innovation research?
Innovation research is the market research used throughout the innovation process: to identify consumer needs and opportunities, generate and screen ideas, test concepts, products, packs and prices, and track performance after launch. Its main job is to reduce the risk of launching products that fail.

What are the stages of the innovation funnel?
The course covers eight stages: opportunity assessment, ideation, concept development, product and market mix development, financial validation, market mix validation, launch, and performance tracking and review. Each stage calls for different types of research.

Why do so many new products fail?
Most failures come down to not knowing consumers well enough. The top reasons are no market need, a product that is hard to use or understand, and ignoring consumer feedback, including from people who tried the product once and never bought it again.

Which price testing method should I use?
It depends on the decision. A monadic question is the simplest. Conjoint analysis is the most realistic and handles multiple features, brands and prices. Brand price trade-off focuses on brand and price. Van Westendorp gives a price range and optimum price but no market comparison, and Gabor-Granger estimates a demand curve without accounting for competitors.