A feasibility study before
anything is built.
A new service or product shaped into a proposition, tested with real buyers and checked against the numbers before you commit to it.
The reasons a new service struggles can usually be found before it launches: buyers who will not pay the price, a margin that does not survive delivery, or a team that cannot deliver it without neglecting the work that already pays. We look for all three while it is still cheap to change course.
Propositions & Viability is one of six Innovation services, and is where an idea from the Innovation Hub or a finding from Market Research is put to the test. Each study is led from our Norwich office, for clients in Norfolk and across the country.
The line is drawn before the results.
Before any testing begins, we agree with you what the idea has to prove: the demand, the price buyers will accept, the margin after delivery and how soon it pays back. Those thresholds are written into the plan.
The study then tests the idea against them. Clear them all and we recommend proceeding. Fall short on one and we say what would have to change. Fall short on most and we recommend stopping. Because the line was drawn first, the answer cannot be bent to fit the idea.
What the study covers.
Every study ends in a written recommendation: proceed, change or stop. The proposal sets out what has to be tested to reach it.
Proposition development
Who the offer is for, the problem it solves, what is included and why a buyer would choose it over what they do now.
Pricing and packaging
The price, the tiers and what sits in each, tested against what buyers say they would pay and what competitors charge where it is published.
Demand testing
The proposition put in front of real buyers, through interviews, a survey or a landing page, to see whether they want it at that price.
Concept testing
Two or three versions of the idea compared with buyers, so the strongest goes forward and the reasons are recorded.
Business case
Costs, margin, payback and the sales needed to break even, modelled in a spreadsheet the business keeps.
Delivery assessment
What it would take to deliver: people, time, systems and suppliers, and what it would pull away from the existing business.
Pilot planning
Where the answer is proceed, a pilot with a small group of buyers and the measures it has to meet.
Go-to-market plan
Who to sell to first, through which channels and at what price, and what the launch has to achieve in its first months.
From idea to recommendation.
A typical study, from the first meeting to the written recommendation. Larger tests take longer, and the proposal says so.
Tell us where you’re goingDefine.
Week one.
We agree the idea, who it is for, and the thresholds it has to clear on demand, price, margin and payback.
The go / no go line is written down before any testing begins.
Shape.
Weeks two and three.
The proposition is written, priced and packaged, with two or three versions where the right one is not yet clear.
You review it before it goes in front of buyers.
Test.
Weeks four to six.
Real buyers see it through interviews, a survey or a landing page, and the business case is modelled alongside.
Results are set against the thresholds agreed in week one.
Recommend.
Week seven.
A written recommendation, presented to your leadership team: proceed, change or stop, with the evidence behind it.
A proceed comes with a pilot plan and a route to market.
Propositions & Viability, in practice.
All Projects
Questions about feasibility studies.
What does a feasibility study include?
The proposition, its price and packaging, a test of demand with real buyers, a business case and an assessment of what it would take to deliver, ending in a written recommendation to proceed, change or stop. Where the answer is proceed, a pilot plan and a go-to-market plan follow.
What if the answer is stop?
Then the study has done its job. Stopping before launch costs the study. Stopping after launch costs the build, the stock, the marketing and the time, and the findings often point to what would work instead.
How do you test demand for something that does not exist yet?
By putting the proposition in front of buyers as it would be sold: in interviews, in a survey, or on a landing page that takes expressions of interest and says plainly that the service is not yet available. What buyers do tells us more than what they say.
Do you write the value proposition?
Yes. Who the offer is for, what it does for them and why they would choose it is the core of the work, and it is tested with buyers before it is used in any marketing.
Is a feasibility study the same as a business case?
The business case is one part of it. A study also tests whether buyers want the idea and whether the business can deliver it, which a spreadsheet on its own cannot show.
Can you assess an idea we have already costed?
Yes. We review your numbers, test the assumptions behind them with buyers and add what is missing, so the study starts from your work rather than repeating it.
Who makes the final decision?
You do. We make a recommendation and set out the evidence for it. The decision, and the business, are yours.
What happens after a proceed?
A pilot with a small group of buyers, then the launch. We can run both through the Innovation Hub, or hand the plan to your team to deliver.
How is it priced?
Every engagement has a defined scope and a stated fee, agreed in writing before any work begins. Tell us where you’re going and we’ll tell you what it would involve.
Alongside Propositions & Viability.
All of Innovation- Market ResearchYour clients, the ones you lost and the wider market, asked before the idea is shaped.
- Innovation HubWhere the ideas worth testing come from, and where a proceed is taken to launch.
- Marketing StrategyThe plan that takes a new service to market, with the goal it has to reach on page one.
Ready to talk about your next stage of growth?
Tell us where you’re going. We’ll tell you, candidly, whether we’re the right agency to take you there.
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