Research to Reality: Crossing the Chasm of Commercialisation

Commercialising research findings can be a daunting task. However, products and services born from this process can solve real-world problems, improve quality of life, and foster innovation.

This guide breaks the process into manageable stages to demystify the commercialisation process, offering researchers a clear roadmap to transform their discoveries into viable business ventures.

By the end, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to bring your research findings to the marketplace. You can also find a glossary at the end of the guide.

1. Idea Validation

Before embarking on the journey of commercialising your research, validate your idea. This means ensuring that there is a demand or market need for your innovation. By engaging with potential customers, you can gather valuable feedback to refine your idea and ensure its viability. Without a clear understanding of the value proposition¹, you might overlook market resistance².

Benefits:

• Saves time and resources by confirming potential interest early in the process, allowing for efficient resource allocation and minimising wasted opportunities. This also helps in prioritising the most desirable, high-potential features and maximising desirability.
• Helps refine the development based on detailed feedback from potential users, ensuring that the final product is well-aligned with their needs, preferences, and expectations.

Our Tips:

• Apply the right research tools at the right time. Engage directly with your target audience throughout the evolution of your idea to gather candid feedback and maintain confidence you are on the right track.
• Smallfry’s methodology for insight research follows a structured process designed to deeply understand people’s needs, develop solutions alongside users, and evaluate the effectiveness of these solutions. Contact us for more details.

Cautionary Note:

Skipping idea validation can result in investing significant time, money, and resources into developing a product or service that no one needs or wants. Thorough market research and validation are essential to ensure that your product or service meets the actual demands and needs of its target audience.

2. Protect Your Intellectual Property (IP)

Securing IP rights through patents, trademarks, or copyrights is essential to protect your findings and innovations. This process ensures that your work is legally protected against unauthorised use, allowing you to maintain control over your intellectual assets and monetise your creations. Never share your idea with a third party without a Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreement (CDA / NDA) in place.

Benefits:

• Securing IP rights prevents others from copying your work, protecting your original ideas and efforts from unauthorised use or plagiarism. This maintains the integrity of your intellectual property, ensuring you receive the recognition you deserve. Additionally, it offers a legal framework to act against those who infringe upon your rights.
• Adds significant value to your research, enhancing its appeal to potential investors interested in your work. This can lead to increased funding opportunities and greater credibility within the funding community.

Our Tips:

• Choose the right moment to file for protection: Once you initiate the IP protection process, the clock starts ticking. Filing too early may require frequent renewals or updates to include any new improvements.
• International Protection: Consider international patents if you plan to market your product globally.

Cautionary Note:

Consult with an IP lawyer to ensure comprehensive protection, as the filing process is complex, and mistakes can be costly. An experienced lawyer can guide you through the intricacies of IP law, ensuring that your rights are thoroughly safeguarded. Investing in professional advice can save you time, money, and potential legal issues in the long run.

Prematurely protecting an idea during its early development stages can lead to costly revisions if the refined solution later falls outside the scope of the initial protection.

3. Market Research

This includes analysing competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, identifying market trends, and gathering feedback from potential customers to tailor your product or service effectively. Market research should not be a singular event activity; it can extend to working alongside users and buyers, evaluating, validating, and rigorously testing to ensure you find the problems before your customers do.

Benefits:

• Provides valuable insights into how to effectively position your product in the market, helping you to understand your target audience and the competitive landscape.
• Assists in identifying potential customers and partners, enabling businesses to tailor their marketing strategies and build valuable relationships ahead of product launch for future business growth.

Our Tips:

• Define Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what makes your offering unique compared to others. Know what value your solution delivers to the intended customer base.
• Customer Personas: Customers have diverse needs and preferences. Create relatable personas by researching demographics, psychographics, and behaviour patterns. This helps you fine-tune your marketing messages and focus on the niche for the greatest success.

Cautionary Note:

Relying solely on secondary research can be misleading, as it often lacks the nuanced insights needed for informed decision-making. Engage with potential customers directly to gain valuable first-hand feedback and a deeper understanding of their priorities.

4. Develop a Business Plan

Create a business plan outlining your strategy. This should include sections on product development, where you discuss the design, features, and timeline for your product. In the marketing section, outline your target audience, marketing channels, and promotional strategies. Investors will expect to see financial projections, detailing your anticipated revenue, expenses, and profit margins over the next few years.

Benefits:

• Serves as a comprehensive roadmap that guides your entire commercialisation process, from initial product development to market launch.
• Essential for attracting investors and securing funding, as it demonstrates the potential for growth and profitability, and reassures stakeholders you understand the essential elements of a solid business plan.

Our Tips:

• Iterative Planning: Regularly update your business plan to reflect market changes and new information and feedback.
• Get Expert Input: Seek advice from business consultants or mentors to refine your strategy.
• NB: Venture capitalists often prioritise evidence of your grasp of the technical and commercial challenges over the precision of your financial projections. Never underestimate what it takes to succeed; making that mistake can be disastrous.

Cautionary Note:

Remain flexible; the business plan should evolve as you gather more information and feedback. Adapting to new insights and market changes will help refine your strategies and ensure long-term success.

5. Build Prototypes

When designing a product, you should develop an initial Proof of Principle (POP)³ working model and continuously refine your prototypes based on ongoing research and market feedback. Focusing initially on creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)⁴ allows you to test, evaluate and refine your product before investing significant resources into full-scale production.

Benefits:

• Helps validate the feasibility of your product and identify any necessary changes or improvements early in the development process.
• Allows for thorough testing and iteration, allowing developers to identify and fix issues before a full-scale launch and ensuring greater confidence for a more successful release.

Our Tips:

• Rapid Prototyping: Utilise technologies like 3D printing to quickly create and test multiple iterations.
• Do not strive for perfection in initial prototypes; focus on creating a functional model to get rapid feedback.
• User Testing: Conduct rigorous user testing to gather practical insights and refine your prototype.
• Flexible Development: Be ready to pivot based on feedback and technological advancements.
• Do not confuse designing for a prototype with designing for production.

Cautionary Note:

Designing for mass production requires experience and understanding, knowledge of how to balance conflicting requirements, optimising for cost-efficiency, manufacturability, scalability, and consistency. Design for manufacture requires selecting materials and processes that can be consistently sourced and scaled. Prototypes are typically rough and may not include all the features of the final product.

6. Seek Funding

Identify and secure diverse funding sources such as government grants, private investors, or crowdfunding platforms to support your commercialisation efforts. This involves researching available opportunities, preparing compelling proposals, and maintaining strong relationships with potential funders to ensure continuous financial support for the development and growth of your project. Smallfry can help signpost you to some potential sources.

Benefits:

• Provides the necessary capital for product development and launch, ensuring that all stages from initial design to market introduction are sufficiently funded and executed smoothly.
• Builds credibility with investors and partners by demonstrating reliability, expertise, and a strong track record of success.

Our Tips:

• Create a Compelling Pitch: Develop a professional pitch deck highlighting your product’s potential, market size, and financial projections.
• Keep it Simple: Bear in mind that the individuals assessing your pitch are seldom experts in your field. We suggest employing a ‘Visual Business Case’, which utilises engaging visual aids and often includes physical examples to help convey your message effectively. If they don’t fully grasp your idea, they are more likely to say no!
• Network Assertively: Attend industry events, pitch competitions, and join networking groups to connect with potential investors.

Cautionary Note:

Ensure that funding terms align with your long-term goals; not all money is good money. Be cautious of relinquishing too much control or equity in your project too soon, and carefully evaluate the potential consequences before accepting any funding. Additionally, be transparent with potential funders about risks and challenges to maintain trust and ensure a mutually beneficial partnership. Never knowingly ask for less than you will need. Our team can help review proposed funding agreements.

7. Establish Strategic Partnerships

Identify and collaborate with strategic partners who can provide resources, expertise, and access to key markets or distribution channels. Onboard specialists to enhance your team’s capabilities in areas where you lack expertise. By bringing in professionals with specific skills, you can ensure that your projects are managed effectively, and your goals are achieved more efficiently. It shows investors that you recognise where critical expertise is needed and that hiring top talent will strengthen the team.

Benefits:

• Access to expertise and resources that can enhance the development of your project.
• Increased market reach through partnership networks, potentially resulting in more significant sales and revenue opportunities.
• Exposure to new markets, potential customers, and increased brand awareness.

Our Tips:

• Carefully evaluate potential partners based on their industry reputation, track record, and shared values.
• Establish a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities within the partnership to ensure alignment and efficient collaboration. You can outsource project management if it is not one of your core strengths.
• Leverage your Network: Utilise networking opportunities to connect with potential partners, attend conferences, and utilise your existing contacts.

Cautionary Note:

Be selective in choosing partnerships; ensure alignment of values and goals to avoid potential conflicts. Carefully assess the resources, expertise, and networks that each partner can provide to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship.

8. Launch, Scale and Monitor

Introduce your product to the market, applying the strategies outlined in your business plan. Monitor market response, customer feedback, and progress towards your business plan objectives. Be prepared to adapt your strategy based on these factors to ensure long-term success.

Benefits:

• Generates revenue and validates your commercialisation strategy.
• Provides the opportunity to revise based on market response and feedback.

Our Tips:

• Soft Launch: Start with a soft launch to gather initial feedback and iron out any issues.
• Utilise Analytics: Implement a structured process and methodology for collecting comparable feedback. Use customer relationship management (CRM) software to track performance and capture customer interactions.
• Scale Strategically: Focus on scaling operations in a controlled manner to manage growth sustainably.

Cautionary Note:

Be prepared for initial setbacks and remain adaptable to changing market conditions. Continuously monitor performance and be prepared to make changes to your strategy whenever necessary. Additionally, ensure that you have the appropriate resources, talent, and infrastructure in place or available on short notice before scaling operations.

Glossary

Value proposition¹:

Your value proposition is a summarised statement of the benefits and economic value that you as a company are promising to deliver to current and future customers who buy your products or services.

Market resistance²:

Market resistance is anything that could prevent your product or service launch from being successful. This might be that your product is too similar to that of a competitor, or that you need to refine your customer personas.

Proof of Principle (POP)³:

Often referred to as Proof of Concept, a POP prototype is used to test your design without exactly simulating the choice of materials, appearance, or your intended manufacturing process.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)⁴:

A minimum viable product is a version of your product with just enough features to be usable by early customers who can then give feedback on customer demands that can be used for future product development.