Zappi Unveils Synthetic Tool for Early Stage Innovation

Automated testing platform Zappi is rolling out 'Synthetic Idea Pre-Screener', a new solution for early stage product innovation. The tool uses synthetic respondents to help teams prioritize high-potential ideas before committing time and budget to deeper research and development.

Zappi says the Pre-Screener is 'an out-of-the-box solution to help teams narrow larger pools of ideas and identify which should move into deeper human research and development', addressing the current reality where internal judgement, familiarity and stakeholder support are often the main or only drivers of early stage development. The new tool can evaluate 'up to 300' early product ideas or concepts in minutes, returning relative rankings, distinctiveness signals, and positive and negative themes for each.

The tool combines synthetic respondents grounded in real demographic and behavioral profiles with the expertise the company has established in respondent data patterns, and Zappi says it has been Validated against 'hundreds of live-human research surveys across dozens of categories and industry-leading methodologies.' The Pre-Screener is available in beta to eligble Zappi customers now, with general availability planned for later this year.

Steve Phillips, the firm's founder, Chair and Chief Innovation Officer, states: 'Consumer research wasn't built to screen every early idea. The time and cost make it impractical to test them all, leaving creative teams underserved and often reliant on gut feel, assumptions or internal hierarchies to make prioritization decisions that should be informed by consumers. We created the Synthetic Idea Pre-Screener to bridge that gap, embedding access to directional consumer feedback across a broad range of ideas.'

The company employs more than 300 people across more than a dozen countries, has offices in Boston, London and Cape Town, and is on the web at www.zappi.io .