The Business
STI is a global manufacturer operating in a highly regulated industry. Like many manufacturers, their path from idea to product goes through business research before it ever reaches engineering. Every new concept needs a business case: market feasibility, viability, competitive landscape. All of that before it gets the green light.The Problem
Two problems. First, capturing ideas was broken. A sales rep goes to a trade show, talks to 500 people, walks away with 100 ideas, and only remembers 10 by the time they're back at the office. Great ideas were disappearing before they ever hit the system.Second, evaluating ideas was painfully slow. Leadership had a spreadsheet of concepts with no real prioritization system. Once an idea was selected, the team spent two weeks doing manual market research before they could decide if it was even worth pursuing.What We Did
We built an intake chatbot that helps sales reps capture ideas in the moment. It asks follow-up questions, draws out context, and assigns a readiness score so the team knows which ideas are worth investigating first.Then we built a research tool that uses the context of their business and searches the web to generate a market research report. What used to take two weeks now takes five minutes.The Results
- Idea capture went from "remember what you can" to a structured, guided intake process
- More ideas captured than ever before. Nothing slips through the cracks.
- Market research went from 2 weeks to 5 minutes per concept
- Leadership has a prioritization system that actually works
Related services:Business Systems