You have a pipeline full of ideas. Maybe ten, maybe forty. You cannot invest in deep-dive research on every single one, but you also cannot afford to pick winners based on gut instinct or the loudest voice in the room. Concept screening gives you a disciplined, data-driven way to separate the ideas with real potential from the ones that should be shelved.
At Meraki Research, we design screening studies that evaluate large sets of concepts against clear success criteria, delivering rank-ordered results with enough diagnostic insight to explain why top performers rise to the surface. The goal is not just to pick winners. It is to build consensus around which ideas deserve your next round of investment.
Our Approach: The Meraki Rapid Screen Method
Screening a large portfolio of ideas requires a different methodology than deep-dive concept evaluation. Our approach balances breadth with enough depth to make the results actionable.
Phase 1: Criteria Definition & Concept Preparation
Before any fieldwork begins, we work with your team to define the criteria that matter. What does success look like for your organisation? Is it purchase intent? Uniqueness? Fit with your brand? We establish a weighted scoring model that reflects your strategic priorities, so the final rankings align with how you actually make decisions.
We then review every concept to ensure consistent presentation. Each idea needs to be expressed at a comparable level of detail, whether it is a one-sentence proposition or a full concept board. Uneven designs lead to unreliable comparisons.
Phase 2: Screening Design & Survey Architecture
Our screening designs expose each respondent to a curated subset of concepts using a balanced incomplete block design. This means every concept is seen by a statistically sufficient number of respondents, while no single person is overwhelmed with too many ideas. The result is clean, comparable scores across the entire portfolio.
Each concept is evaluated on a concise battery of metrics aligned to your success criteria: appeal, relevance, uniqueness, purchase intent, and one or two category-specific measures. The battery is intentionally brief so respondents give focused, thoughtful reactions rather than fatigued, checkbox responses.
Phase 3: Fieldwork & Quality Controls
We deploy the study with rigorous quality controls, including attention checks, speeder removal, and open-ended validation, to ensure data stability and reliability. Concept screening research is especially vulnerable to satisficing (respondents clicking through without reading), so our quality standards are non-negotiable.
Fieldwork typically completes in five to ten business days, depending on audience complexity and the total number of concepts in the screen.
Phase 4: Scoring, Ranking & Recommendations
We calculate a composite score for each concept based on the weighted criteria established in Phase 1. The result is a clear rank order with statistical confidence intervals, so you know when the difference between two concepts is meaningful and when it is noise.
Our analysis goes beyond the final scores. We identify diagnostic patterns: what separates the top performers from the middle of the pack, which dimensions drive the greatest variance, and where concepts with moderate overall appeal show specific strengths worth building on.
When Concept Screening Is the Right Call
This service fits when you need to:
- Evaluate a large set of concepts (typically six or more) and identify the top performers quickly
- Narrow a broad innovation pipeline to a manageable shortlist for deeper concept testing or monadic evaluation
- Build organizational alignment around which ideas to prioritize, using transparent criteria and objective scores rather than opinion
- Understand broad market response to new designs or propositions before investing in refinement
- Establish baseline scores for an original idea set that can be tracked through subsequent rounds of development and re-testing
This service is NOT the right fit when:
- You have only two or three concepts and need deep diagnostic insight on each. Monadic concept testing delivers richer feedback for small sets.
- You need to evaluate finished products in use. Product testing or IHUT is the appropriate methodology.
- Your concepts are at vastly different stages of development. Screening works best when ideas are expressed at a comparable level of specificity.
What We Deliver
Screening studies are built for speed and clarity. Deliverables are designed to drive immediate portfolio decisions.
- Ranked Concept Scorecard: Every concept ranked by composite score, with individual metric breakdowns and statistical significance flags indicating meaningful differences
- Quadrant Map: Visual plotting of concepts on two key dimensions (e.g., appeal vs. uniqueness) to identify high-potential ideas, safe bets, and long shots
- Success Criteria Performance Matrix: A heat map showing how each concept performs on each weighted criterion, making strengths and gaps instantly visible
- Diagnostic Summary: Key themes explaining what separates top-tier concepts from the rest, with specific reference points for improvement
- Segment Analysis: How rankings shift across different audience groups, revealing whether top performers have universal appeal or niche strength
- Raw Data & Tabulations: Clean data files with all individual-level scores for internal analysis
All deliverables are presented in PowerPoint and PDF, and we include a working session to walk through the results and discuss next steps.
Industry Applications
Consumer Packaged Goods
Screen new product concepts, line extensions, or promotional propositions across a large innovation portfolio. CPG teams often generate dozens of ideas in ideation sessions, and concept screening provides the disciplined triage needed to focus development resources on the ones most likely to succeed.
Retail & Private Label
Evaluate private-label concept sets, store brand propositions, or new category entry ideas. Screening helps retail teams prioritize which designs and formulations to advance to product testing.
Technology & Software
Narrow feature concept lists, product roadmap ideas, or new service propositions. Screening is especially valuable when cross-functional teams have generated more ideas than the roadmap can accommodate.
Healthcare & Wellness
Triage patient program concepts, wellness product ideas, or provider service propositions. Screening provides the objective scoring needed to move beyond internal champion bias.
Financial Services
Evaluate new account types, insurance products, or digital banking features at scale. Screening identifies which financial concepts merit the deeper exploration needed for complex product development.
Food & Beverage
Screen flavor concepts, packaging designs, or brand extension ideas. Large flavor and variety portfolios make screening an essential tool for food innovators managing broad pipelines.