Data R&D Journey #4: The Leap Towards Dynamic Growth
Imagine you want to break into new markets and generate fresh revenue streams using your data. Where do you even start? Maybe you sense there's untapped value in your proprietary data that could benefit your customers, but the path to transforming that potential into a compelling product remains unclear. Building an in-house team with the necessary technical expertise could take months or even years—time you can't afford to lose.
This is where the most ambitious type of data-intensive R&D journey begins: creating new business opportunities from your existing data assets.
Success on this journey requires a partner who brings technical expertise, business acumen, and proven execution skills to the table. Komodo can be that partner, helping you create a scalable, adaptable product that you own and control. We work in close collaboration with your team, moving swiftly to deliver solutions that align perfectly with your business objectives.
The Leap Towards Dynamic Growth is about using your data in new ways to create and launch new products. This might mean:
Creating predictive analytics tools that your customers can use directly;
Building AI-powered recommendation engines tailored to your industry;
Developing automated reporting systems that save your clients time and money;
Packaging your proprietary data into subscription-based intelligence products;
Creating new API products that allow customers to integrate your data into their workflows;
Building interactive dashboards that give customers real-time insights.
Today, as we wrap up our series on the four different types of data-intensive R&D journeys, we’ll dive into the new data product journey. We’ll outline the work involved, the risks and rewards, and the stakeholders you’ll need to align to ensure the project’s success. Let’s get started.
Where are we going on this journey?
Any journey has a variety of possible end points that might be good, bad, or ugly. Some examples that apply specifically to the new products journey:
Good → You successfully create and launch a product that positions your company as an industry leader, generates new revenue via predictable subscription income, and leads to stronger relationships with existing customers who now rely on your data product.
Bad → You invest significant time and resources developing your data product, but find it's too similar to existing solutions, or it fails to deliver the insights your customers need, resulting in low adoption and high churn while eating into margins and straining your team.
Ugly → Your data product technically works and generates some revenue, but at the cost of significant ongoing technical debt and operational overhead.
The risks of this type of journey often include:
Building something customers don't actually want or aren't willing to pay for.
Distraction from core business priorities damaging existing customer relationships.
Data quality or scalability issues undermine product reliability.
But if you embark on this journey with clear goals, well-aligned stakeholders, and reasonable expectations for your organization’s pace of change, the many compelling rewards at journey’s end can include:
New revenue streams: predictable, subscription-based income derived from a product you fully control.
Competitive advantage: monetizing your unique data assets in ways competitors can't easily replicate, positioning your company as an innovative market leader.
Enhanced value proposition: strengthened relationships with existing customers through additional value-add services.
Who are my traveling companions on this journey?
On any data R&D journey, there are decision makers and gatekeepers.
Big journeys mean big decisions. C-level executives are the champions and decision makers for this type of journey. For example:
The CEO, wanting to drive the company in a new direction.
The CDO, who oversees the data strategy and wants to maximize return on data investments.
The CRO, who has validated a market opportunity against revenue targets.
The CPO, who has identified an important new market positioning in an emerging market.
Gatekeepers often include:
Legal - “Are we going to have to update all our vendor contracts and terms of service now?”
Finance - “How can we justify this spend against our other priorities? How long will it be until we see positive ROI?”
IT - "Who's going to maintain and support this new system? How do we ensure it won't impact the performance of our existing infrastructure?"
Compliance - "We'll need updated data sharing agreements, customer consents, and possibly new security certifications before exposing our data externally."
InfoSec/Data Privacy - "Before exposing any internal data externally, we would need to review all data access points, encryption protocols, and implement additional monitoring."
Who benefits from this journey?
Your positive beneficiaries might include:
Leadership who can demonstrate innovation and realize increased company valuation from IP creation;
Data teams can showcase their capabilities and use their skills to generate net new revenue for the organization;
Product teams gain new challenging work and opportunities to solve new problems;
Customers get access to valuable insights they couldn't access before and which can give them a competitive advantage in their own markets.
Your negative beneficiaries might include:
Users of legacy products who face disruption;
Employees whose roles become more complex;
Teams who must quickly adapt to new priorities;
Employees who preferred the previous organizational product/focus.
The 3 primary phases of this journey
This journey is unique for every company, but here are three stages that we’ve found are broadly applicable to this type of R&D project.
1) Extract Unique Insights From Data
Your proprietary data is what makes your data product unique, and it’s what differentiates your product from your competitors. We start this journey by bringing the data together to create insights that your customers and users will be interested in, maximizing the value of your data.
2) Validate Via Rapid Prototyping
Next, we bring insights to life with a functional interactive prototype. We work quickly and iteratively, and in continual collaboration with your team, so you’ll know exactly what we’re working towards. Within a month, we’ll get a web app up and running so that you can iterate on the key functionality alongside us. It may be ugly, but it will prove that the idea works, and gives us a solid foundation to continue iterating upon.
3) MVP Launch, Earn New Revenue
As we continue to iterate, we bring your most valuable features to life, including things like service tiers and user management controls. But most importantly, you own what we build. This is your data product, running on your data. Before we hand off the project, we’ll make sure that your in-house team is equipped and self-sufficient enough to refine their own solutions going forward.
Out of all the types of data-intensive R&D journeys, creating new data products is perhaps the most ambitious, but it's also the one with the greatest potential for transformation and growth. While the path requires careful navigation of technical, organizational, and market challenges, the reward is the ability to create entirely new revenue streams while positioning your company as an innovative leader in your industry.
If you’re ready to explore how your data could power new opportunities for your business, let’s talk today. Schedule a free conversation to share your vision, and we’ll show you how we can help bring it to life.