Defining a Route to Market for Digital Planning
In this case study, Chief Science Officer Ben Hutchings reflects on how the LURA Doctoral Innovation (DInC) Programme helped Digital Planning identify priority markets, refine its positioning and gain valuable external perspectives on its commercial strategy.
Ben Hutchings
Company Overview:
Digital Planning is a technology and operations consultancy that typically operates in a fractional Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer capacity, helping organisations solve complex operational challenges. Alongside its consultancy work, the company has developed Metis, a real-time optimisation platform designed to help teams rapidly re-plan when unexpected operational changes occur. At the time of joining the DInC Programme, Digital Planning was at seed stage and preparing for future investment conversations.
Challenge Addressed:
While the technical foundations of Metis were already established, the team faced an important commercial challenge; identifying which industries and customer groups to prioritise. As an early-stage business, Digital Planning needed a clear and credible route to its first paying customers. The company wanted independent market segmentation, positioning recommendations and a stronger go-to-market strategy backed by evidence.
Motivations for Joining the Programme
Digital Planning joined the DInC programme to access the independent perspectives and structured research capabilities of doctoral researchers.
The business was entering discussions with potential investors and recognised that a well-evidenced market strategy would be just as important as demonstrating the strength of the technology itself. The team hoped the doctoral consultants would provide a prioritised view of the most promising market opportunities, alongside positioning and messaging that could be used directly in future investment conversations.
Working with the Consulting Team
The doctoral consultants provided a fresh lens through which to examine existing challenges, strengthening the company’s understanding of how potential customers and investors might view the product.
Over the course of the programme, the doctoral consultants worked closely with Digital Planning’s founding team to understand the operational challenges addressed by Metis and the commercial decisions facing the business. Rather than producing a general market report, the team focused on generating insights that would help Digital Planning make practical prioritisation and sequencing decisions.
Reflecting on the experience, Ben described the collaboration as “excellent”, praising the team’s ability to engage directly with the business, understand its objectives and provide fresh, evidence-based thinking. He particularly valued the researchers’ autonomy and initiative to develop their own methodology, noting that while the company defined the broader project strands, the researchers managed an independent research approach throughout the programme.
The researchers’ ability to challenge assumptions also stood out. Rather than simply validating existing ideas, they drew on rigorous research methods and detailed market analysis to test and refine the business’ thinking. Ben also valued the external perspective they brought, explaining that early-stage businesses can easily develop their own language and assumptions when working intensively on product development. The doctoral consultants provided a fresh lens through which to examine existing challenges, strengthening the company’s understanding of how potential customers and investors might view the product.
Business Outcomes
The project provided Digital Planning with a clear, evidence-based route to market, including prioritised target sectors, ideal customer profiles and tailored messaging.
The most valuable outcome was the repositioning of Metis from “another planning tool” to a decision-support platform, creating a stronger narrative for customer and investor conversations. Alongside these practical outputs, the project helped to validate key assumptions, introduced new ways of communicating the product’s value and increased confidence in the company’s market positioning. The recommendations continue to inform Digital Planning’s future commercial strategy.
For an early-stage company it delivers sharp, independent thinking on precisely the questions that are hardest to answer internally, at a value-to-cost ratio that is exceptional."
Reflections
Ben would really recommend the programme to other businesses, particularly those tackling complex strategic questions that can be difficult to answer internally.
Looking back on the experience, Ben highlighted the value of the programme’s focused structure, the independence of the doctoral consultants and the quality of the evidence-based insights produced within a relatively short timeframe.
Ben noted that the process challenged the team to critically assess their own assumptions and areas of uncertainty, creating a valuable opportunity for reflection alongside the delivery of practical recommendations. He believes the programme demonstrates how academic expertise can generate tangible commercial value when projects are clearly scoped and well facilitated.