From weeks of domain research to a venture concept in days

Client

Date

LATAM corporate venture studio

08/2026

The challenge

A corporate venture studio in Latin America builds commercially viable businesses that address structural social and economic problems across the region. Exploring a new domain meant weeks of fragmented desk research, synthesis and stakeholder mapping per area of interest, most of it analyst and expert heavy, with outside partners relied on for the reading and the write-up.

The solution

FifthRow set up two connected systems the studio runs as one exploration capability: a domain and a region in, structured opportunity areas out, then prioritised challenge statements and concept directions ready to take to real users. The scan refreshes continuously rather than being commissioned per area of interest.

Weeks to days

for a full domain exploration cycle

Multi-region

coverage in one pass, in place of a single-country read

Scope of the standing scanany domain the studio chooses to explore, read across multiple sub-regions rather than one country

Exploration cycle for a new domainweeks before, hours to days now

Structure behind every domain mapsegments, value chains, stakeholder groups and delivery models, sized bottom up

What an exploration ends inprioritised challenge statements and concept directions, with personas, hypotheses and interview guides attached

Headcount added to carry itnone

01 — CONTINUOUS DOMAIN SCANNING

The first stage replaces the part of exploration that used to take weeks: reading the domain. It returns a structured picture of a space and a region in a single pass, then keeps it current as new signals appear.

Core Activities

Reads across policy, market data, academic research, industry reporting and on-the-ground signals in one pass
Breaks a domain into its segments, value chains, stakeholder groups and delivery models, so no single lens decides what gets seen
Sizes opportunity areas from the bottom up, including unit economics, to separate large but constrained spaces from genuinely viable ones
Refreshes as new data and signals appear, rather than being commissioned again per area of interest
Reads several sub-regions in the same pass, so the picture is not shaped by whichever market is nearest to hand

The Results

A domain arrives structured rather than described. Opportunity areas come back placed inside segments and value chains, with the stakeholders, drivers and constraints around each one already attached, which is the map the next stage prioritises against.

Hundreds

sources synthesised into one domain map with no analyst reading time

02 — PROBLEM DEFINITION & PRIORITISATION

The second stage decides what is worth pursuing. It turns what the scan found into a small number of problems the studio can build against, rather than a long list of things that are true.

Core Activities

Aggregates user, system and market level pain points with the quantitative and qualitative evidence behind each one
Applies structured reasoning to separate symptoms from the structural problems underneath them
Frames the result as prioritised challenge statements rather than as findings
Says where the studio's time and money should go next, with the reasoning attached rather than as a bare ranking
Re-reads against the refreshed scan, so the priority order moves when the domain does

The Results

Exploration ends in a decision about what to pursue rather than in a reading list. Each priority arrives as a stated challenge with the evidence behind it, which is what makes the next stage a design problem instead of another research request.

Hours to days

from an open domain to a ranked set of challenge statements

03 — CONCEPT DESIGN & VALIDATION READINESS

The third stage takes a prioritised challenge to something testable. Concept directions leave with the people, the partners and the questions needed to put them in front of real users.

Core Activities

Expands each priority challenge across its economic, behavioural and systemic dimensions before any solving starts
Maps the organisations, operators, funders and opinion leaders already active in the space
Reads comparable solutions and reforms from other regions for the models and lessons that transfer
Generates concept directions built around local constraints and what users can actually do
Returns personas and end-to-end journeys alongside hypotheses, interview guides and an early testing frame

The Results

A concept direction leaves exploration already grounded in who it serves, who is active in the space and what would have to be true for it to work. The first validation conversation starts from a hypothesis and an interview guide rather than from a fresh research request.

validation artefacts per concept, so field testing can start

What it proved

Two connected systems replaced the studio's exploration phase end to end. A domain and a region go in, hundreds of credible sources across policy, market data, academic research and industry reporting are read in a single pass, and structured opportunity areas come back broken down by segment, value chain, stakeholder group and delivery model and sized from the bottom up. Those areas become prioritised challenge statements, and each priority becomes concept directions carrying personas, journeys, hypotheses and interview guides. What took weeks per area of interest now takes hours to days.

What the studio holds is an exploration capability that does not reset between areas of interest. Coverage is specified rather than dependent on which sources an analyst could reach, several sub-regions are read in the same pass instead of one country standing in for the region, and the scan refreshes as signals emerge rather than being commissioned again. The studio widened what it could explore without adding internal headcount, and without sending the desk research and synthesis back out to external partners.

Results

MetricBenchmarkResultImprovement

Time to explore a new domain

Benchmark: weeks of fragmented research, synthesis and stakeholder mapping per area of interestResult: hours to days

weeks compressed to days

Continuity of domain intelligence

Benchmark: a linear, time-bound research exercise, repeated from the start for each areaResult: one standing scan, refreshed as new data and signals appear

episodic exploration replaced by continuous coverage

Geographic breadth of a read

Benchmark: a single-country view standing in for the regionResult: multiple sub-regions covered in the same pass

breadth without a second research cycle

Reliance on outside desk research

Benchmark: external partners commissioned for the reading and the synthesisResult: scanning and synthesis run on the studio's own standing capability

held in-house rather than commissioned

What an exploration produced

Benchmark: a static reportResult: prioritised challenge statements and concept directions with hypotheses and interview guides attached

reports replaced by decision-ready outputs

ALWAYS-ON EXPLORATION

Domain scanning refreshes as signals appear, so a picture stays current instead of being rebuilt from the start for each new question.

STRUCTURED DECOMPOSITION

Every domain is broken into segments, value chains, stakeholder groups and delivery models, so an opportunity area arrives placed rather than merely described.

ROOT-CAUSE FRAMING

Structured reasoning separates symptoms from the structural problem underneath, so a challenge statement names something worth building against.

TRANSFERABLE PATTERNS

Comparable solutions and reforms from other regions are read alongside local constraints, so a concept starts from what has already worked somewhere.

VALIDATION-READY OUTPUT

Each concept direction leaves with personas, journeys, hypotheses and an interview guide, so field validation starts without another research cycle.

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