A function that can answer a product question, a pricing question, a compliance question and an origination question is not spread thin. It is the only way six kinds of demand get served by a team that size.
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Six functions of one bank, thirty-eight studies, fifteen working days
Client
Date
$15B+ US regional banking group
01/2025
The challenge
A $15B+ US regional banking group had an innovation function facing six kinds of demand at once. Product teams wanted unmet-need research, the digital lending arm competitive and pricing reads, strategy wanted market sizing, commercial banking new ways to find borrowers, risk and compliance regulatory research, corporate venturing scouting. Each request on its own was too small to commission out.
The solution
FifthRow gave one bank function the range to answer for six. A question from any part of the bank goes in - a product need, a competitive position, a market size, an origination lead source, a compliance read, a scouting brief - and a structured study comes back, without a separate engagement being scoped for each one.
38
distinct studies conducted by one analyst6 functions
of one bank served by the same capabilityDistinct studies conducted38, across six functions of the bank
Most-repeated studyClient unmet-needs research, run five times
Purpose-built capabilityOrigination leads assembled from public filings
Peer-practice researchOne senior control role read across major banks, four ways
The most-repeated study on the account came from product: what do our clients need digitally that they are not getting. It was run five times, refined each time.
Core Activities
- Ran client unmet-need research as a repeated study rather than a single commissioned piece
- Mapped customer journeys and where a new solution could enter them
- Tested feasibility on new product ideas before they reached a development review
- Evaluated a specific product construct against the market
- Produced a full product requirements document where a concept warranted one
The Results
A product view built by iteration rather than by a single commissioned study, with feasibility tested before ideas reached the people who fund them.
5 passes
on the same unmet-needs study, each refinedThe bank's digital lending arm competes with challengers rather than with other regional banks, and the comparison needed to be run on both.
Core Activities
- Benchmarked the digital arm against its own competitive set
- Analysed the efficacy of a specific deposit product construct in market
- Ran pricing comparisons on a consistent basis across the set
- Scouted disruptive entrants as a separate study from established competitors
- Read competitors' innovation activity out of their public filings
The Results
A competitive read on the digital arm that covered the challengers as well as the peers, with product-level efficacy assessed rather than assumed.
1 standard
incumbents and challengers benchmarked alikeSizing comes up from several directions and is usually answered with whichever number is nearest to hand. It was studied properly and more than one way.
Core Activities
- Sized markets by product and service, and separately by distribution channel
- Ran bottom-up sizing so a top-down figure had something to be checked against
- Evaluated and ranked companies within a defined set
- Ran financial and investment analysis on specific companies
- Forecast the industry trends bearing on the sizing
The Results
Sizing figures with visible working and more than one route to them, so a number taken into a strategy paper could be defended rather than sourced from memory.
4 methods
applied to the bank's sizing studiesThe most distinctive work on the account was not research at all. Commercial banking wanted new borrowers, and public filings are a legally open, under-used signal of who has just financed equipment or started a project.
Core Activities
- Identified debtors directly from public financing statements
- Analysed filings specifically for equipment-financing activity
- Cross-referenced filings against local permitting notices to find live projects
- Read project announcements in one energy category against the tax incentives behind them
- Assembled the whole set into a sales lead-generation approach rather than separate lookups
The Results
A route from public filings and permitting notices to named commercial prospects, assembled in two days, using signals available to every bank and systematically used by few.
5 filing sources
combined into one origination approachTwo studies came from the control side of the bank, and both were the kind of question that normally gets answered by ringing a peer.
Core Activities
- Analysed open banking participation and compliance positions across banks
- Researched how a specific senior control role is structured across major banks, four ways
- Read the economic movements bearing on the bank's own regulatory position
- Identified the industry challenges shaping compliance priorities
- Returned each read with its sources attached
The Results
Evidenced answers on compliance posture and organisational design, sourced rather than gathered by asking around, and repeatable when the question returns.
4 reads
on one senior role's structure across peer banksThe venturing side of the function needed a standing view of who was emerging, and demand for it spread past the original team.
Core Activities
- Ran automated competitor scouting as a repeated pass rather than an annual review
- Identified opportunities specifically for corporate venturing
- Scraped and profiled early-stage companies in the categories under watch
- Landscaped how the sector was applying new technology
- Extended access as further parts of the bank asked to be onboarded
The Results
A scouting view the venturing team could refresh, and demand that carried past the function that started it - with a wider group of colleagues being coordinated for access before the engagement closed.
6 functions
of the bank reached by the same capabilityWhat it proved
One analyst inside a bank's innovation function conducted 38 distinct studies in 15 working days, spanning six areas of the business: product unmet-needs research run five times over, competitive and pricing benchmarking on the bank's digital lending arm, market sizing run four different ways, a purpose-built origination approach assembled from public filings and permitting notices, regulatory and organisational research including a four-way read on one senior control role across peer banks, and corporate-venturing scouting.
What that demonstrates is range rather than volume. Each of those six areas would normally sit with a different team, use a different method and wait for a different budget, and most of the individual questions were too small to commission at all. The origination work is the clearest case: public financing statements and permitting notices are open to every bank, and turning them into named commercial prospects took two days rather than a project. Before the engagement closed, colleagues from beyond the original function were being coordinated for access.
Results
| Metric | Benchmark | Result | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breadth one function can serve | Requests queued behind whichever could be commissioned | 38 distinct studies across six areas | Six kinds of demand met from one place |
| Small research requests | Too minor to commission, so answered from internal knowledge | Answered on request with sources attached | Evidence instead of institutional memory |
| Commercial origination | Prospects found through relationships and existing lists | Public filings and permitting notices assembled into leads | An open signal turned into named prospects |
| Competitive view of the digital arm | Peer banks, reviewed periodically | Peers and challengers on one standard | Challengers visible alongside incumbents |
| Peer-practice research | Answered by asking a counterpart at another bank | Researched across major banks, four ways | Sourced rather than anecdotal |
Financing statements and permitting notices are legally open and tell you who has just committed capital. Almost nobody works them systematically, which is exactly why they are worth working.
A filing on its own is a fact. A filing matched against a permitting notice is a live project with a timeline, which is a commercial lead. The value is in the join, not in either source.
The unmet-needs study was run five times, not once. Iterating a question is how a vague brief becomes a usable answer, and it is only possible when a single pass is cheap.
How other banks structure a senior control function is normally learned by asking someone. It is a researchable question, and the sourced version can be put in front of a board.
The clearest signal that a capability is working inside a large organisation is colleagues from other functions asking to be added - before anyone has been asked to evaluate it.
From a manual rate sweep to 60+ competitor banks tracked with full provenance
Client
$6B+ US community bank and its digital deposit brand
Date
08/2026
50,198
analyst-hours equivalent, 22 FTEsEleven people, twenty-nine market studies, one platform
Client
$2B+ US payments and fleet services group
Date
04/2025
29
distinct market studies deliveredFor Enterprises
ProofSee all
From a standing start to an AI venture serving small businesses
From 72 patents to 4 commercialisation-ready technologies
Cutting a four-month research cycle to six weeks across five validation workstreams
From a weekly newsletter to a self-running innovation radar
A full year's validated-concept target, met in the first quarter
A utility innovation lab that answers its own questions in a day
Finding the next high-growth US metro in five days
FifthRow – The Agentic Consultancy
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