The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts is working with dozens of Research and Development projects to explore the innovative potential of digital technologies in the arts.

Each of these projects has a research partner, and a specially designed research methodology and data collection strategy, to ensure the project benefits. One of the early themes emerging across our portfolio is the importance of early research to help shape your concept into a truly innovative R&D project.

Below are three techniques drawn from different fields that should be considered before progressing any R&D ideas.  These are relatively simple research methods that can be done at your desk, and don’t require big budgets or advanced technical skills.  You can make these as big or small as you need to, but it’s important to have a plan, be systematic, and maintain a questioning and curious mindset as you go.

Following these three steps can help you ensure your project is innovating on current practice. They can also help you to set achievable objectives and a realistic budget, and align your work with key communities and potential partners.

1. Analyse the competition

Ask yourself: What is already out there? How are we different?

Analysing the current ‘state of the art’ is a critical first step in determining if your R&D idea has legs. All too often, resources are invested in reinventing the wheel, or rebuilding platforms and tools that are already out there. Before starting any development work, have a close look at what others are doing in this space. This should include organisations like yours, as well as comparable products or services in other sectors.

Even if you are not pursuing commercial objectives, try and identify what ‘the competition’ are doing right – and what they could do better. Once again, it’s good to be systematic, and to try and get as much of the ‘inside scoop’ as possible (How much did it cost? How many people are using it?)

For example, the Royal Opera House conducted a ‘competitor audit’ to help them prioritise features for their mobile project, and what they liked about existing offerings that they wanted to build on.

Scanning the competition can help you refine and mould your concept, and identify exciting windows of opportunity. It can also help you identify useful platforms, software or channels that you could use, and people you could partner with.

2. Measure the potential

Ask yourself: Just how big is the opportunity? What can we realistically hope to achieve?

Before you start to work on detailed plans and budgets, it’s worth taking a step back to measure the potential, or if you are exploring a new business model, ‘size the market’.

Many people over-estimate the potential user-base for a product or service, which can lead to disappointing project outcomes. If you’re building an app to promote concerts to young people in London, work out how many young people there are in London, what handsets they use and what disposable incomes they have.  If you’re going to promote it through the e-newsletter, work out how many people open the newsletter to give a sense of how many people you could reach.

For instance, artsdepot are segmenting the 65+ market in particular catchment areas, and making assumptions about conversion rates and sales potential to estimate the market for their ‘Silver Service’ membership scheme.

By measuring the range of potential, you can then set achievable targets and work out how much you can afford to invest in development. It can also help you make technical decisions that suit your target market, such as prioritising operating systems and designing key features.

3. Review the literature

Ask yourself: Has someone tried this before? Did it work? If not, why not?

By understanding other research in the field, you can clarify the key issues for your project and navigate through obstacles that others have stumbled on.  It can also help you to build your credibility as an expert and innovator in the sector, which can be helpful when trying to attract partners, funding and media coverage.

Reviewing the literature helped Marcus Winter identify the key features of game design for Museum of Design in Plastics’, and enabled Roma Patel to quickly structure their user evaluation.

The University of Leicester has this great guide to Doing a Literature Review. There are also fantastic resources such as Kings College London’s CultureCase to help you make sense of complex academic papers.

It’s a great idea to document your literature review, but if you are stretched for time, the process can be as simple as sharing knowledge with clever colleagues around the coffee table. Whatever method you choose, try to be systematic, so you don’t miss anything, and ask yourself ‘so what?’ as you go, so you can distil the implications for your project.

Image credit NetPark, Metal