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As of 2025, Highline Beta argues that most failed corporate ventures die because they skip the Discover Phase and jump straight to building without validating user problems or testing core assumptions.
The Discover Phase is where corporate ventures either get de-risked or go sideways before they begin, forcing teams to confront whether they actually understand the problem they're trying to solve. Highline Beta treats this phase as non-negotiable, using a six-step process that moves from problem research through concept testing to market analysis, culminating in a scorecard that ranks ideas by desirability, viability, feasibility, and strategic fit. Failed ventures typically die because they skip user research, anchor on shiny ideas, and get caught in innovation theatre instead of solving real problems.
The process begins with problem research to identify real user pain points, followed by concept ideation to generate a wide range of low-fidelity ideas. Teams then create 10-15 refined concept statements from these ideas and test them with users through ads, cards, sketches, or landing pages. Simultaneously, they conduct market sizing and competitor scanning to understand the broader landscape, before finally scoring and selecting the strongest concepts based on desirability, viability, feasibility, and strategic fit.
Most failed corporate ventures skip the Discover Phase entirely and jump straight to building without proper validation. They skim over user research, anchor on attractive but untested ideas, and get caught in innovation theatre rather than solving genuine problems. This leads to ventures that fail six months later when they could have been killed much earlier with proper discovery work.
Concept testing involves putting early ideas in front of users through various formats like ads, cards, sketches, or landing pages to see what resonates and what gets rejected. Teams look specifically for friction, clarity, and emotional response rather than trying to persuade users. The goal is to provoke honest reactions that reveal which concepts have genuine appeal and which should be discarded.
Validated learning means moving from "we might be onto something" to "we have evidence this problem is real and worth solving" through systematic testing and user feedback. It forms the foundation for smart pivots and decisions by ensuring that teams base their next steps on actual data about user needs rather than assumptions. This approach helps teams fail fast and pivot quickly when concepts don't resonate with target users.
The Discover Phase is where too many corporate ventures go sideways, almost before they begin.
Why?
Because it’s messy. It’s full of ambiguity. And it forces teams to face one hard truth: You probably don’t understand the problem as well as you think you do.
We treat the Discover Phase as a non-negotiable part of building investable ventures. Whether we’re working with a Fortune 500 or a family office, this is where ideas get pressure-tested, reshaped or thrown out entirely. This is the phase where it’s most important to fail fast and pivot quickly.
Here’s how it works.
The Goal: Make Ideas Tangible and Testable
Discovery isn’t about building. It’s about de-risking.
It’s where you go from “we might be onto something” to “we have evidence this problem is real and worth solving.”
The objective is to:
Validated learning is the foundation for every smart pivot or decision. That starts here.
We break it down into six steps:
1. Problem Research
You start with hypotheses about pain points. Then you talk to users, test assumptions and figure out what’s actually keeping them up at night.
You’re not pitching solutions. You’re looking for real, felt pain.
2. Concept Ideation
You generate as many concept ideas as possible. This is essentially a divergent brain dump of all possible ideas. They don’t have to be good or stand on their own as concepts. The goal is low-fidelity ideas designed to provoke, not persuade. This is about range, not polish.
3. Concept Creation
You take each concept idea generated during ideation and combine and shape them into a number of high-level concept statements, with similar ideas coming together to form cohesive concept ideas. This is still not about polish, just about condensing ideas into a more refined form for testing purposes. We often target 10-15 sacrificial concepts.
4. Concept Testing
You put those ideas in front of users—ads, cards, sketches, landing pages—and watch what resonates and what gets torn apart.
Look for friction. Look for clarity. Look for emotion.
5. Market Sizing + Competitor Scan
While testing with users, you also zoom out.
How big is this market? Who else is in it? What’s already working? Where’s the whitespace?
Top-down excitement meets bottom-up reality.
6. Score and Select
You bring it all together in a simple scorecard to rank ideas by:
Only the strongest ideas move into validation.
Most failed corporate ventures die because they skipped this step.
They jumped straight to build.
Skimmed over user research.
Anchored on a shiny idea.
Got caught in innovation theatre instead of solving a real problem.
The Discover Phase helps avoid all of that.
It’s the first real test: Can you define a specific user, a painful problem, and a compelling angle that your organization is actually equipped to pursue?
If not, that’s your answer.
Kill it now—not six months from now.
