Untapped Technology Mode of Action™
Pin down exactly why your technology works differently.
Trace the user problem back to its technical root cause, then define the mechanism that addresses it.
R&D expertise trusted by world-class brands
Is the logic behind your technology buried in the science?
R&D can know a technology inside out. But when you’ve been deep in the science for years, some of the thinking can feel obvious to your team when it isn’t to everyone else.
Research findings
Test results
Technical diagrams
Expert know-how
Previous iterations
Competitive data
The part that can get lost:
How all of that technical work fits together.
Sharpen the case for your technology.
A strong Untapped Technology Mode of Action™ is:
Targeted
Addresses the technical problem your product needs to solve.
Differentiated
Shows how your technology differs from current solutions.
Story-ready
Gives the team a stronger technical foundation for the story.
Make the science click beyond R&D.
Inside Innovation Gym®, Untapped Technology Mode of Action™ guides R&D from the technical problem through to the mechanism, so colleagues across the business can grasp the science without needing the same depth of knowledge.
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Technical problem statement
Define the technical problem the product needs to solve.
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Technology opportunity gap
Pinpoint where current solutions fall short.
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Untapped Technology Mode of Action™
Explain the mechanism that closes the gap.
Case study: Designing around the damage threshold.
Using GHD as an example, here’s how we decoded its success with the Technology Mode of Action tool.
GHD wanted users to heat-style their hair without worrying about damage.
The science narrowed the challenge to a specific temperature window: enough heat to reshape the hair, without reaching the point where the fibre begins to degrade.
Below 140°C
Not hot enough to style effectively.
140°C+
Hair becomes soft enough to reshape.
200°C+
Hair proteins begin to degrade.
185°C
GHD’s chosen operating point.
Fixed operating point
Plates are fixed at 185°C—hot enough for styling, below the damage threshold—so users don’t need to choose a temperature.
Smart sensing
Sensors monitor plate temperature as hair draws heat away.
Adaptive control
An algorithm adjusts the power to keep the plates close to 185°C during styling.
Where Untapped Technology Mode of Action™ fits in the bigger picture.
Untapped Technology Mode of Action™ opens the Story Design side of Untapped’s Connected R&D Playbook.
The output feeds directly into Untapped Product Story™, then helps inform Concept Thinking and Untapped Claims & Demos™.
