The best new idea might already exist.

The first idea was a potato snack. KFC wanted customers to think of it between meals, when a full chicken dinner was too much. The team working with ?What If! explored a seasoned potato product. Then somebody discovered something useful: KFC already had a small chicken product in other markets. The team changed direction. Popcorn Chicken came to Britain.

In the consultancy’s account, researchers had been watching young people buying inexpensive snacks after studying. The opportunity was an occasion, a budget and a habit. Its eventual answer came from looking sideways across the client’s own business. An invention project became an exercise in recognizing what was already available.

A consultancy for the moment before commitment

?What If! occupies the uncertain stretch between a growth ambition and a business ready to launch. It helps established companies research customers, develop propositions, prototype products and services, and organize experiments. It also works on the people making those decisions: their leadership, habits and permission to try something different.

Matt Kingdon and Dave Allan founded the firm in 1992 after working at Unilever. In their anniversary account, they described a belief that executives needed direct exposure to customers’ frustrations. Making a possible solution tangible could help people reconsider what their business might do. That remains a useful description of the service: give a company something concrete enough to learn from.

Its market sits among design consultancies, strategy practices, venture builders and internal innovation teams. The distinctive combination is early product development and changes to how employees work. A client can hire help shaping a new offer, or help building the capability to shape the next one itself.

The coffee technology needed a human name

Kenco already possessed a technology for finely milling coffee, adapted from flour milling in biscuit production. A technical capability, however, does not explain why anyone should buy a jar. ?What If! worked on the customer insight, visual prototypes and proposition that became Millicano.

The firm says three weeks produced the concept, category name and principal features. The useful phrase was “wholebean instant coffee.” Millicano launched in 2011; the case study reports nearly a million packs sold in four weeks. These are the consultancy’s historical figures. The lesson is about translation: a technology became a proposition people could recognize on a shelf.

Sixteen teams, eleven weeks, one decision

At AB InBev, the assignment involved an accelerator organized by ZX Ventures. ?What If! guided 16 teams through 11 weeks, helping them develop ideas, run experiments and build prototypes. The program ended with pitches to investors including the brewer’s leadership. Selected ventures received further funding, according to the case study.

More than 50 employees acquired skills through the program. That detail explains the second half of the business. A prototype can produce evidence about a product while the people building it learn to handle uncertainty. Coaching and capability building let the client retain something beyond the proposed venture.

The invoice buys more than ideas

The business model is professional services. Companies buy consulting engagements, development programs and coaching rather than a self-service software subscription. Its service language separates work on future offerings from work on leadership and organizational behavior. Both address a familiar problem: a business may know it needs growth without knowing which action deserves investment.

In March 2019, Accenture acquired ?What If!. The announcement connected its experimentation expertise with a larger organization’s design, technology and delivery resources. For a client, the proposed advantage was continuity from an early question toward implementation and scale. The acquisition’s financial terms were undisclosed.

For a buyer assessing a program, the useful comparison is the decision it will enable. A concept sprint, a leadership intervention and an accelerator have different deliverables. Ask what evidence will exist at the end, who will act on it and what implementation requires. Treat the prototype as one cost within a larger commercial decision. There is a difference between paying to discover whether an offer makes sense and paying to manufacture, distribute and support it. A useful brief names those boundaries early. Otherwise, a successful experiment can leave the business facing a second, much larger decision that nobody has prepared to make.

The difficult skill is changing your mind

The KFC story is valuable because the original direction was disposable. The published account describes a switch away from potatoes after the team found an existing product. It offers a concrete example of a changed mind without turning an abandoned idea into a fictional failed launch.

The founders make a related point about language. A challenge should be plain enough to explain in a noisy pub. Their writing also insists on commercial reasoning, a path to implementation and attention to corporate politics. Curiosity has to survive contact with the organization that will fund it.

“The journey starts with a question, but it has to end with emphatic and exclamatory action.”Matt Kingdon and Dave Allan · 2017

Their published values include Impact, Love, Audacity, Adventure and Passion. Read alongside the case studies, the practical test is whether people can admit that a promising idea needs changing. A culture of experimentation requires someone with authority to accept the answer.

There is an obvious limit. These methods need access to customers, room to test and leaders willing to respond. An organization that treats its preferred solution as untouchable can commission plenty of activity without learning much. The transferable move is modest: state the problem plainly, inspect the assets you already have, make a testable version and agree what result would change the decision. Sometimes the next move is a new venture. Sometimes it is chicken.